Brexit benefits – lets start a list

I’m really torn now.

Brexit is now clearly shown to be utterly sh*t for the UK. There’s enough years and evidence of this.

Brexit is done. There’s no return from here, certainly not a Brejoin which didn’t cost even more.

Ed, the BCC isn’t the BBC. Have another read of the article.

Matt, long slow boring expensive hard graft. Companies are doing it. The government need to get on with it.

I fail to see why rejoining wouldn’t very quickly pay for itself and then pay much more, matt.

Edit:

Ed, the BCC isn’t the BBC.

Ta, Kelvin. I did reread in part but not far enough back or with enough attention.

Don’t know if it has been mentioned but the best Brexit benefit seems to be the current demise of the tory party, seems the tory bad boys got their way with Brexit to placate them and then they still decided to cause havoc from the back benches resulting in the shambles they are in now (not worth Brexit but every cloud and all that).

Dyson continue to reduce their footprint in Britain (after James Dyson called for Brexit in the name of British manufacturing)…

FT : Dyson to cut a quarter of UK workforce

Dyson recently bought a €30m + estate in Ireland, obviously backing Britain post-brexit

And an update on a previously identified  benefit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/09/uk-officials-fear-october-port-chaos-unless-eu-again-delays-biometric-plan

Another great Brexit benefit.

British pensioners to keep winter fuel allowance – if they live in EU

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/british-pensioners-to-keep-winter-fuel-allowance-if-they-live-in-eu/ar-AA1pwX2O

Expats living in the European Union plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are guaranteed the allowance by the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Ah well the UKCA mark takes another  hit.

We have listened to the findings from the Independent Review of the Construction Products Testing Regime. This was clear that there is currently insufficient testing and certification capacity in the UK alone to provide the volume of conformity assessment that would be required were CE recognition to end.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-09-02/hcws62

I sometimes wonder what the few Brexiteers who were on the forum now think of the current sh!t show? Given how deluded some of them were I imagine that they think it’s going just swimmingly…..

Two of my friends that voted leave recanted withing weeks

My cousin and aunt still think brexit is great.  They also think Johnson should not have been deposed, that Rees Mogg is a great statesman.

Well you can’t argue with stupid, but it seems we have at least to engage with them.

It’s been good to see Starmer’s recent trips to Europe to maybe start ? who knows what. But I’ll take a positive from that action.

Without having to read the previous 24 pages, is there a list of plus points to Brexit?

Yes.

Mostly, it involves the EU27 getting shut of a whiny damp little archipelago with delusions of adequacy.

For us though, not so much.

Without having to read the previous 24 pages, is there a list of plus points to Brexit?

I’ve dipped in and out of this thread without contribution before, but from what I’ve picked up so far – nope. Nobody’s found anything of substance. A grand total of **** All, in essence.

It’s been good to see Starmer’s recent trips to Europe to maybe start ? who knows what. But I’ll take a positive from that action.

A tiny positive. The EU has rules against other countries sneaking around trying to do side-deals with its members.

Starmer still poops his pants when anyone suggests he could lose support in more Brexity constituencies and sections of society.

In spite of all the evidence we’re still in the territory of trying to save ‘face’ on behalf of people who voted for stupidity. Meh.

I imagine that they think it’s going just swimmingly…..

Largely no, but the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of remainers, and those not fully committed to the cul… sorry, cause.

Apparently.

I sometimes wonder what the few Brexiteers who were on the forum now think of the current sh!t show? Given how deluded some of them were I imagine that they think it’s going just swimmingly…..

Doesn’t matter what they think as who pays any attention to **** dickheads anymore,

It’s been good to see Starmer’s recent trips to Europe to maybe start ? who knows what. But I’ll take a positive from that action.

Warm words and gaslighting.  You may notice every time he has done this someone from the other country points out that side deals are illegal and that the withdrawal agreement will not be renegotiated.

