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Open Britain - Hard Brexit

(829 Posts)
Cindersdad Mon 13-Mar-17 16:38:14

The realities of what a hard Brexit could mean are beginning to collide with the breezy rhetoric of Leave campaigners. Already – before negotiations have even begun – totemic promises are being broken.

We were told there would be £350 million more a week for the NHS, but Leave campaigners are desperate to run away from this promise, and borrowing estimates have risen by £58bn thanks to Brexit.
We were told economic warnings were “scaremongering”, but prices have risen as the pound has fallen and car companies are speculating about shifting investment abroad.

We were told the EU would bend over backwards to give us the deal we want, but Ministers are now talking up the prospect of leaving with no deal at all.
And we were told our Union would be stronger, but today we see the SNP once again fostering grievance to threaten the break up of the UK.

We can’t let those who led the country down this road escape from the broken promises they made. Please share our graphic on Twitter and Facebook to hold them to account.

Thank you,

Pat McFadden MP
Leading Supporter,
Open Britain

The above was pasted from an Email received a hour or so ago - you can Google "Open Britain" if you feel strongly enough. I genuinely believe that Brexit could well unravel over the coming months as the truth strikes home. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

rosesarered Tue 14-Mar-17 17:29:18

The great repeal bill may make some changes, others it will keep as they are, according to some MP on radio 4.
Bananas as a hobby........really? grin

rosesarered Tue 14-Mar-17 17:30:04

I like mine chopped with brown sugar on and a little double cream....mmmmmm.

GillT57 Tue 14-Mar-17 17:32:09

I don't blame leavers, I blame the politicians who lied. And I now blame those who won't tell us how we are going to get out of this god awful mess. There are two options (1) they know what will happen and are not telling the electorate or (2_ they haven't got a f****g clue. Neither fill me with hope for the future. I look forward, not back, and I don't think that the EU is perfect, by any standards, the moving from one city to another every 2 months is a ridiculous and expensive exercise for just one example. But, the world is a different place from when we voted to join the EU 40 odd years ago, a scary place in many ways, and this is not the time to cut loose and offend our nearest neighbours, however irritating they may be at times.

rosesarered Tue 14-Mar-17 17:32:11

An excellent rant btw Lyndie keep it coming.smile it counters some of the other negative stuff.

Badenkate Tue 14-Mar-17 17:34:44

Banana sandwiches are my favourite - with real English bread and English butter of course. Sorry, can't be ar**d to go back and look who said that. (Actually to be fair, there's nothing better - or better than British cheese).

suzied Tue 14-Mar-17 17:41:58

I like a French baguette , Brie and Italian grapes with my glass of prosecco oops no, I will have to have bread and dripping with brown ale yum that will make me truly patriotic. Strange that those who want to break free of EU regulations haven't a clue what they are apart from employment and equality rights, health and safely, environmental protection, cleaner beaches, animal welfare legislation all those inconvenient things which are sooo annoying.

rosesarered Tue 14-Mar-17 17:43:01

...and nothing better than British bananas ( daphnedil grows them.)

Badenkate Tue 14-Mar-17 17:43:24

I think it was an excellent post Lyndie as well, because it says more clearly than most others that I've read, why so many people voted leave. I'm sorry that you are finding it so hard to get a job, and feel that politicians of all sorts don't care. The world is hard for many people and it's difficult to see it getting any better. Of course it's natural to look for a way to change it.
My problem, and I think the problem for many of us on here who voted remain, isn't that we don't understand how you feel, it's that we just cannot believe that leaving the EU is going to make things any better and may well make them worse.
Voting to change a government is one thing, and if it all goes wrong - well it can be sorted out in 5 years. This change is permanent, there's no going back if it doesn't work out how you want it to - and this is a huge gamble to take.

Nanna191729 Tue 14-Mar-17 17:51:51

To anyone who argues that we were fine before we joined the EU in the first place, please remember that the world was a very different place then and there was nothing like the scale of global trade that we have now - there was no BRIC for a start. Global trade calls for global trading agreements and the huge developing economies like China, Brazil and India are going to want excellent economic deals with large trading blocs where huge amounts of goods and services can be bought and sold - not piddling little deals with an isolated, non-manufacturing base like the UK - if the UK as we know it even exists in the future. Yes there is much wrong about the EU but we don't have a hope in hell of making it any better from the outside looking in. We should have stayed in where we had real bargaining power. In time we could have swung a satisfactory deal both in terms of trade, free movement, governance and security. Unfortunately the lily livered DC made a half hearted and half cocked attempt at changing things then lay down and died to appease a handful of Euro-sceptic backbenchers and to supposedly keep a manifesto promise. Well the good old Tories are not so good at the latter now are they!

Deedaa Tue 14-Mar-17 18:13:53

Apparently the EU has just voted to look into the horrific way that rabbits are farmed across Europe and bring in legislation for more humane standards. Well we wouldn't want to be involved in all this stuff would we!

