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From 12th October expect longer queues at border gates whilst your finger prints and photo are taken - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-entryexit-system
So now when you visit all of our shitty neighbours (but not for work cos who wants that) you can be treated like a criminal too.
Ding-ding-ding - yet another benefit.
I'm sure all the Brexity residents of Port Talbot and Scun-thorpe (sorry Mods about the swear filter avoidance) will be delighted with the Brexit benefit if those nasty smelly noisy polluting steel works get shut. 😐
Gonna be interesting to see how that changes sheet steel prices that my brexity employers use a fair amount of, guess it might go either way?
I regularly order some self-adhesive magnets from Amazon for my business because. Turns out they came from Germany and now Amazon EU won’t send to a UK business address.
Just my annual check on the list of what benefits it brought.
Still nowt.
Looks like Windows 10 support is going to last another year, but only if you're in the European Economic Zone (the UK isn't).
Signed up for free yday in the UK...
I see one brexit benefit is longer pub opening hours to "drive growth"...which seems counterintuitive. Surely actually rejoining the SM and CU will be a better fix...
Are we not calling them Brenefits yet?
Are we not calling them Brenefits yet?
I think the correct term is Penalties.
I see one brexit benefit is longer pub opening hours to "drive growth"...which seems counterintuitive. Surely actually rejoining the SM and CU will be a better fix...
Never you mind about all that, here, have some alcohol....
Just my annual check on the list of what benefits it brought.
Still nowt.
Indeed, one of my lads just enquired about working in France for the summer. He's planning a summer in Canada now. I am still slow hand clapping brexshit.
I think this is why I get so angry when some idiot says ‘you lost, stop moaning and get over it’
i can’t ‘get over it’ because every single time I hear about somebody’s kid being denied the opportunities I had or someone’s business being impacted unnecessarily or yet another barrier to travel then I’m reminded yet again day after day of how incredibly stupid it was to get ourselves in this situation.
My favourite everlasting benefit is that if my Dutch wife and I move abroad for longer than 5 years she loses her right to remain and despite living here since 1998 and paying more tax than most people earn would then be treated as a fresh immigrant if she wanted to move back.
You're in the happy position of having a Dutch wife, Winston, which means it's much easier to get a visa for EU countries. In France it's just a formality:
https://www.welcometofrance.com/fiche/famille-de-citoyens-de-lue-de-leee-et-suisse
Madame gets to pick up her British passport from DHL on Wednesday. That puts an end to six months of not being able to travel to the UK without going through Ireland despite being British. The dual national thing meant she couldn't get a travel visa without lying about her dual nationality and it's taken that long to get all the paperwork sorted to prove her britishness and get a passport.
I think the correct term is Penalties.
Brownsides?
Brownsides?
Nah, Brexit gives shit a bad name. Even manure has its positive uses. Brexit has none.
I see one brexit benefit is longer pub opening hours to "drive growth"...which seems counterintuitive. Surely actually rejoining the SM and CU will be a better fix...
There was an academic on the radio Friday afternoon explaining that the likely outcome of easier licencing would be a wider range of shops can sell alcohol for consumption at home and with the price of booze in pubs people are less inclined to go out drinking.
It's already a fairly trivial matter for a pub to extend their hours but of course if they already don't get enough customers, there's little point in doing so.
With all this extra stuff at the airports ,I seem to remember starmer making it so we could use the EU queues. What happened to that?
It's already a fairly trivial matter for a pub to extend their hours but of course if they already don't get enough customers, there's little point in doing so.
Yeah, I don’t get it. Longer hours could mean more staff costs, more energy costs… without necessarily increasing total trade, no? Many people will just shift when they go out.
Anyway, nothing to do with Brexit, is it?
With all this extra stuff at the airports ,I seem to remember starmer making it so we could use the EU queues. What happened to that?
Using e-gates? UK managed to get legal bars removed by EU, but it’s down to the members states to implement changes… and they might not be in a rush. Bedding in the other non-optional changes for non-EU travellers (including us) a higher priority. I imagine Spain, Malta etc will have it in place for next year’s holiday season.
