Are you afraid? Brexit.

[Puddelchen]

I feel very uneasy about what the future holds for us after Brexit but am I just overreacting? Can it really be so terrible? Why is no one around me talking about this in real life, you would think it would be a hot topic.

The delightful racist relatives I have are busy preparing their arguments for why any Brexit disasters are actually the fault of remainders

He's a toff, he inherited wealth and he married well but he is also a successful businessman.

I've got friends who voted Brexit and he has lost his job - the company is leaving - going to Europe - but they don't believe the move has anything to do with Brexit. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

A successful businessman who knows what he talking about.

No he doesn't.

Millymont
{We are just leaving a political union.
I have been running an export business for years and I have confidence that businesses here and in the EU will be sensible. There will be hassles and there will be teething problems but we will cope and cooperate - it is in all our interests to do so.}
If it were that simple then yes things would 'right' themselves in 5-10 years (2008 banking crisis).
However as it involves a lot of laws and legislation threading through most of the UK and EU fabric just the fact that it will take years of indecision and rewriting of 45 years of legislation will make it far more difficult. Although big business has plans extending 5-10-15 years into the future, the continual shifting of the ground as the bits of legislation get changed will be working against the UK. Business likes as much certainty as it can get, so that it can plan appropriately (it hopes!). 5 or more years of continuous change due to Brexit PLUS the antics of Trump and China make it a very bad time to be attempting anything so radical.

Google Jason Hunter for someone who is an international trade negotiator who thinks JRM is full of shit.
It's not just me who thinks he's full of shit.

I've got friends who voted Brexit and he has lost his job - the company is leaving - going to Europe - but they don't believe the move has anything to do with Brexit.
Maybe because it doesn't. I used to work for a company that moved its entire production plant to Germany - and that was in 2011.

Nope....

The world was gonna end in Y2K because of the millennium bug.....it didn't...

The world was gonna end because of the markets crashes in 2008.....it didn't...

The British economy would crash and burn if we voted to leave the EU in 2015.....we did and it didn't...

The world is gonna end because of Brexit in 2019.....no it's not. It might might a little turbulent for a while, but it all smooth itself out sufficiently.

My point being that there is so much scaremongering on both sides and 'false' evidence that nobody really knows what is going to happen. I for one am not worried - we're gonna be just fine.

And we have a Y2K one! Surely that's bingo!

I've got friends who voted Brexit and he has lost his job - the company is leaving - going to Europe - but they don't believe the move has anything to do with Brexit.
Maybe because it doesn't. I used to work for a company that moved its entire production plant to Germany - and that was in 2011

Yeah, yeah of course. All the companies moving this last year has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.

The world was gonna end in Y2K because of the millennium bug.....it didn't...

The world was gonna end because of the markets crashes in 2008.....it didn't...

The British economy would crash and burn if we voted to leave the EU in 2015.....we did and it didn't

The world is gonna end because of Brexit in 2019.....no it's not. It might might a little turbulent for a while, but it all smooth itself out sufficiently....we re gonna be just fine

Recently, I got flamed for suggesting we end Universal Suffrage ..... i rest my case

Now now @jasjas1973

It'll be a slow puncture that won't/can't be fixed. As far as I am concerned the UK has been slipping downwards for those of us with the "wrong" type of job (nurse and chef here). The big headline grabbing stuff will happen but will get sorted out after a bit. The extent of the shit and length of time it will take sort will be uncertain.

But for those in poverty and the working and lower middle classes, life will continue on the same downward trajectory as it has done for the last 10 years - only faster.

We moved from the UK a few years ago. It is sad when you look at life in the UK from another Anglo culture. We earn twice as much, live in a beautiful city with great infrastructure. Life is incomparable to how our situation would be in the UK. It would so masochistic of us to move back if Brexit goes ahead (even if it doesn't). Why would we give up our lives here for the hardship of Brexit UK? It makes me so sad that I would have to put my immediate family through so much shit to live in the same country as my extended family.

I am but there's not a huge amount I can do.

I am a fairly optimistic person however and tend to think that, barring nuclear war etc, most things will turn out OK.

My family came here as refugees. They didn't know where they were headed. They got put on a plane in their home country and then it landed at Heathrow airport. They didn't know what Heathrow was. Didn't speak a word of English. Had been tortured and watched friends die back home.

The point I'm trying to make is, when you have a family background like that, you tend to think most things turn out OK in the end.

I'm also an optimist and I keep thinking Brexit will be cancelled or there is a slight chance that Brexit will be a success.

But that didn't stop me from starting to prep the day after the referendum. I bought all 10 years' worth of non-perishable essential items. I'm glad I did because prices have already gone up. With or without Brexit I could lose my job at moment's notice without redundancy pay. Prepping has become a way of life for me now.

