Brace for Brexit

[tilder]

I am a firm remainer and am pretty angry tbo. Feel disenfranchised and embarrassed about my country.

However. We have been taking steps to try and protect our family from Brexit fallout. We aren't stockpiling food or water (maybe some food items) but have done the following:

Made sure we have a few months of prescription medicines.
Several boxes ibuprofen and paracetamol.
Employed an accountant to ensure we only pay the tax we have to.
I have not moved jobs (despite a pay rise offer).
Moved our mortgage early to a 5 year fixed deal.
Managed pensions to limit uk investment.
Moved what savings we have to a non UK bank and out of premium bonds.

It's depressing and uncomfortable. I feel some of the above is a betrayal of my country. But then again, not sure I want to contribute anymore.

Is it just us? Is there more we could or should do?

Springwalk, seriously, you are not impressed with the EU because of their insults bla bla bla..

The whole world is looking on aghast at the absolute stupidity of the British government. They think they have lost their minds. Most rational governments do prioritize running a functioning economy, being able to feed their citizens, provide health care, etc. This is in serious jeopardy now, do you understand that?

The shitty shitty consequences of Brexit are not the EU being mean to us, that is the direct consequence of decisions that have been made. When people are standing in line for hours waiting to get through passport control, that is the consequence of Brexit, not nasty "foreigners" making a point and being mean. Have you ever noticed the "non EU etc" line in passport control and how slow moving it is? That could be your line after Brexit. That's what you wanted. To be special. To be out of the club. To go it alone.

Springwalk,
Don't worry, I am sure France will get over your absence and awful attitude soon enough.

I find your views very strange OP. I would rather leave the EU, but if we revoked and remained (which is still very likely) I would make the best of it. I would regret the missed opportunities but I would always invest in the UK.

Thewhole worldis looking on aghast at the absolute stupidity of the British government.
Not really. With a few exceptions they have their own terrible governments to occupy them.

{ I would regret the missed opportunities }
What opportunities are the UK missing by being members of the EU?

Tell us with concrete examples Millyonthe.

OK we will miss out on chlorinated chicken and hormone ridden beef, and we will miss the benefit of private health care as a matter of course, if we can afford to pay, or don't have existing conditions which make us uninsurable. But what else?

Springwalk Now let me guess, Phuket with all the other Brits, for fun times in the bars where you won’t have to mix with too many actual Asian people, perhaps more fun on a cruel elephant ride excursion. Somewhere where you won’t have to mix with too many Asian people asking what on Earth has possessed your country as I have been asked all over SE Asia by people who cannot understand why any country would shoot itself in the foot economically and politically. Especially if they are in a former colony in which case they relish the inevitable consequences of hubris......

By the way if it is Thailand, or Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Indonesia,Burma, Laos, or the Philippines you will of course be in a country that is part of an economic, political, security, military, and educational community, motto “one vision, one identity,one community” which they value for the strength it gives them as a community in the face of America and China which is precisely why they do not understand why the U.K. would divorce itself from a community they regard as a model and leave itself weakened and vulnerable. And if you did discuss with them that the EU were bullies they would smile politely but think, you think the EU are bullies? Try China.......

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/3510056-Put-it-to-the-People-March-23rd-March
I've turned into a total spammer

Isn't it frustrating that every thread gets hijacked by people trying to dissuade us from taking action. Are they not bored yet?

No. Are you?

OP, how have you set up a non-UK bank account/which bank was it? This was something I investigated a few weeks ago but didn't get very far - I applied for a German bank account but it was declined.

The prep we have taken has been more along the lines of making our house more resilient generally - making sure we have a big log store, an 800l water butt, a small PV panel hooked up to a leisure battery, chickens, a log burner that connects to our hot water tank and a gravity Berkey water filter. We've bought a chest freezer, the space under our bed is full of food and I've bought some clothes in the next size up for my eldest. I've stocked up on our first aid kit with all sorts of things I've never bought before. I've sorted out international driving licences, a green card, made sure we've recently had optician and dentist appointments and the boiler has been serviced. Now trying to get work essential work on the house done before the end of this month.

I moved jobs once to get a job with a longer notice period (2 months instead of one). Now might have the chance to get a job with a 3 month notice period, but it will mean handing in my notice at the end of this month, so I'm not too sure about that as a course of action. I wouldn't hand in my notice without a signed contract in front of me, but don't like the thought that I would be working out my notice and not starting the new job until mid May - not sure about the legal position, but could they terminate me before I start the new job?

