Genuine question - what does anyone like about Brexit?

[Pipsquiggle]

I have always been a committed remainer - I work in an industry that depends on seamless logisitics, particularly entering / leaving the UK. Brexit is a shit show for my sector.

Just had to pay £96.80 to UPS to release a package that I'd paid express delivery for, that should've arrived 2 days ago - I'm pissed off. The German firm has already agreed to reimburse me but it's all such a ball ache.

So I have a very bleak outlook when it comes to Brexit.

Genuinely, I would like to hear of good news stories around Brexit.
How has it made your life better?
If your pay has increased - how much by and which industry are you in?
If there has been a legal upside for you - which law and how has it helped?

I am genuinely hoping to 'reframe' my thoughts / feelings on Brexit and was hoping this board could help me

It has destroyed the Tory party, so that's good.

If you put two Tories in a room , after 20 minutes they'll be fighting about Europe - John Major.

I work in the offshore survey industry; oil & gas, renewables and telecommunications. Most of my work is in the EU and Norway. This year, I was declined for two jobs in Greece, because I needed a permit.

I also need to queue at immigration, which I was formerly waved through. God forbid I don't get stamped in! I didn't last year and on the way back, missed my ferry, because immigration were not happy about it.

Fortunately, I had tickets, which allowed me to prove when I'd entered.

Last January, I had a shore based job in Ijmuiden. We were right next to the ferry terminal and it was when all the "Cloggies nicked my ham sandwich!" stories were going about.

I noticed that one Scottish fish company had a lot of lorries and I spoke to one of the drivers. I said that I'd heard that virtually no fish was coming to Europe, from the UK. Well, it turned out that they were coming over empty and only hauling fish back to Scotland.

My wife and her sister have a bakery, they do a lot of East European breads and they had trouble getting stuff from Bulgaria and other countries. Their suppliers have managed to sort it, but some of the ingredients have doubled in price.

Her friend makes ceramic nick-nacks and did some useful business in Italy and France, but has had to stop selling there, as it's no longer profitable for her. She still sells in the UK, but has lost a lot of income.

My neighbour has a fencing business, with most of his materials coming from Poland and I think, Latvia. Orders take weeks instead of days and often, the price is higher. He's had to lay some blokes off, as he frequently loses money.

He gives the customer a quote, with the current prices and if it's gone up in the meantime...

My friend is a plaster, he gets most of it from Germany. There was a hiccup last year, where it was hard to come by. It's now at least three times the price.

Just personal experience and anecdotes, I know. The papers have lots of stories about small businesses, which are struggling with regulations, paperwork, import duties etc.

www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/high-taxes-and-no-future-spark-fears-of-mass-exodus-of-young-britons/ar-AA14B8h8

And:

https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-added-210-to-household-food-bills-new-research-finds-12759188

MotherofPearl

I was just coming to post a link the the Guardian's version.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/01/brexit-added-nearly-6bn-to-uk-food-bills-in-two-years-research-finds

The cost of food imported from the EU shot up because of extra red tape, adding £210 to the average household food bills over 2020 and 2021, London School of Economics (LSE) researchers discovered. As low-income families spend a greater share of their income on food, the impact of Brexit on their purchases was disproportionately greater, they said.

The research comes the day after data from the British Retail Consortium trade body showed UK food price inflation hit a record high of 12.4% in November as the price of basics such as eggs, dairy products and coffee rose.

Mogg and his despicable crew said that food would be cheaper.

It's so infuriating. And they seem to have just got away with all their lies.

I too saw the story on the Guardian first, but then sought it out being reported elsewhere lest I be accused of 'left-wing media bias.'

Rees Mogg is an immoral, lying cunt.

Brexit has increased inflation per the evidence provided by the BOE etc. Brexit is costing the UK approx £40bn per year in lost tax revenue (compounding).

Immigration hasn't significantly changed, it's just coming from different countries, who have generally less in common with us culturally.

Brexit has been disastrous for farming and food security.

The OP asked for actual benefits, not made up ones.

No, the economy benefited from membership so much that the EU contributions paid for themselves many times over, hence Brexit leaving a £40bn annual hole in our public finances (compounding so increasing annually).

Immigration is up, just coming from different countries. Not a Brexit benefit, if that’s what you wanted. Possibly more problematic wrt integration.

Will be interesting to see if UK inflation follows EU/Eurozone inflation, which is falling at the moment,
One reason is lower fuel prices, something which our petrol companies never seem keen to pass on and the Govt allow it.

Supermarket fuel around here is more expensive than the independents, shows how much profiteering is going on.

I see very very few comments in this thread that give a positive benefit from Brexit. Almost all comments, many at length, show the disbenefits of Brexit so I wonder why Starmer is so scared of saying we should rejoin the EU.

Personally it's worked out well for me as a locum pharmacist as my pay is 50-65% increased on what it was pre-brexit.

It's closed the options to the chains (eg. Boots, Tesco) to go abroad and employ people for peanuts and be locked into a contract like they did in the past. Now they have to pay pharmacists what they are worth! The negative side is they don't always want to pay so will close the pharmacy instead but pretend there is a pharmacist shortage

@1gglePiggle in my line of work we’ve also had a salary increase but I think it’s because there’s a serious skills shortage. While 10% or whatever is good, the work is much harder, service provided poorer (because of the shortage), part-time work and burnout ever closer.

That may be true about pharmacist wages. Our Boots is under threat of closure because they can't get enough staff - pharmacist and others - to run it. That means a car journey of 20 miles to the nearest chemists. One person's wage increase can become another person's loss of an essential service.

That's good to hear that locum pharmacists pay has gone up.

@LadyWithLapdog what is your line of work?

It's because Boots won't pay the going rate for a pharmacist now though. They still think they can pay £20ph when there is so much more responsibility now such as 111 referrals, prescribing for minor illnesses, checking hospital discharge meds that we never used to do. On top of doing all the usual checking of prescriptions and flu/covid jabs etc. The number of people seeking advice now they can't see a GP has also rocketed. The big companies would rather close than pay what they should, all they think about are the shareholders 💰💰💰It's funny how you rarely see an independent pharmacy closed 🤔

Personally I see Boots as the pharmacy equivalent of W.H. Smith in that I am amazed they still exist. A brief wander around and you leave thinking "what exactly is this shop ?". Which was the last think I remember about Woolworths.

In fairness to Mogg , he did say it would be 50 years before we'd know whether Brexit was a good idea.

But he didn't wait that long before moving his investment company to Dublin.

That's very true, he also made millions by shorting the Pound, on the back of inside information that Leave were going to win. Legally accessed inside info, which Joe & Josephine Public are not legally allowed to see.

He's corrupt scum.

The (strangely unpublicised) Chester by-election is interesting and chimes with personal experience.

Die-hard tories are having serious problems voting tory. Which was always going to be the end destination of a party that ran away from confronting Farage for it's own gain.

Seems they have fallen off the dragon.

Exactly this. It is exactly what they deserve. Just a shame they had to drag our country, economy and culture down with them into the eighth circle of hell.

Its because Leave voters love Brexit. They don't care how much it costs them or us and they will NEVER change their minds about it. Any politician that even hints that Brexit wasn't the best thing ever will never win their vote.

Any politician that even hints that Brexit wasn't the best thing ever will never win their vote.

The thing is, their votes are becoming worth less.