Post Brexit Import/Export awareness

#lazy

E*POWAH BOSS
Oct 1, 2019
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I usually stay away from the Brexit talk as there are many differing (valid) opinions on it and personally I think that sometimes its best avoided.

But in the case of Brexit, right now, I fail to see a single thing, at least in the short term that is of a single benefit to anybody what so ever. The single market, for example, to me was a huge benefit.

Can anyone educate me in what it is that will be of benefit in 3 years, 5 years etc ? This is not a facetious question. I'm genuinely interested in finding the positives.
Good luck getting an answer other than blue passports and fish !
 

Doomanic

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absence of £bs annually to the EU for the privelege of being an EU member
I'm guessing you don't live in any of the areas of the UK that benefitted massively from EU investment. Perhaps you should have a look at the difference between the payments made in Cornwall by the EU and the scheme suggested by the government.
 

Doomanic

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Would those be the fish that Brits, even Brexity ones, don't eat. The same fish that get sold, fresh, to the EU? The EU that we've just done a trade deal with that actually made trade more difficult?
 

Doomanic

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blue passports
The blue passports that we could have had as EU members anyway? The same blue passports that are being made in Poland by a Franco-Dutch company? Taking back control, my hairy arse!
 

#lazy

E*POWAH BOSS
Oct 1, 2019
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Surrey
Would those be the fish that Brits, even Brexity ones, don't eat. The same fish that get sold, fresh, to the EU? The EU that we've just done a trade deal with that actually made trade more difficult?
.........................yes !
 

MrSimmo

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Apr 24, 2020
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The Trail.
I usually stay away from the Brexit talk as there are many differing (valid) opinions on it and personally I think that sometimes its best avoided.

But in the case of Brexit, right now, I fail to see a single thing, at least in the short term that is of a single benefit to anybody what so ever. The single market, for example, to me was a huge benefit.

Can anyone educate me in what it is that will be of benefit in 3 years, 5 years etc ? This is not a facetious question. I'm genuinely interested in finding the positives.

I honestly cannot. My father who is in his 70s and voted to leave reckons we will rebuild industry that we outsourced to China, but I fail to see how that will happen.
 

RustyMTB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 22, 2020
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The politics of this is so divisive that my instinct is to stay away from it. We're all leavers now whether you want to be or not & I have no desire to fight a war that's already been fought. If you're interested in what the future holds, at least in the short to medium term on a practical day to day level, then Peter Foster has consistently reported accurately throughout & I trust his reporting implicitly. What he reports here is not pretty & I'm offering this not as a partisan position but as an analysis of how poorly we have negotiated, which for me was an inevitability. YMMV.

 

R120

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Apr 13, 2018
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The principle problem is that no one had any time to prepare for this - the whole point of the one year Brexit transition period was to give time to implement the necessary procedures for any deal, however as Johnson and his jolly band of Brexitiers couldn't negotiate their way out of a paper bag, we ended up with an extremely compromised deal more aimed at grabbing headlines than nutting out the detail, and all at the last minute.

The premise of Brexit isn't the problem, its the execution of it, and thats primarily down to the people put in charge of it. Remember that BJ said this, shortly before turning tail and hitching himself to the Brexit bandwagon:

“If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by ‘Bwussels’, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.

Why are we still, person for person, so much less productive than the Germans? That is now a question more than a century old, and the answer is nothing to do with the EU. In or out of the EU, we must have a clear vision of how we are going to be competitive in a global economy.

It is also true that the single market is of considerable value to many UK companies and consumers, and that leaving would cause at least some business uncertainty, while embroiling the Government for several years in a fiddly process of negotiating new arrangements, so diverting energy from the real problems of this country – low skills, low social mobility, low investment etc – that have nothing to do with Europe.

This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?"


If ever there was a description of what is going on right now, its exactly what he said back then, that most of our problems are not caused by ‘Bwussels’, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure - it is exactly this that has lead to the current situation, which could so easily have been avoided by competent leadership.

So really the question now is why on earth should the task of delivering Brexit be entrusted to a man and government who believed in it as a way to achieve individual political power, when the people who voted for it did so to empower themselves, their country, and their businesses?

Despite being a remainer it is not those of us who voted to remain that I feel aggrieved for, but those that have been sold down the river by the most incompetent government and cabinet this country has seen in living memory.
 

RustyMTB

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Jul 22, 2020
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Here's a f'rinstance. We're delivering eight pallets of Capri Sun orange juice to Savers on Monday. In theory, that stock should be in store from Wednesday, Its roughly 11,000 packs, so will be a weeks worth of product nationwide.