Thing is that they think the killer argument is that it will make no difference. You know, not be a chance to reassure yourself that there are lots of others who feel the same, enjoy a day when people are taking joy in protest and listening to rational arguments, even the bizarre sight of Anna Soubrey, Vince Cable, Chukka Ammunna and Caroline Lucas being a sort of Remain Little Mix , without making it nasty, unlike the ten saddo angry old men shouting for Leave corralled by police in Whitehall....

Millyonthe until now Britain had been looked up to as a respected established western democracy (with reasonably accepted idiosyncrasies like first past the post).

Now, other western democracies can hardly believe what the British government are wilfully and knowingly doing. They see the British government as a terrible government.

But at least when they see the 700,000 of us plus out on the streets, they know that May and the ERG's rhetoric of the country just wanting to get on with Brexit, the people have voted blah, blah, just isn't true of the whole country

OP, it sounds like you've taken the type of actions the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg would approve of so you're probably on track to protect your assets.

I don't blame you. Brexiteers would throw you under a bus. You owe no loyalty to these people.

wherearemychickens

I would imagine that a lot of banks within the EU are simply being overwhelmed by applicants for new accounts at this point in time.

You might consider transferring if possible some of your bank balance to a Paypal account if all else fails.

If a no-deal crash-out occurs and martial law is imposed, capital controls may be imposed on the regular banks limiting how much money can be withdrawn or sent out of the country / kingdom.

I saw a movie about the Great Depression here in the US where a multi-millionaire withdrew all his cash right prior to the 1929 crash and thus had several million dollars stashed in his shoes. I am not quite sure how even with big bills he managed to get all of that in the shoes he was wearing.

I would think that you would need at least some really big boots with say compartments or else plenty of extra room in those boots to hold all of that cash. In any case the idea is that those shoes / boots hardly ever leave your feet.

In another movie a criminal kept a big stash in a really big belt that he wore which hardly ever left his waist.

The people in Greece past the 2008 financial crises were severely restricted in how much cash they could withdraw. You don't really need a huge amount of cash to make it through a financial crises, but you may well need a few extra dollars, yen, or pounds that otherwise may not be available at that moment.

wherearemychickens I am not looking for a non uk bank in itself, most are international anyway. I just want to minimise my exposure to uk based investment. Which is horrible. Especially being compared to JRM! Dreadful man.

I just feel so distant from UK politics and the values and priorities of the main political parties. Hate the direction things are moving. Nothing makes a difference, no matter how many protests. I just don't want a part of it. Feel like my values and priorities have no place.

Now I feel guilty for wanting to try and protect my family!

xebobfromUS Am not so worried about short term financial issues, more the long term decline and marginalisation of our country. The loss of opportunity, the divisive and extreme politics.

All rather depressing really.

The usual bollocks and histrionics spouting out. Yes, things are a mess at the moment but they will sort out one way or another. The world is not about to end. The country is not at war and is not sinking. Have you not lived long enough to have lived through a crisis? How about living in Syria?

So you agree @Confusedbeetle , it will be shit then? So remind me why ffs we are doing this?

@Confusedbeetle define both one way, and 'or another'

@Confusedbeetle - I'm old. I've lived through all sorts of difficulties in this country and abroad. This self inflicted shitshow is nothing like anything I have ever experienced in this country and sadly it could be rather a lot like some of the dreadful things I have experienced in other countries.

ConfusedBeetle l have never ever lived through anything like this. It is not about histrionics in any way. What a blinkered uninformed comment.

The country is in paralysis. This is the biggest crisis since WW2, AND this is self inflicted.

The country is actually in a non violent civil war. Immense passion and anger on both sides but no solution.

But you’ll be fine won’t you?

I saw a comment the other day to the effect that America is pretending to have a national crisis, when they don't, and we are pretending we don't have a national crisis, when we do.

I've also seen people from the former Yugoslavia commenting on Twitter that this period of British politics feels to them like the run up to the war there:

twitter.com/ivanka/status/1090519840903884800

That's what scares me. If this goes wrong, it has the potential to go really, really wrong. We are not talking about incremental policy change here. For that matter, we're way outside the realms of evidence-based policy making and into lies being actively promulgated and allowed to stand. That's dangerous territory. Making policy on the basis of what you'd like reality to be, doesn't mean reality doesn't catch up with you in the end.

Ultimately we're a small nation sitting alongside of a global regulatory superpower. We want to leave that club, fine, but it doesn't mean the reach of that global regulatory superpower goes away, it just means we have little to no influence in setting the rules in our favour.

Britain is no longer the economic or trading superpower it was (or likes to think it was). Financially- business and personal - life is going to get much more difficult. You only have to look at the number of businesses who have relocated ( or plan to do so) outside the UK and the number of people trying to get a non UK passport. The question is how soon the downfall starts to happens.