EES photos and fingerprints kicks off tomorrow. I’m driving to Brexit Island on Wednesday, back Sunday. Let’s see how that goes.
if only there was a way to have free movement as one of several countries who could make that happen for longer than 90 days at a time…
I have massively enjoyed some brexit freedoms this year. Freedom to stand in a 40 min queue at Schiphol on a Friday evening while the red passport holders had to endure the indignity going straight through. Freedom to pay EE £2.69 a day for roaming. Such a beautiful thing.
I'm sure all the Brexity residents of Port Talbot and Scun-thorpe (sorry Mods about the swear filter avoidance) will be delighted with the Brexit benefit if those nasty smelly noisy polluting steel works get shut. 😐
Gonna be interesting to see how that changes sheet steel prices that my brexity employers use a fair amount of, guess it might go either way?
I heard talk about steel in transit to America being dumped to other countries, as no point in taking it there.
EES photos and fingerprints kicks off tomorrow. I’m driving to Brexit Island on Wednesday, back Sunday. Let’s see how that goes.
if only there was a way to have free movement as one of several countries who could make that happen for longer than 90 days at a time…
That’s the giggle with how one sided and lazy the U.K. was on negotiating.
EU citizens can holiday in the UK forup to six months per visit without a visa, provided they have a valid travel document. This six-month limit applies to individual visits, but frequent or successive visits that amount to living in the UK are not permitted
No 90 in 180 nonsense in the U.K.
TBH the freedom of movement isn’t exactly what people think it was.
It's already a fairly relatively trivial matter for a pub EU member country to extend their hours take control of their borders and enact, should they wish, pretty draconian entry requirements
Or at least, compared to Brexit, it certainly is. Denmark seem to have managed whilst still being in the EU and, as far as I know, they haven't had to throw away 4% of their GDP to do so.
It's almost as though Brexit was a terrible idea pushed by populists for their own advancement.
🤔
Hi All, We are over 1,500 posts and almost at page 20 but I am struggling to find the benefits in the posts so far and am too lazy to read the detail*
If you have posted a REAL benefit then please can you report it with something like **REAL BREXIT BENEFIT** as a header.
This may seem like a long and tedious task for the people involved, but I can't see anyone actually being affected as there don't appear to be any REAL benefits listed so far.
Thanks All
*Bit like those who voided for Brexit it seems
TBH the only benefit I was aware of was the tampon tax but the deeper you dig the more you find it wasn’t.
Sir Bernard Jenkin has implied in a Tweet that abolishing the tampon tax was a benefit of leaving the EU.
The reality. In 2016 the UK won a promise from the EU to be able to scrap the current 5 percent VAT on sanitary products, with the government believing the new system would be in place by April 2017.
After the referendum, the timetable slipped. There is “no sign that the current Tory government has pushed the issue in Brexit talks”, Labour MP Paula Sherriff said in 2018.
But the European Commission still published proposals covering the abolition of the tampon tax in 2018. Although the earliest date for implementation is January 2022, that’s just one year after the transition period ended.
So we could have abolished the tampon tax ourselves at least three years ago, or we could have waited another year and the EU would have abolished it across all remaining member states.
it’s a bit like the biggest myth pushed about the rollout of covid vaccine
TBH the freedom of movement isn’t exactly what people think it was.
Do go on - I am not sure I understand what part of freedom of movement you are referring to, or if positive or negative..
it’s not a free for all 🙂
You can’t just rock up and stay somewhere, after 3 months you have to register and if you were in Spain for more than 183 days you would become a tax resident.
They would also want to see health insurance and proof of able to support yourself.
(The amounts of proof are lower for EU residents thou)
I reality though with valid E101 and E111 in your pocket Europe was a Brit's oyster pre Brexit. My sister is the typical Brexit victim, before Brexit no-one ever questioned her right to have her camper van parked up in a place even for long periods. Today she's stuck in the UK waiting for the next 90 days.
When we wanted to start a business in France years back we just rented premises and got on with the paperwork. By the time the three months were up we had cartes de séjour, secu, kbis, bank accounts and could stay indefinitely. Ten years on obtaining nationality was another formality as we'd been good citizens and were well integrated. Try doing that now with whatever £4000 in 1991 money is worth today.