This particular line is produced in Germany, sent to Zeebrugge, then forwarded to Thamesport on the Isle of grain, then onto my customer's premises in Grays.My company was scheduled to collect it this afternoon prior to delivery to Savers' distribution centre in Dunstable on Monday from where it would have been picked & despatched to store per their allocations systems.

Unfortunately, it got bogged down in a queue of ~ 800 odd overdue customs clearances, according to the forwarder & now we have to rebook collection to Tuesday, then rebook delivery with Savers to Wednesday. Meanwhile, my customer has taken a bill for a wasted journey & is shitting themselves that Savers, who are nothing if not a barrow boy, pile it high, sell it cheap mob will simply delist them for non compliance. And if they do, there's another bit of business off both our plates.

Whatever the long term outcome, where we are now is unsustainable for me, the logistics guy, the supplier, the retailer, you the consumer & the economy in general. Shitshow doesn't begin to describe it.
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
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Jun 12, 2019
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I honestly cannot. My father who is in his 70s and voted to leave reckons we will rebuild industry that we outsourced to China, but I fail to see how that will happen.
I think he's right ... it won't long before Boris has bashed this out and explained to us via one of his usual "no connection to reality" speeches.

It will be something like :

To make Britain Great again we have created barriers, hurdles, challenges. At first sight, some of you might think this was wrong, but it's not, let me tell you why. (swoops mop.... coughs over reporter)

Before it was too easy, you could just buy and sell things, anyone could do it, business flourished, international trade flourished - but that doesn't make Britain Great, that just makes us the same as everyone else. (Proudly puts on his embroidered baseball cap with marker pen modifications "Get Brexit Done")

Under my new system only the strong will survive ! The cunning, the rich, the dastardly, the underhand. Only those determined enough to find a way through this marvellous athletic minefield will be left. They will be the seeds for new Britain. They will show us the way. We shall rise out of mediocrity to be something special, something world beating. This, will be out Future ...
 
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R120

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I dont think it's fair to bash those defending Brexit on the forum for this, they are (I would assume) as let down and affected by this as everyone else - the fundamental flaw with Brexit in the first place, is that no one actually knew what Brexit was - People voted to leave the EU, but what leaving the EU meant to those who voted was extremely varied.

Perhaps the best example is the Fishing industry, they voted to gain back fishing rights, but what use are those if you cant sell you new found haul? I have no issue with the Fishermen for voting for something they where told and thought would improve their lot, the issue is that they signed up to boost their industry, and are now finding the opposite is true - whilst this might be a short terms problem, the reality is that a year of chronic disruption is enough to destroy many operators in an industry, who will never recover.

The upshot of all of this is that by the time these issues are sorted, many smaller operators will be permanently out of business, with a likely restructuring of many industries into the hands of the bigger operators who weather the storm, meaning less opportunity, choice and ability for those running and operating smaller businesses's
 

MrSimmo

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Apr 24, 2020
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The Trail.
We're already seeing many smaller businesses closing their doors whilst the chains are receiving massive bailouts. It's fine though as disgraced moguls such as Philip Green and Dido Harding are reaping the rewards. Wait until the tax rises come, the super-rich won't care as they already have tax-avoidance schemes in place, but the rest will further see personal wealth decline in favour of reliance on the state. Very Orweillian...


Anyway


To bring back some level of humour to this thread:

Lets just hope Brose don't go out of business! Us Levo owners are depending on our bi-weekly motor swap-outs for entertainment and exercise!
 

Doomanic

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I dont think it's fair to bash those defending Brexit on the forum for this, they are (I would assume) as let down and affected by this as everyone else
Yet the way they post here, and everywhere else, implies that is far from the case. They are unable to produce any concrete benefits of Brexit, instead calling the nay-sayers (realists? ) remoaners and claiming it's our fault for "not getting behind Brexit and making it work". The usual reply to that is "making what work???" Nobody seemed to know before that fat, lazy, lying, manipulative twatwaffle signed a deal (that's demonstrably worse than the Theresa May deal he voted down) and even now we're not sure!
We're being told we lost and we need to get over it, whilst simultaneously being blamed for it. Fuck off!
 

RustyMTB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 22, 2020
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I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's ordered a bike ex Eu since 01/01/21 & taken delivery. I realise this will be a very small number of people at best but I'm in the market for a Canyon Strive to replace a five year old Zesty & despite researching things, I'm nowhere near full clarity on the final cost.
 

cozzy

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Aug 11, 2019
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My order from bike discount arrived today after 5 days via DHL to parcelforce.
Nothing extra to pay so a good result all round. Although I will be wary and take more notice in the future till it's all running smoothly.
 

KeithR

Well-known member
Jul 1, 2020
679
611
Blyth, Northumberland
If you quote the remoaner BBC you lose all credibility...
Everything wrong with Brexiteer bullshit, right there...

