News Forum - Not so smug now? Expat life in the shadow of Truss

[Grumpish]

Brexit has/had arguments for and against, both equally valid - the EU as a trading bloc with the potential to equal the both the US and China for, the EU as single political and legal entity over-riding the interests of individual states against. But Brexit is not the background to the current problem - that is down to a PM who has demonstrated to all that substituting political dogma for basic economics just doesn't work. Betting the whole lot on future growth could pay off IF there is growth, but it is a recipe for disaster if that growth doesn't happen.

[Rookiescot]

6 hours ago, Soidog said:

I don’t think the people who voted Brexit could care less about Brexit dividends. For the people who voted to leave it was all about having the final say on how you run your country. Not being dictated to by the EU

So which laws has the UK been able to enact since leaving that it could not have done while in the EU?

[Rookiescot]

6 hours ago, JamesR said:

Freedom for us to do as we please politically, if we make a mess of it then it is out mess.

I believe in democracy, I do not want to be ruled by a bunch of unelected Eurocrats in Brussels.

I haven't seen the UK crumble due to Brexit, there are economic problems all over the world at the moment, next year most of the world will fall into a recession, Brexit did not cause that.

Yes we had a bit of TrussGate moment due to the dim prime minister being elected by 150,000 Conservative pensioners who do not know what time of day it is but this hitch is temporary on the scale of things, her policies will be reversed and thus the damage cause by her will be limited. Political events are very short lived. 

We will of course still be in a long period of recession just like the rest of the world with high interest rates, high inflation, a crash in the property market and the rest.

So why has the pound not bounced back to pre Brexit levels?

Why is our balance of payments hitting record lows? It cant be because of covid or the Ukraine. The whole world is suffering from that.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/uk-economy-grew-same-previously-thought-q1-2022-2022-06-30/

[Rookiescot]

6 hours ago, JamesR said:

Exactly, that is why I and other people I know voted to leave, not all of us are dumb enough to listen the pros and cons rhetoric by both sides of the argument, we voted to leave because of our own reasons. 

And what reasons were those?

[23RD]

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

And what reasons were those?

1. The real hard working People of The United Kingdom didn't want to live under an authoritarian/Marxist State.

2. We didn't fight and win 2 x World Wars against Germany to have them dictate our way of life.

3. We didn't fight and win a Cold War between 1945-1989 to hand our sovereignty to another Communist State.

There's 3 x good reasons for BREXIT to start with. 

[Havana]

10 hours ago, Cabra said:

Well, the UK could rejoin the EU. But that will probably never happen under a Labor government. Just not realistic. On a more realistic note, the UK probably needs to get busy finding common ground with the EU. Else the pain of Brexit will only continue (or get worse).

I agree entirely about finding common ground with the EU but it will be difficult with the depth of 'sour grapes' mentality particularly with France and Germany.

[Rookiescot]

32 minutes ago, 23RD said:

1. The real hard working People of The United Kingdom didn't want to live under an authoritarian/Marxist State.

2. We didn't fight and win 2 x World Wars against Germany to have them dictate our way of life.

3. We didn't fight and win a Cold War between 1945-1989 to hand our sovereignty to another Communist State.

There's 3 x good reasons for BREXIT to start with. 

Flag biting nonsense.

Germany was not dictating your way of life. 

The EU is neither Marxist or Communist.

[23RD]

2 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

Flag biting nonsense.

Germany was not dictating your way of life. 

The EU is neither Marxist or Communist.

Ah The View of the SNP not exactly a left leaning Party either. 

Isn't your leader very keen to rejoin The EU because it fits her ideology?

[Rookiescot]

5 minutes ago, 23RD said:

Ah The View of the SNP not exactly a left leaning Party either. 

Isn't your leader very keen to rejoin The EU because it fits her ideology?

So if you knew the financial damage Brexit was going to do to the country would you still have voted for it?

[23RD]

1 minute ago, Rookiescot said:

So if you knew the financial damage Brexit was going to do to the country would you still have voted for it?

Yes I did and I'd do it again short term pain but don't worry the 10% net contribution we were paying to improve the life's of People in 25 other member States and are now saving will more than offset things in the long run. 

Question how is the German/French economy doing any better?.

 

[Rookiescot]

4 minutes ago, 23RD said:

Yes I did and I'd do it again short term pain but don't worry the 10% net contribution we were paying to improve the life's of People in 25 other member States and are now saving will more than offset things in the long run. 

Question how is the German/French economy doing any better?.

Ah the 350 million a week for the NHS. Whatever happened to that?