Yes its good to show some goodwill and to create a warmer atmosphere.  What this will not do is make any material difference at all

Not every aspect of Franco-British relations is covered in the withdrawal agreement. I hope they discussed Ukraine, Europe’s eastern border, cooperation on security, cyber security and anything else that can make a material diference.

I was thinking of the huge economic losses from brexit to the UK.  Yes there might be a bit of room on those things and certainly warm words are welcome.  But frictionless trade would be a huge boon to the UK
We still have not implemented the checks on incoming goods we should have done a long time ago – we are in breach of the withdrawal agreement in several areas

Well, pretending that condemning Russia and helping Ukraine is a thawing of Brexit-driven tensions and not simply one thing all of us can agree on…

It’s like saying the UK and EU are aligned on the desirability of the sun rising tomorrow. Wow!

Germany, RoI, whoever…

They have nothing to lose by saying “great” in response to any overtures from the UK. But it’s actually “great, but… see all these other partners I already have one overarching agreement with…?”

Elephant. Room.

So the clear consensus is Brexit is sh1te. We all know that.

So the challenge is how to address this…..and pushing for growth is important (but not like Liz Truss thought). Suspect the UK has structural and cultural issues that are holding us back and we are under-performing vs our nation peers. This analysis is interesting, and clearly not just brexit….

But probably the quickest easiest way to push for growth is to rejoin the EU, and no d1cking around w side deals, just do it……pretending we can create the necessary economic change without rejoining is whistling

https://x.com/sam_bidwell/status/1832062722412015803

Tho just realising that this is from the Adam Smith Institute – does that devalue? tho they are not posting any solution.

Hi – I know I started this thread but I kind of lost interest after the first couple fo hundred replies failed to find and actual benefits.

Have I missed any since?

No, I don’t think so WCA. However, don’t forget, like all these things that we little people think are shit and are inconvenienced by, someone will have made a lot of money out of it.

There are no benefits to the ordinary 99% of us who don’t have enough cash to make lucrative one-way bets against our own economy – or to benefit from weakening legislation.

We should join ASAP. No referendum, no vote, unilaterally. Get it over and done with and move on.

But, due to the face-saving I mentioned above, politically – no one with any clout has the balls to do it.

So we’re left in a position like the bunch of mates who’ve known each other since childhood. They still go out occasionally but it is getting less and less because a couple of them get pissed and act like idiots despite being in their 50s. No one actually tells the pissheads because, well they’re mates plus no one wants to rock the boat…

Tho just realising that this is from the Adam Smith Institute – does that devalue? tho they are not posting any solution.

The chart misses out both the effects of the financial crash and COVID-19 with the predicted curve, so a bit worthless to be honest.

Hi – I know I started this thread but I kind of lost interest after the first couple fo hundred replies failed to find and actual benefits.

Have I missed any since?

No.

In spite of all the evidence we’re still in the territory of trying to save ‘face’ on behalf of people who voted for stupidity.

Unfortunately, ‘face’ is the life-blood of a democratic government. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Any government that loses face loses power.

Any government that loses face loses power.

I would argue that the government loses face by having to pander to stupidity.

But, meh. We are where we are. Unless a government calls Brexit out for what it was/is, we’re stuck with it.

I agree that we don’t want to lose years of parliamentary time on this whilst there’s loads of other structural things to fix.

But that’s why I would just unilaterally announce that we are joining the EU, say that it is primarily an administrative problem now, let the civil servants deal with the nuts and bolts and only defer to the government for key yes/no questions.

<shrugs>

So to save face the government condemns the UK to further economic woes and decline?

I agree that we don’t want to lose years of parliamentary time on this whilst there’s loads of other structural things to fix.

Until we rejoin then the fixes are beyond us

So to save face the government condemns the UK to further economic woes and decline?

Yes. Starmer hasn’t got the minerals for this, I’m afraid.

Until we rejoin then the fixes are beyond us

Not all of them. And there’s plenty where a fix outside of the EU is still a step in the right direction.