Rather than continue to defend the little bit of Brexit you feel comfortable with spinning, let's just talk about one little practical point which gives the lie to all the pro-Brexit crap I've read here so far.

There are shortly going to be over 270 million new and additional customs declarations a year (that's a conservative estimate) generated as a result of leaving the SM and CU: that's approaching 740,000 a day over and above what the UK is currently (barely) resourced to deal with.

It is estimated by this Government that we need c. 50,000 new, trained customs agents to facilitate the colossal increase in bureaucracy, and possibly as many civil servants again to process the forms (hang on - wasn't Brexit supposed to get rid of red tape?); as of the latest available figures (admittedly from last month), the UK has recruited 16. Not 16,000, 16 new staff.

(No bloody wonder Gove repeatedly refuses to answer the question of how many have been recruited...)

They'll take up to a year to train.

And the IT that supports this work is shite.

Some of these new customs forms require signatures from up to five different officials, all of which have to be tracked down and find the time to actually sign the form.

And the huge additional commercial costs attached to all of this additional bureaucracy, was "conveniently" unpublicised prior to it becoming an unavoidable burden...

Bottom line? None of this car-crash is on "unprepared" traders.

The simple fact is that Brexit is the problem. Not companies, not Johnny Foreigner, this government's Brexit.

And you can't spin these facts away. Some traders are being told by this government that their only hope to avoid the worst of Brexit is to set up in Europe to avoid commercially untenable BS like:
The firm, which sold £180,000 of cheese to the EU last year, found that every £25-30 gift box of cheese it sends to consumers on the Continent now needs a veterinary-approved health certificate costing £180.
It's a shitshow no matter how hard it's spun. Sure, some of these problems might eventually go away, but only because by then we'll have no UK businesses left that trade with the EU.

This is some fun reading, and most of it is still "live":
 
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conman

Member
Jun 1, 2019
47
72
Keswick
the fundamental flaw with Brexit in the first place, is that no one actually knew what Brexit was - People voted to leave the EU, but what leaving the EU meant to those who voted was extremely varied

Exactly, there should never have been a referendum. A friend of mine said he couldn't wait to vote leave because he'd once been ripped off by a Spanish Policeman. WTF has that got to do with economics and trade policy?

You know who did understand what Brexit meant, MP's and they voted around 3 to 1 to remain, wasn't even close.
 

RustyMTB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 22, 2020
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Hmmm. Spot the difference. 3000 Euros today is about £2650, so £650 more expensive. Nice bike though.
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Hey Zim, stick it in your shed until I can swing by & pick it up? ??
 

KeithR

Well-known member
Jul 1, 2020
679
611
Blyth, Northumberland
Can anyone educate me in what it is that will be of benefit in 3 years, 5 years etc ? This is not a facetious question. I'm genuinely interested in finding the positives.
Allow me.

There will be none.

Let's unpick the much-vaunted motivations for Brexit, eh?
  • Not even the anti-immigration xenophobes will get their own way, because we'll just replace EU migrant labour with workers from elsewhere in the world;
  • At best we will only be able to replace the trade deals we had with (and via) The EU with similar (never better) deals, because it's a basic tenet of international trade that if a given country gives the UK a better deal than it gives the EU, the EU will hammer that country with tariffs and quotas until it "behaves" - that's precisely why the recent Japan trade deal is essentially just a cut-and-paste of what we had via the EU. And any US trade deal we might eventually get will - as is already crystal clear - be solely to the advantage of the US. More recently, Biden is on record as saying that Brexit is a bad idea for the UK, and that we'd be better off rejoining the EU than hoping for salvation in the form of a worthwhile US-UK trade deal. He's really not interested;
  • Of the few minor economies that we can make genuinely new deals with, their net value is negligible - worth less, in fact, than the amount of trading income we've already lost in the last year of the run-up to Brexit;
  • We could have had a blue passport without leaving the EU. Of course, now we get to queue with the rest of the world, rather than benefit from the expedited border crossings that EU passports provide;
  • We have always been able to control our borders as we see fit: nothing about EU membership ever stood in the way of us doing so (as can be seen by the fact that lots of EU countries closed their borders to us recently.);
  • "Sovereignty" was never at issue (except when the word was used in entirely the wrong way by Brexiteers): actual sovereignty is the power of a country to make the best decisions it can for that country's welfare and benefit, as it sees fit. Joining the EEC/EU was an explicit exercise in, and demonstration of, UK sovereignty. I honestly suspect that some Kwitters/Brexiteers think we were forced to sign up at gunpoint. Even the very idea of the Single Market was the UK's, FFS!;
As the writer of this excellent piece says (with my emphasis):
The UK may say that it is the “sovereign equal” of the EU, but then Malta is the sovereign equal of the US. Theoretical sovereignty buys you very little in power politics negotiations.

