To ask what has improved since leaving the EU?

[Butterflyfluff]

I’ve just had to pay customs charges on something I ordered from Germany - whilst we were in the EU there were no such charges.

Which got me thinking.

Leaving hasn’t been the disaster some predicted but, I can’t think of anything that affects me that’s actually improved since leaving.

What have other people’s upsides been? (And just being able to say we’re not in the EU anymore doesn’t count! 😂)

It's a bit of a hard question, because we had COVID immediately after leaving the EU, so life has been hard because of that. So we are NEVER going to know what it would have been like with just leaving the EU. All the shit going down - like energy and petrol prices, and food prices going up, is nothing to do with Brexit. This is a GLOBAL issue. So anyone blaming Brexit is being ridiculous.

But (in my opinion,) regarding leaving the EU.... Apart from a few extra customs rules, and getting used to having to have 3 months on your passport now when you travel to Europe, not much has changed.

I genuinely believe being in the EU benefitted very few people. Mostly the rich and privileged. So I am glad we are out! We save fuck-tons of money, and despite the EU (and a few remainers) trying every trick in the book to derail Brexit, and putting constant obstacles in our way afterwards, we are doing OK.

I also dread to think how the situation would have been with the covid vaccinations if the EU had been in charge. You can bet we would not have got the 100 million plus vaccines we had. The EU would have stopped that!!! If we'd still been with them.

I am glad we left. This is (predictably) turning into a Brexit-bashing thread, so this is my only post on here. I'm not getting into any pathetic arguments with butt-hurt remainers.

I have one! I got a brilliant bargain on a car when the pound tanked the day after the referendum (my salary is in euros).

Outweighed by the myriad microshits it’s done on our UK/EU family though.

The job situation?

DH's industry has always been in high demand but it is off the scale at the moment as there are so many jobs and so few candidates.

I'm hoping this will finally push some employers to start improving conditions. It's been shit for too many employees for too long.

My husband's earning power has increased because his skills are now in short supply in the UK. But long term it's bad as companies won't be able to compete and might move to the EU or elsewhere where wages are lower.

@Ddddddddddddd

I really dislike the attitude that everyone who votes brexit is racist stupid etc

To my mind the benefits will be felt slowly but will include: less pressure on housing making it more affordable for ftbs, less money wasted on the machinery of the EU as it does in these large bureaucratic institutions (a lot of money gets wasted, I have worked there and this is a fact)

Got to go now as baby waking but sadly will likely not come back as suspect I will jumped on by everyone who is so determined not to see anything positive about brexit. There always are pros and cons with most things in life so pretending otherwise is disingenuous

I've seen some pretty ridiculous things being said on this thread but am not going to attack anyone

less money wasted on the machinery of the EU as it does in these large bureaucratic institutions (a lot of money gets wasted, I have worked there and this is a fact)

Yeah, it's much more effective for us to set up our own institutions to carry out the same functions. As an analogy to prove your point, that's why large retail chains have to charge much more than independent shops for the same product and that's why niche car manufacturers can produce a family runabout for less than Ford can produce a Focus for.

I'm not seeing lots of posts on this thread accusing Leavers of being thick racists tbh. Just posts accusing them of being very misguided about what benefits Brexit would bring. The only even vaguely credible benefit mentioned has been the speed vaccine rollout ... which turns out not to be true anyway.

I definitely liked having a stamp in my passport.

There's loads of job vacancies in the care sector. This is not a good thing because we don't have enough people who are capable and willing to fill them. And yes, this will cause wages in the care industry to go up, which will mean that local authorities have to pay more to provide car so our council tax will go up. A lot.

and it's incredibly difficult to find people to fill empty roles in healthcare, caring and construction/building industry.

And hospitality, many service industries and taxi drivers as well.

There are no upsides, only considerable downsides.

I’ve never understood the arguments that everyone said they believed life would get better- many leave voters said they didn’t like the way the EU was heading. It the vote had been to remain in the EU as it was I think we wouldn’t have voted to leave- the idea of further countries joining and the army idea put a lot of fear into people. That cannot be proven right or wrong thanks to the pandemic.

@Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat

The job situation?

DH's industry has always been in high demand but it is off the scale at the moment as there are so many jobs and so few candidates.

I'm hoping this will finally push some employers to start improving conditions. It's been shit for too many employees for too long.

My organisation (not for profit) is unable to significantly improve pay because the funds simply aren't there. And we have always done all that we can to offer a good work life balance/supportive working environment in any case, so there isn't much more that we can do.

So the consequence of the current labour market issues here is not that conditions for workers will improve. We will simply provide less support for our vulnerable clients because we don't have the human resources to do what we did before.