This is precisely why I’d just start the joining process now, unilaterally, and outsource most of the work to the civil service.

<shrugs>

I would argue that the government loses face by having to pander to stupidity.

It’ll gain more votes from those who are stupid than it will lose from those who aren’t. Because there are vastly more stupid people than intelligent ones.

Until we rejoin then the fixes are beyond us

No, they’re not. Sure, there are many advantages to being in, but we can still fix things whilst we are out. The political climate and lack of political education in the UK is a MUCH bigger problem than being out of the EU.

Plus, rejoining is just not happening any time soon, so you need to get used to it. The fallout from the vote cost us years of frozen government which arguably led to the deadlock we are in now. Not being out – but the political crisis that it caused. Rejoining would cause another one, wether you like that idea or not.

“It’s a simple fact” as you would say, TJ.

Posted this link upthread, but I was looking at the whole twitter thread, not just the first tweet (but didn’t make that clear), looking at comparison to similar economies, showing how far the UK has slipped in performance, and we have all slipped in standard of living etc.

And the point being if we want to raise living standards, and tax revenue to fix the broken country we are all living in, the only way has to be to rejoin

https://x.com/sam_bidwell/status/1832062722412015803

Molgrips

Rejoin could be done in a year with political will

Where are we going to get the trade from to replace what is lost due to brexit?
How do we get the lost growth back?

Open your eyes man and stop letting yourself be gaslit

Open your eyes man and stop letting yourself be gaslit

That’s a bit unnecessarily confrontational.

I agree with you except the notion that nothing can be improved without (re)join. Some bits can. Nowhere near as much as could be sorted by a simple (re)join, but some.

But let’s face it – Brexit was a mortal shock to anyone who assumed the UK electorate was intelligent, logical, open-minded etc. Decent politicians have been reeling ever since.

Rejoin could be done in a year with political will

The amount of time it would take to rejoin seems to be increasing exponentially according to many on here.

By this time next year I fully expect the STW consensus to be that it will not be possible to rejoin the EU this century.

In two years it will not be possible to rejoin before the end of the millennia.

I can’t remember if this has been covered before in this thread

?FIFTY BREXIT BENEFITS – MEGATHREAD?

I have collated 50 tangible Brexit benefits, fully evidenced and demonstrably true.

Some may not like that they exist – but that doesn't change the fact that they do.

?Scroll down to see them in this megathread ?#BrexitBenefits2024 pic.twitter.com/GjmoLSz9EN

— Gully Foyle #UKTrade (@TerraOrBust) May 21, 2024

He says that they are ‘fully evidenced and demonstrably true’ which is probably correct in that these things have happened and he has provided references. Many of them are debatably ‘benefits’ – the ability to create more plastic pollution without penalty for instance would not be considered beneficial by a majority of the UK public, I think. He also appears to be saying that the removal of trade barriers is a benefit when those barriers only appeared because we lost the protection of the EU agreements. There is also no attempt to weigh the value of the ‘benefits’ against the cost of the disbenefits. So on first glance it doesn’t look very persuasive.

[edit] I see a previous list by the same author was discussed on page 20 [/edit]

That’s a bit unnecessarily confrontational.

apologies.  I get so frustrated with this when folk repeat the gaslighting from labour as if its fact when its obvious nonsense

Nowhere near as much as could be sorted by a simple (re)join, but some.

I guess so but its like trying to climb a tree with one hand behind your back and your shoelaces tied together

I am also guessing some of you have not seen the devastation brexit has caused

Well I just learnt from that list that apparently adding VAT to private school fees would not have been possible under EU law. Interesting if true.

Rejoin could be done in a year with political will

Even if you could rustle up a majority in a referendum to go back in, which I doubt you could. There’s still a democratic deficit in asking folks to vote again on something that is already ‘settled’ and so recently. The EU themselves would be rightly wary unless both political parties are fully behind it (they’re not) and an overwhelming majority of the public are clamouring for it. (again; they’re not)