Didn’t Brexit stop the illegal boat crossings and free up a million previously European held jobs overnight?
In 1995 I got a job working for Canvas Holidays in France and ended up spending almost 2 years out there working as holiday rep, area manager, warehouse manager etc. Came back once to see my family I think…felt pretty free movement to me!
Didn’t Brexit stop the illegal boat crossings and free up a million previously European held jobs overnight?
If it wasn't written on the side of a bus, it didn't happen! That's why teh Farage Ferries are still running.
I reality though with valid E101 and E111 in your pocket Europe was a Brit's oyster pre Brexit. My sister is the typical Brexit victim, before Brexit no-one ever questioned her right to have her camper van parked up in a place even for long periods. Today she's stuck in the UK waiting for the next 90 days.
When we wanted to start a business in France years back we just rented premises and got on with the paperwork. By the time the three months were up we had cartes de séjour, secu, kbis, bank accounts and could stay indefinitely. Ten years on obtaining nationality was another formality as we'd been good citizens and were well integrated. Try doing that now with whatever £4000 in 1991 money is worth today.
Exactly ‘not questioned’ as no-one was that interested as you were an a citizen of an EU member state, a lot of the people who moaned about Spain and returned to the U.K. due to Brexit did so because they’d not bothered registering on the padron as they had a fear of being a tax resident of Spain 🙂
In 1995 I got a job working for Canvas Holidays in France and ended up spending almost 2 years out there working as holiday rep, area manager, warehouse manager etc. Came back once to see my family I think…felt pretty free movement to me!
Yeah cos you were an employee and they were probably looking after the paperwork for you 🙂
(30 years ago - just to rub it in 🙂 )
TBH it’s the thing that irks me the most is that you could come on holiday to Spain and just take a bar job if you decided to not go back.
That opportunity was ripped out of the hands of todays youngsters for a handful of ****all.
(sorry to bang on about it but meh, it was never right)
News items about the ESS say that when entering the EU temporarily (eg, holiday, not with a Visa) as a UK citizen you need to prove adequate funds and where you are staying for the full duration of your stay. That's a potential problem if you're bike or kayak touring and don't know exactly where you'll be - many of the small campsites don't take advance bookings. Or if you're wild camping in legal or accepted places.
TBH, the news do get excited about everything E.U .
The border guards have a lot of things at the request which they can invoke before they decide to let you in the country, this is no different to the U.K.
Not sure how the Uk can complain as that was the principle driver for Brexit taking back control of our borders, well this is Spain exercising control of theirs, although in reality they will only be asking this of a few people who they think aren’t holiday makers and their intent is nefarious.
They actually questioned my m8 a few years ago on where he was staying as he wasn’t carrying much luggage , obviously I’d given him no details so he had to tell them he was staying with a mate who had booked a hotel which he had no details of and he didn’t have any details of where where i lived as I was picking him up from the airport 🙂 (yes they let him)
If they applied the rules I doubt anyone other than on a full board hotel stay would be able to afford entry and I’m not sure if the etias has a card reader to swipe your bank card on entry 🙂
ACCREDITATION OF FINANCIAL MEANS
At the request of the competent authorities, the traveller must present proof of having sufficient financial means for the proposed stay, or of the ability to legally obtain such means.
In 2025, the minimum amount required is of 118€ ($125 approx.) per person per day. If the length of stay is 9 days or more, the traveller must have at least 1065€ ($1125 approx.) or its equivalent in foreign currency.
Financial means may be accredited by presenting cash, traveller's cheques, a credit card accompanied by a bank account statement, an up-to-date bank book, or any other resource that accredits the amount available, such as a credit statement regarding the card or bank account. Bank letters or online bank statements will not be accepted.
For tourist or private visits, the confirmed reservation of an organized trip, or proof of accommodation, or letter of invitation from a private individual (such a letter only proves the availability of accommodation and does not exempt the traveller from the obligation to meet other requirements for entry). The proof of accommodation may indicate whether it includes all or part of the traveller's living expenses.