 

[23RD]

2 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

Ah the 350 million a week for the NHS. Whatever happened to that?

The NHS has plenty of money until the head sheds and staff stop giving free service to People who aren't entitled to it The NHS is always going to run in a arrears. 

This is a problem with the head sheds off The NHS committing fraud with tax payer money nothing to do with BREXIT.

[Rookiescot]

3 minutes ago, 23RD said:

The NHS has plenty of money until the head sheds and staff stop giving free service to People who aren't entitled to it The NHS is always going to run in a arrears. 

This is a problem with the head sheds off The NHS committing fraud with tax payer money nothing to do with BREXIT.

Please give examples of the NHS committing fraud? I can't find any. So I have to assume it does not exist.

Which is the same as the 350 million a week. It does not exist either.

It never did.

[23RD]

Just now, Rookiescot said:

Please give examples of the NHS committing fraud? I can't find any. So I have to assume it does not exist.

Which is the same as the 350 million a week. It does not exist either.

It never did.

How many health tourist are going to be in UK Hospitals this week?

How much of the millions spend annually on health tourism of non UK Nationals is ever recouped?

But a good example of why the UK needs mandatory ID Cards (like nearly every other European Countries).

If you want examples try Google the Lagos express would be a good place to start.

[Rookiescot]

16 minutes ago, 23RD said:

How many health tourist are going to be in UK Hospitals this week?

How much of the millions spend annually on health tourism of non UK Nationals is ever recouped?

But a good example of why the UK needs mandatory ID Cards (like nearly every other European Countries).

If you want examples try Google the Lagos express would be a good place to start.

Ah OK.

https://fullfact.org/health/health-tourists-how-much-do-they-cost-and-who-pays/#:~:text=It's thought to be very,aren't currently charged for.

So not even close to 350 million a week.

[23RD]

5 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

So not even close to 350 million a week.

If 1 x Nigerian Women cost The NHS 1 million a couple of year's ago when she had her triplets in a London Hospital (just one example) .

How much are the 10's of 1000's costing every year?.

That's why we have a  budget x amount of money budgeted for x amount of People. 

Not anything to do with BREXIT. 

[Rookiescot]

Just now, 23RD said:

If 1 x Nigerian Women cost The NHS 1 million a couple of year's ago when she had her triplets in a London Hospital (just one example) .

How much are the 10's of 1000's costing every year?.

That's why we have a  budget x amount of money budgeted for x amount of People. 

Not anything to do with BREXIT. 

So has Brexit stopped that kind of thing happening? No of course it hasn't so no Brexit benefit there.

So what has happened to the 350 million a week?

[Rookiescot]

In October 2021, the UK government’s Office of Budget Responsibility calculated that Brexit would cost 4% of GDP per annum over the long term.[49] 4% of 2021 UK GDP is the equivalent of a £32bn cost per annum to the UK taxpayer.[50] After rebates, the UK’s EU membership fee in 2018 was £13.2bn.[51]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexit#:~:text=Long-term impact on the UK economy,-Further information%3A UK&text=2017 and 2019 surveys of,' or 'soft' Brexit.

 

[TheDirtyDurian]

16 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Aye Brexit.

It was a dumb idea then. Its a dumb idea now and will be a dumb idea in the future.

A campaign run on slogans, nationalist flag biting and outright lies.

Can someone from the Brexit aficionados please list the benefits we have seen as a country from Brexit.

4 bottles of spirits duty free now from anywhere in the world on arrival in the UK. 

[23RD]

3 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

In October 2021, the UK government’s Office of Budget Responsibility calculated that Brexit would cost 4% of GDP per annum over the long term.[49] 4% of 2021 UK GDP is the equivalent of a £32bn cost per annum to the UK taxpayer.[50] After rebates, the UK’s EU membership fee in 2018 was £13.2bn.[51]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexit#:~:text=Long-term impact on the UK economy,-Further information%3A UK&text=2017 and 2019 surveys of,' or 'soft' Brexit.

How have these so called economists been doing lately?

I'm sure they work it out on the back of a fag packet. 

I'm just enjoying watching Germany and France pickup the tab for the Billions the UK used to pump into it annually (because the other 25 member states said they can't pay a penny more).

 

The EU could always go back to what it was set out to be in 1974 a free trade organisation. 

The 3rd time in one hundred years Germany tried for European domination and the 3rd time they've failed with their Broken EU project. 

[TheDirtyDurian]

10 hours ago, JamesR said:

Soidog, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

You haven't a clue, I can hear the people who have written so far on this blog  saying. 