The UK has reclaimed the Kwitter version of "sovereignty", while at the same time giving away a huge amount of actual political power and influence. Brexiteers really need to learn what the phrases "Pyrrhic victory" and "cutting your nose off to spite your face" mean.

It's no wonder that "Remoaners" have ongoing reason to question the intelligence, comprehension abilities and honesty of Kwitters - but then again, political developments over the last few years on both sides of the Atlantic have made a virtue of dishonest/lazy/blinkered/blame-the-foreigner/head-in-the-sand pig-ignorance - "my President/Prime Minister is a thick-as-shit liar, so I can be, too..." - so I shouldn't be too surprised...
  • It is a matter of demonstrable fact that we had more control over the laws that effect us from within the EU than we'll ever have now that we're rule takers rather than rule makers. As I've pointed out previously, around 95% of "EU" laws that bound on the UK as a member, were moved by, or passed with the support of, the UK. That's about as far away from being an "EU vassal" as it's possible to get - we've voted against only 2% of EU laws since 1999, abstaining the rest of the time.
Just for shits and giggles, here's a list of every EU law "forced" upon us - (all 72 out of c. 34,000 UK laws) - against our will:
Bastards, eh? Banning carcinogens in food; protecting fish stocks; insisting on proper labelling of GM products; increasing funding so as to return more asylum seekers to their home countries (Oh, the irony - the UK voted against measures to send more asylum seekers home!); no matter how hard I look, I can't see a single law in there that has made my life worse.

Pretty much every one is something our own government should have introduced without the need for the EU to spell out that it was The Right Thing To Do...

And before anyone yammers "but... Sovereignty...!" I'll remind them that in choosing to be part of this club and follow its rules, we were exercising our sovereignty...

Have I missed anything? Obviously I'm just ignoring the facile, fatuous, transparent lie about an extra £350m a week for the NHS...

Maybe these?
:cool:
Or how about this one?
 
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Zimmerframe

MUPPET
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Jun 12, 2019
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it'll need to look a bit used
Absolutely no worries there .. but if you can get a bike rental form and mark with a biro which bits you want unblemished beforehand, that will help .. :LOL:

Don't piss off the douane .. I think they go on a 1 year course for their job and another 4 year course to have their sense of humour painfully extracted from their anus.
 

JetSetDemo

🍦Two Scoops🍦
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Apr 1, 2018
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Ashby de la Zouch
Week 4, I feel this will take months to settle down, the complexity is huge. For example an MRN from Italy can only have 99 line, so a truck with a thousand packages on it will need 10 MRN’s and each one needs a release in NCTS before you can unload it, the dreaded permission to proceed, none of this was even a thing before Brexit.

That just one of many examples of a huge increase in complexity. I would think twice before purchasing anything from the EU for a while until things settle down.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
9,008
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Lincolnshire, UK
Week 4, I feel this will take months to settle down, the complexity is huge. For example an MRN from Italy can only have 99 line, so a truck with a thousand packages on it will need 10 MRN’s and each one needs a release in NCTS before you can unload it, the dreaded permission to proceed, none of this was even a thing before Brexit.

That just one of many examples of a huge increase in complexity. I would think twice before purchasing anything from the EU for a while until things settle down.
I can remember a time before we joined the Common Market. Getting stuff across the border was not straight forward even then. To get machinery into Italy, the driver had to take several pairs of brand new Levis as gifts to border control. No gift, no entry. It didn't matter how perfectly the documents were completed. I am not saying that the current problems will go away if bribery started up again (nor am I condoning it). But the problems may be eased a lot if border control stopped trying to teach us a lesson for daring to leave the EU. The example that you give above (which is astonishing, but that I believe) is a perfect nonsense that would be solved rapidly with good will and common sense. We just need some to break some out from whatever box folk are keeping them in.

I have not seen any stories anywhere of this happening to vehicle shipments coming from the EU into the UK. I believe that this is because the UK unilaterally decided to go easy for six months. If we can do it without our country falling apart, why can't there be some reciprocity?

There are reports of Dutch customs guys confiscating the sandwiches that UK drivers were carrying for their lunch. Apparently it is illegal to import certain foodstuffs into the EU. (Not an import, just lunch!) They weren't saying it was illegal when the UK were air dropping thousands of tons of food supplies into Holland after WW2 to stop the population from starving. Give some people a uniform and a clipboard and they go power mad!
 

RustyMTB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 22, 2020
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Lucky we were instrumental in designing the single market & customs union in the early 90's then, to put a stop to all that nonsense, eh Steve?
 

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