So next time you turn up at a border in your borrowed Bently SUV carrying 15k in mixed currency and travel tickets bought on the day, be prepared for some questions 
And possibly not be cheeky 🙂
OK, here is an absolutely 100% non-ironic Brexit Benefit.
Norway's recent election became a kind of de-facto referendum on the Wealth Tax. Norway is one of the few remaining EU/EFTA countries to still have a wealth tax. They were twelve countries with wealth taxes in 1990, now there are only three. The generally accepted consensus is that they disappeared because they are difficult to administer. I would say the trigger for the wealth tax debate in Norway gives us a more convincing argument as to the real reason wealth taxes are an endangered species now.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/07/wealth-tax-norway-election
In 2022 30 billionaires and multi-millionaires left Norway to avoid the wealth tax which brings us to the EU issue. By moving they essentially transferred the ownership of the companies from Norway to being foreign-owned. And they were able to do this because EU rules insist on the free movement of people and capital. The actual companies stayed exactly where they were. The only thing that moved was the ownership.
The right are crowing about this exodus because it 'proves' the dangers of a wealth tax. To me it shows the dangers of allowing the free movement of capital without alignment on tax policy. Since the EU's inception it has been a race to the bottom in taxation now people are scratching their heads wondering why normal people in the EU are suddenly very poor.
The arguments against wealth tax from a practicality point of view are, imo, bollocks. Determining income is not always easy, mistakes are made, and fraud happens. But we still do it.
Determining the net-worth of a person each year is not an absurd notion. There is a record of ownership for everything.
I've said it elsewhere, but it really feels like wealth tax is a battle that has been lost before it was even started. Even well known figures on the left are arguing against wealth taxes, and they are using the exact same flawed arguments as the right are using.
To me the proof is that if it weren't for the wealth tax there would have been a number of Norwegian billionaires who paid 0 kroner in tax last year. And any country that doesn't have a wealth tax will also have the majority of it's billionaires and multi-millionaires paying little to no tax.
So, Brexit benefit. We are out of the race to the bottom when it comes to wealth taxes.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/reeves-should-put-wealth-tax-on-the-budget-table
So, Brexit benefit. We are out of the race to the bottom when it comes to wealth taxes.
Yeah but from what I've seen wealthy people can reside where the f they like, so will still be able to move & avoid wealth tax if they so wish.
True Dickyboy but you can have a system like the US whereby the only way to avoid US taxes is to give up US nationality. Even if I won Euromillions (which I don't do) I wouldn't give up my either of my nationalities or where I live just to save tax. My choice of where to live already means I pay more tax than I would almost anywhere else in the world but the services that tax provides are worth every euro.
To me it shows the dangers of allowing the free movement of capital without alignment on tax policy.
There has been some alignment on tax policy, but not nearly enough. Would there be more, or less, alignment across Europe without the EU? We can only guess... but I suspect we'd all make the same guess. And where does resistance to further alignment come from? EU bodies or the nation states?
Since the EU's inception it has been a race to the bottom in taxation now people are scratching their heads wondering why normal people in the EU are suddenly very poor.
Are you suggesting that hasn't been happening as much outside the EU?
There has been some alignment on tax policy, but not nearly enough. Would there be more, or less, alignment across Europe without the EU? We can only guess... but I suspect we'd all make the same guess. And where does resistance to further alignment come from? EU bodies or the nation states?
Depends on what you mean by alignment. At the moment the EU is fairly well aligned on taxing the uber-wealthy because the rules mean that if you want to tax your wealthiest and they decide they want to take their money elsewhere (whilst leaving the businesses which provide them their wealth exactly where they are) there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. EU countries are almost universally aligned on simply allowing the uber-wealthy to pay little to no tax.
If by alignment you mean a certain minimum level of wealth tax that applied across the EU then resistance to this is largely coming from the uber-wealthy and by extension the politicians and media outlets they own.
Are you suggesting that hasn't been happening as much outside the EU?