@RampantIvy

and it's incredibly difficult to find people to fill empty roles in healthcare, caring and construction/building industry.

And hospitality, many service industries and taxi drivers as well.

And butchery, remember the pig farmers.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx do you have evidence (not anecdotal) regarding so many Europeans supposedly claiming UC and housing whilst working and taking our jobs?
You say it a lot, but it doesn't tally with my experience at all. So given we both have anecdotal evidence to the contrary I'd be interested to hear some statistics.

There are fewer opportunities for the government to hide behind the EU. Take the soaring energy costs and Sunak's reluctance to axe the green levies, in the past they could have pointed a finger to Brussels and pretend that their hand was forced on the matter. So, I think, it improves accountability. It's too optimistic to think this would lead to great improvements in political discourse but, perhaps it's a start.

I think the bigger impacts are not going to be felt on big issues like trade deals. People adapt to not being able to get preferred brands quickly, and large items like cars are an occasional purchase so people don’t think about them too often.

I think that, once travel is back to normal, the press will go nuts with pics of Little Johnny Englander practically giving himself an aneurysm as he stands for hours in a customs queue with his Union Jack shorts, and sombrero, roaring that he’s British and the Spaniards are mucho stupido for not letting him in the fast queue.

Sweet fuck all…

Quite a lot is worse though

@Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat

The job situation?

DH's industry has always been in high demand but it is off the scale at the moment as there are so many jobs and so few candidates.

I'm hoping this will finally push some employers to start improving conditions. It's been shit for too many employees for too long.

Does he work for a British company or would it make more sense for them to relocate to the EU and have access to a bigger workforce?

It certainly hasn't improved people's language. 🙄

@Quackpot

Our vaccine rollout would have been hindered had we still been in the eu

Several pp have pointed out that this is just not true. But of course this is just Mumsnet, and what do they know?

I have a quick and easy way for you to tell if it true or not.

Boris Johnson has claimed just what you said, both in and outside of Parliament. And there is a simple rule to apply here, as follows: Mr Johnson never tells the truth.

For any claim Mr Johnson makes, its negation will be true. For example, Mr Johnson says, 'Today is Tuesday' ... you may reasonably assume, whatever day of the week it is, it is certainly not Tuesday. Or, Mr Johnson says, 'It is raining out.' ... Of course you will not need an umbrella. ... And so on.

There. I hope that helps.

[This is a man who made up stories about 'straight bananas'; he lies about his own name ffs. But is not stupid to trust him. Oh. no, not at all. People who believed him about Brexit, not stupid, no: they all weighed the evidence carefully and came to a rational decision based on the facts. Of course they did.]

[quote Keladrythesaviour]@ILoveAllRainbowsx do you have evidence (not anecdotal) regarding so many Europeans supposedly claiming UC and housing whilst working and taking our jobs?
You say it a lot, but it doesn't tally with my experience at all. So given we both have anecdotal evidence to the contrary I'd be interested to hear some statistics.[/quote]
Most supermarket and restaurant jobs are minimum wage so of course they are going to claim universal credit and housing benefit. How else would people on minimum wage be able to afford rent?

@ghostyslovesheets

clutching at straws but used cars? I purchased mine new 2 years ago - another year to go - went to look at a new one and it's lost £1000 in 2 years - depreciation is minimal because of delaying getting new ones in - I'd have to wait until June for a new one!

Oh and it's a Dacia Duster - nothing fancy

That’s nothing to do with Brexit - it’s due to a shortage of semi conductor chips delaying production of new cars, which in turn inflates the price of used ones.

@RoyKentsChestHair

Restaurants are closing because they can’t get any staff? Or because they’re just coming out of a pandemic which shut them down and changed peoples’s eating out habits immeasurably

Restaurants round here are packed if they are open people are sick of eating in.

[quote Keladrythesaviour]@ILoveAllRainbowsx do you have evidence (not anecdotal) regarding so many Europeans supposedly claiming UC and housing whilst working and taking our jobs?
You say it a lot, but it doesn't tally with my experience at all. So given we both have anecdotal evidence to the contrary I'd be interested to hear some statistics.[/quote]
Also one of the reasons that there is a housing shortage and rents are so high it's because we had almost 5 million extra your appearance in the last 20-years. So that's probably an extra 2 or 3 million houses that they are living in.

*extra Eastern Europeans

@Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat

The job situation?

DH's industry has always been in high demand but it is off the scale at the moment as there are so many jobs and so few candidates.

I'm hoping this will finally push some employers to start improving conditions. It's been shit for too many employees for too long.

Nah the government will soon put a stop to that. The main reason the Tories wanted us out was because of employment rights. They hate them.