My gut tells me that things are not going to go well. My head says everything might be fine still. I trust my gut a tiny bit more. Fact is, nobody really knows and it's better to be safe than sorry.

You dont have to be a history graduate to see that this has the potential to go completely tits up

In fact i would go so far as to say that's probably the dumbest comment of the entire brexit debate on mumsnet..and ive lurked a lot!!

Recently, I got flamed for suggesting we end Universal Suffrage ..... i rest my case wink
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/dominic-cummings-brexit-referendum-won/
I think this would be an instructive read for you.

I've pointed out before that if people hadn't put in a shedload of work in tbd telecoms industry (where I was working at the time) in advance of the Millennium, then the following would've stopped working because they rely on telecoms

• the internet
• landlines
• mobiles
• banking
• TV
• radio
• traffic lights
• trains

....for starters.

But I suppose none of them are essential

And tell those that had unnecessary terminations or spent the last few months of their pregnancy in apprehension, because they were told that they had an ultra high risk of birth defects, because that was one of the systems where a Y2K bug was overlooked and slipped through the preparations that "the Millennium Bug was just scaremongering"

I’m not afraid. Not yet.

But I am stocking up. Unless the WA (which is the antithesis of pretty much every hope for Brexit on both sides - we end up a rule taker but have still bloody left) passes, there will be significant disruption. Food will be subject to WTO tariffs, we will hemorrage EU staff, universities will crumble due to the loss of students, businesses will leave because it’s only sensible, the teacher shortage will worsen because we don’t have enough and are apparently going to take a punitive approach to those already here unless they earn more than the govt is willing to pay teachers...

And no, not a history grad. But DH is - he’s an actual historian in fact. And he’s currently considering how best we can maximise food and essentials storage, and what we need to be storing. And how much we need to have in to cover elderly relatives too. He’s also worked out how to sort out our remaining debt within the next two years.

I don’t think the lights will go out (save in N Ireland maybe due to their supply arrangements). I do expect us to be a hell of a lot poorer though, by the end.

Yes, I'm afraid. Not just of all the economic effects and potentially having food and medicine shortages but all the hideous racism that has been unleashed.

Lying has been normalised, no one gets punished or resigns for lying now it seems. The country is completely divided and bitterly so. Opportunities lost. Significantly weaker as a whole. The embarrassment.

That fucking referendum was one of the worst things a leader could have ever done. From start to finish, a complete disaster. I don't see how we can ever recover in my lifetime, which I'm hoping will be long.

We moved from the UK a few years ago. It is sad when you look at life in the UK from another Anglo culture. We earn twice as much, live in a beautiful city with great infrastructure. Life is incomparable to how our situation would be in the UK. It would so masochistic of us to move back if Brexit goes ahead (even if it doesn't). Why would we give up our lives here for the hardship of Brexit UK?
So the country you are living in is not part of the EU? And life is good there? So why do you think Brexit will destroy the UK? Wages have actually been creeping up since the referendum. Free movement has kept them low (an obvious fact that too many people choose to deny).

I am very nervous about my family's future.

I am an EU national (from Scandinavia), married to a British national, living in the UK. We are expecting a child (due this week).
I first came to the UK over 10 years ago because I was offered a job, but we moved to the EU for work, and came back to the UK less than 5 years ago, again because of work.

I'm absolutely terrified that I will not be able to apply to stay here, or that mistakes will be made (it happens - just look at the Windrush scandal and all of the stories about the benefits system), meaning that I will have to move out of the UK.
In that situation, it would be difficult for my DH to find a job abroad because of what he does.
My assumption would be that if my application to stay here (the £65 one for EU nationals) was denied, I would also struggle to apply for British citizenship or any other way to remain in the UK.

It is a serious worry that our family could be split up - if I can't stay here, and my DH cannot move with me, then what do we do?
I am surely not the only person in this type of situation with this worry.

The food and medicine shortages (that also Brexit-campaigners have talked about) are also a massive worry.

I've had abuse from a few people in my local area - people I thought I had a good relationship with - telling me to go back to my own country, which I've found incredibly uncomfortable. My life, home and network are here - I don't have a life or home waiting for me anywhere else.

I am an EU national (from Scandinavia), married to a British national, living in the UK. We are expecting a child (due this week).
You will definitely be able to stay. No question. If anyone suggests otherwise that is shameful scaremongering.
I'm sorry you have had abuse from local people. They are scum.

RiskIt4Biscuit
I have seen nothing to suggest you will not be able to stay in the UK so you should not worry about that.
From my trips to Scandinavia I would prefer to live there rather than UK but of course your circumstances are different.
The logic being used by so many in the UK at present is so twisted it is near impossible to work out what is going on.
I hope things go well for you this week particularly and of course beyond.

@millyont

I hope you realise that if you voted Leave you are on the same side in this as those you describe as 'scum'.