I am constantly amazed by the number of "men in the street" I see on TV saying that they didn't realise it would be so complicated and expensive to unpick our membership. What on earth did they think it would be like? I'm convinced that the most we can hope for is not being too much worse off at the end of it.

bootie41 Tue 14-Mar-17 18:22:12

No thanks for me as well,
don't want to be ruled by eu

Ginny42 Tue 14-Mar-17 18:24:27

Lyndie, not sure what you mean when you say, 'We can't even feed ourselves because of restrictions and rationing.'

What is the source of your assertion?

GillT57 Tue 14-Mar-17 18:26:00

As my eloquent grandfather would have said, it is a real buggersmuddle. A wonderful word from a man who did not suffer fools gladly.

Ana Tue 14-Mar-17 18:29:21

Do you really think it would be beyond the wit of UK politicians to 'look into' the way rabbits are farmed, if it affected this country Deeda...?

We will still be allowed to make our own laws, you know! grin

M0nica Tue 14-Mar-17 18:41:20

We cannot feed ourselves. Full stop. I seem to remember that this applied during the last war as well, so there is nothing new about it and it certainly nothing to do with the EU.

Many of the EU regulations on all kinds of subjects from food standards to financial and HSE, would have been legislated on by the British Government anyway so many of those who thought we will go back where we were in the past are going to be deeply disappointed. Most of the regulations incorporated into the directives will be incorporated into British law

We were/are members of the EU and decisions were/are reached jointly, we played our part in reaching agreements with all the other countries and were not the only country to object strongly to this law or that, as for homogeneity - has anyone visited another EU country recently? Did you find it was just like the UK? I doubt it. Every country has kept its own character and personality.

We have lived between Britain and France for 25 years. There have been many changes in both countries but most have been driven by events unrelated to the EU, smoking bans in France, fewer restaurants and many more ready meals in French supermarkets. The only change in France I can think of that was the result of the EU was the introduction of much higher hygiene standards for selling fresh food, which are obeyed and I for one believe that this was only a good thing.

M0nica Tue 14-Mar-17 18:50:37

All this bendy bananas (and straight cucumbers) nonsense was never ever incorporated into any EU directive. Before EU rules are made, all sorts of drafts are prepared by different countries and the EU itself, which are then discussed by the member countries before a final draft is approved and enacted. In the proof stage all kinds of daft ideas are circulated before being rejected.

The problem is that the DM cannot tell the difference between a consultative document and a final directive.

Ana Tue 14-Mar-17 18:58:44

M0nica, I'm pretty sure all of us on here are well aware that the 'bendy bananas directive' was never meant to be taken seriously...grin

GillT57 Tue 14-Mar-17 19:06:21

The bendy bananas myth was started by Boris Johnson in an article he wrote in The Spectator, presumably tongue in cheek, although who knows? The health and safety laws, which many people seem to have a sneering attitude to (why? confused), are there to protect people going about their daily lives and are agreed between all members of the EU. Apart from the pack of lies mythical ones made up by the likes of the Daily Mail of course.

Lyndie Tue 14-Mar-17 19:06:55

Because production is shared. Eg farming and fisheries etc. Plus there is enforced competition with Europe with utilities which I think should be in house. Even car manufacturing is shared out. So it's all unreal. If all the countries in Europe had similar economies it would work but now there are so many, it doesn't. We pay in a little less than Germany. So it's a tariff. Which we pay for with money we don't have.

Marianne1953 Tue 14-Mar-17 19:12:58

I was a remainer after doing a lot of homework on the pros & cons of leaving the EU.
I accept the result as we are a democracy.
The promised £350 billion, was meant, as possibly could be put towards the NHS & it was saying that we would have our own choices on where to spend the money, however, my view would be that this money would be spent on London and the south east as always. We all know that HS2 will mainly benefit Londoners, never mind all the other transport they have.
Unfortunately, we also haven't got the caliber in our politicians to get a good deal as they have always had the EU to do everything for them.

suzied Tue 14-Mar-17 19:44:34

I have read that over 50% food in U.K. Is imported, most of it from the EU. Even the stuff we produce , most of it is picked/ packed/ slaughtered by EU nationals. Doesn't bode well.

Lyndie Tue 14-Mar-17 19:47:51

I live in the SW. Locals do everything. Even pack ham in factories.

Ana Tue 14-Mar-17 19:49:49

Hardly likely we're all going to starve to death because of Brexit, suzied...hmm

daphnedill Tue 14-Mar-17 19:56:41

You're probably right Marianne. The EU guaranteed funding to deprived areas such as Cornwall. I feel sorry for those in Cornwall and other deprived areas who voted Remain, but have absolutely no sympathy for those who voted Leave and have now discovered that Westminster is unlikely to replace the funding.

daphnedill Tue 14-Mar-17 20:00:15

But suzied is right. Approximately 50% of food consumed in the UK comes from the EU, including Ireland. Most of the people working in picking and processing in East Anglia are EU nationals.

No, we won't starve Ana. We'll just pay more for our food, which means inflation and less money to spend on other items.