You just don't seem to realise, the whole world is in a mess because Brexit happened.

Goods are still being imported and exported as before except for a bit of paperwork though, but that of course must be a lie.

You don't realise since Truss was elected the UK has gone into a black hole never to return, it has never happened before, up to now the economy of the UK for the last six thousand years has been perfect.

In the UK we have to walk around on stilts so we can walk over the millions of people who have committed suicide and are laying all over the pavements.

There must be lots of mentally ill people in the world too as so many are trying to flock to such a rundown decrepit country.

(A tongue in cheek comment)....oh bollo*** I had to eat my cheeks due to starvation, tongue in gap then. 

A bit of paperwork... 555

You're funny.

[Rookiescot]

2 minutes ago, 23RD said:

How have these so called economists been doing lately?

I'm sure they work it out on the back of a fag packet. 

I'm just enjoying watching Germany and France pickup the tab for the Billions the UK used to pump into it annually (because the other 25 member states said they can't pay a penny more).

The EU could always go back to what it was set out to be in 1974 a free trade organisation. 

The 3rd time in one hundred years Germany tried for European domination and the 3rd time they've failed with their Broken EU project. 

It would appear these "so called" economists got more right than the Brexiteers.

Those are the figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility. That means they are the governments OWN figures. So the reality is that Brexit has cost us 18.8 billion per year. 

Or about 360 million per week. 

[Chaimai]

Worth every Penny.

[Soidog]

6 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

So which laws has the UK been able to enact since leaving that it could not have done while in the EU?

As I have said before, I voted to remain in 2016. However, since then, I have listened to the arguments of those who voted Brexit and I see their side of the debate. I keep coming back to the central point, that if those who want us in the EU stand a chance, they need to come up with a much more viable answer than slagging off the current position.
 

The timescales are simply too short to judge anything. We didn’t formally leave until December 2020. Since then the whole world has been fighting Covid. The government has been in meltdown for the past 6 months. In addition, the U.K. on September 22nd announced that… 

 

• UK government to end the special status of all retained EU law by 31 December 2023 under new Brexit Freedoms Bill introduced today

 

People often ask where are all these new trade agreements? Again, it was only possible to hold talks after the transition period without the explicit agreement of the EU. That ended on December 31st 2020

So to answer your question.  The answer is that it is now enacting a law which will come in to full affect in 2023 which will allow it to change laws that it retained as “Bridging laws” with the EU.  This will touch in many areas it previously couldn’t. These include, environmental, agricultural, employment and critically Asylum. I think it is the Asylum laws which for many who voted Brexit are at the heart of the debate. How can it be, that the decision of the High Court or Supreme Court of a sovereign nation, fully supported by the Home Secretary, be overruled by an EU court? 

As Micheal Gove once put it:

Every single day, every single minister is told: ‘Yes Minister, I understand, but I’m afraid that’s against EU rules.’ I know it. My colleagues in government know it. And the British people ought to know it too: Your government is not, ultimately, in control in hundreds of areas that matter.”
 

Like I said, I voted to remain in the EU  I have lived and worked in the EU for many years  I was married to a Dutch lady for many years and have a home there. My in-laws obviously still live there and I have a strong sense of European identity. I love Europe and it’s people. But I have since come to dislike the EU project. Hopefully one day it will return to an economic trading block and not the nonsense of 89dB stickers having to be applied to my wheelie bin!!  

 

 

[Soidog]

4 hours ago, Havana said:

I agree entirely about finding common ground with the EU but it will be difficult with the depth of 'sour grapes' mentality particularly with France and Germany.

I think it goes beyond sour grapes. There is an overriding political necessity to make sure Britain is punished and fail following Brexit. If the big two EU nations allow Britain to prosper then a number of other disenfranchised EU nations will follow. It’s likely that Italy could be next to leave and that would result in the collapse of the EU project. Rest assured, France and Germany have and will continue to make post Brexit Britains life as hard as it possibly can. It will use all of its global influence to disrupt and hamper any progress the U.K. tries to make. I’m afraid that will only strengthen the resolve of those who voted to leave. 
 

Many people who are in the 20-40 age band voted to remain in the EU. This is the same age group that10-20 years from now could vote to rejoin. However, the way France and Germany are behaving will make them turn against the EU. Britain just needs to get a lot tougher  and go for it. The U.K. existed for hundreds of years without the EU. Many nations within and bordering the EU are not full members. I think many leave voters would have been happy with the “Norway model”, but that isn’t something France or Germany can allow for the U.K.