The truth about Brexit.

Brexit the ……negative gift that reps on taking. Kind of like the maga movement in the US.

 

Quite the challenge to answer that in a text/forum.

Fyi:
GB = England Scotland and Wales
NI = Northern Ireland
UK = GB and NI
ROI = Republic of Ireland

*I* think it was an act of absolute national self harm. The cost of doing business is higher.

The public is gullible. They heard what they wanted to hear from the liars and charlatans and they believed them too, even some of them voting for them in the subsequent elections.

I see no up-side to having left. I see numerous downsides, which include restrictions on travel, more paperwork to travel, schemes between UK and EU shelved which impacts negatively on teenagers education. Cost of business is higher which has increased prices. Availability of products is lower due to delays at UK ports which results in foodstuffs degrading such that they can't be sold. Other items no longer sold to UK or part of it.

And then there's NI; a supposedly integral part of the UK but, which isn't regarded as such by many/most in GB.

And the Windsor Framework, intended to enable trade both ways between NI and GB without there being a hard border between NI and ROI per the Good Friday Agreement.

Has that framework worked?! Nope. Well not as intended. Has brexit worked?! - nope, not at all.

Some goods in GB aren't sold into NI because the paperwork is too convoluted for small businesses and too costly as well.
Things like towels, toiletries, kitchen equipment/components and more aren't sold from GB into NI without involving another middleman entity such as a supermarket. However the higher quality stuff isn't sold through supermarkets which means those small manufacturers effectively exclude NI from their customer base. That affects individual/domestic customers but also hospitality and accommodation businesses. It's actually resulted in NI businesses importing from other countries, leaving GB out of the mix.

Irony alert:
1. Because of complexities at GB ports, some hauliers/importers/supermarkets bring stuff in more easily and quickly, from EU, via ROI (say Rosslare port or Dublin), then by road into NI and then across to GB. Extra carbon mileage too.

So the Windsor framework or, at least, its outworkings keep GB supplied (albeit at higher cost) as effectively as previously (before Brexit) but reduce supply to NI from GB. The loss to GB is significant. The loss to NI is negligible and, indeed, some items, newly sourced from outside UK, are better quality.

The ironic bit is the framework enables traders/importers to get around the worst effects of brexit ie the difficulties at GB ports, so GB can function close to how it was previously; NI functions as well/better than before but the gulf between GB and NI is wider and the 'union' is weaker.

Another way to explain it would be to say:
The 'little englanders', who think the world revolves around them and that everyone else is secondary; they got their brexit but only because other regions of UK and other countries have helped them, after the event (brexit).

Turns out they didn't 'Take back control' (of their borders). They restricted their border and self-harmed in the process. They weakened the entity that is the UK and it is other regions that are helping to mitigate that act of self harm. They have weakened the union too (or likely have hastened the extrication of NI from the union), so I'm at a loss to see what the positives of brexit were or are.

I think the reality is that the weakest link in a democracy is the &^%"ing electorate.

Hth.

 

It's so frustrating, imo.
It's like the kids have ousted the teachers of a school and taken it over. Unfortunately it's not the school though in the USA and, instead, it's your two houses and the WH, it seems.

I was speaking with a Portland couple last week and they were quite surprised but, also, annoyed that we get so much coverage of US politics. They thought we'd no business knowing and should only hear of news from and relative to our own country.

However, I thought it interesting that they stopped talking about it when they realised they weren't knowledgeable about our news media including BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and so slating them as per CNN etc might not 'work'.

I know quite a few who agree with normal economic policy in US (small govt and big for business) but absolutely disagree with the rhetoric and social policies currently. They've said they have no party to vote for and won't unless theres a third one, just as there is here in UK.

 

Did you look at my comment and reasoning at the start of this thread, #2.
I supported brexit at the time and still do.
In reality, we just did what France was threatening and they benefited by the shock waves in Brussels.

As an example of the ignorant narrow mindedness of Brussels at brexit, they were subsidising dairy farmers in the Irish Republic to pour milk down the drains, rather than export it to the UK. Then they realised that our milk trading agreement predated even the EEC. In fact before most of them were even born.

People today only know what they find on Google. As AI takes over and the whole world becomes a uniform standard of mediocrity, things can only get worse.


These words of TS Eliot written in 1927, keep resounding in my mind.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

 

I wonder are you uncaring or oblivious to the (hopefully) un-intended consequences?

The UK will, sooner than otherwise, break-up. NI will go first with a referendum - even the most unionist politicians know now that that's inevitable. All they can do is try to delay the inevitible.

That will enable Scotland to hold another independence referendum and England & Wales will likely be alone because Scotland majority was for remaining in the EU. Same for NI.

Regardless of that which may or may not be my preference, a re-unified Ireland will again boom - they've got a huge trade surplus already - and Scotland knows it can re-join the EU. England & Wales will diminish in relevance. After all that - possibly - England with Wales may need to re-join the EU though at a much diminished position compared to that, which it had pre-brexit.