No, but with the EU the rules don't allow any restrictions on capital flight, rather than the countries in question simply making the choice to not reduce inequality. Even in the US you can move from state to state for tax reasons, but the only way to avoid federal taxes is to leave the US (and give up your US citizenship). Any race to the bottom is going to be limited because the benefits of switching states is reduced because there is an unavoidable minimum level of taxation.
In this regard, the EU is even worse than the US in terms of being in a race to the bottom in taxation.
In Europe there is more of a cultural acceptance of taxation to reduce inequality but the rules are written in such a way to actively discourage it.
Yeah but from what I've seen wealthy people can reside where the f they like, so will still be able to move & avoid wealth tax if they so wish.
If Norway was not in the EFTA and a billionaire business owner wanted to move, Norway could simply say, 'OK, either sell your Norwegian based businesses or set up a holding company here to own it.'
Then the billionaire would only be paying wealth tax on the assets he or she owned in Norway. And in the case of the billionaires who have moved away to avoid the wealth tax that would be the majority of their wealth anyway.
As it is these Norwegian companies have to effectively become foreign owned because under EU rules you are not allowed to put any kind of restriction on EU residents right to own businesses (with a few exceptions for various industries).
Countries can put restrictions on where ownership of the industries within its borders resides. The narrative has been that billionaires can move their assets as they like. That is not true. Beneath all these assets there has to be a real life thing and that thing has to be located somewhere. And moving actual real life things across borders is never as easy as transferring ownership across borders.
What the EU has to do (and is showing no signs of doing) is figure out a way to stop billionaires avoid paying wealth tax by simply moving to a country that won't tax them. You can do that by putting ownership restrictions in place (which obviously goes against the ideals and current rules of the EU) or you can impose an EU wide wealth tax, collectible by individual countries, so the billionaires have to leave the EU entirely to avoid them. And if they do that we don't have to let them keep ownership of their EU located businesses.
Are you suggesting that outside the EU a company shifting ownership offshore is more difficult? It might be in the USA, I don't know, but when it comes to the UK and any other similar size economy, it looks easy enough. Singapore is doing very well at that game, for example... winning a race to the bottom on taxes to do so. Ireland would be a good example of an EU country playing that race to the bottom game while they could... the "EU" has been fighting against that for decades now.
Anyway, when it comes to an individual's wealth, and them trying to move their personal wealth to avoid tax... time for the UK to have an exit tax. Being out of the EU, we can apply that to people moving to all countries, but while we were inside it could only have been applied to those leaving the EU/EEA. That's a "Brexit Benefit" I suppose... but that all depends on how you see the EU... as one economy/market, or many. And it's still theoretical while we have no exit tax.
Are you suggesting that outside the EU a company shifting ownership offshore without moving the actual functions of the company is more difficult?
It would depend on which particular non-EU country we are talking about, but what we can say for sure is that shifting the location of the ownership outside the EU can't possibly be any easier than inside the EU because the EU rules are that there can be no restrictions on moving the ownership of a business or any other type of asset within the borders of the EU.
Probably the only exception would be Norway's highly controversial 'exit tax' which was brought in because so many of the uber-wealthy left. This is a tax that you have to pay on your net wealth when you move residency away from Norway. It's an option, but more of an option of last resort.
I don't know, but when it comes to the UK and any other similar size economy, it looks easy enough.
You have to ask why it is easy enough. Generally ease of ownership is either a choice on the part of the government or it's the result of treaties or some other obligation.
The world seems to have just accepted that ease of ownership transfer between countries is just how it is. This is not the case and it is always a choice of the government in some way.
So.... it's a "Brexit Benefit" that still only exists in theory, not it practice. Great.
So.... it's a "Brexit Benefit" that still only exists in theory, not it practice. Great.
Yes, all potential benefits are going to have to be enacted in some way, I would imagine.
Wealth tax and the reduced risk of capital flight could have been a good way to introduce the Digital ID, given that a large part of the so called complexity and difficulty of implementing a wealth tax can be massively reduced by using Digital IDs to record ownership.
But Starmer decided to go the other way and use it as yet another opportunity to bash immigrants.
If we are only including benefits that don't require a competent government to implement them then yes, this list is going to stay pretty empty.