A twitter thread by Financial Times journalist, Peter Foster.
Some people may find it very sad.
We write a lot about the impact of Brexit on business (rightly) but what about the impact on individuals - and it’s not just about the money! As me and @DanielThomasLDN report her for @FinancialTimes Stay with me... /1
Brexit is about building back barriers - economic but also social and cultural with Europe - and these barriers are built back by increment. Just as gravity impacts trade, so it impacts our social and cultural interactions. The bureaucracy created by Brexit does that...EG... /2
Adrian Bagley, a semi-retired architect who buys and sells model trains from collectors in the EU on the Catawiki auction website...he's been doing it for years. It gives him great pleasure interacting with buyers n sellers from Romania or Austria /3
It's a hobby. It's not life and death, and Mr Bagley excepts ultimately his travails are trivial - but new rules on VAT and the 'handling charges' that parcel companies charge have permanently disadvantaged him with EU contacts /4
I feel like a semi-invisible barrier has come down between me and all those countries I had previously been on the same footing with, when we were all following the same rules. Now I feel I’ve been cut off by duties and so-called ‘handling charges’,” he says. /5
The barriers work both ways. An Italian collector who bought a train from Mr Bagley is cross that he suddenly has to pay VAT and charges on receipt - and Mr Bagley pays 25% effective surcharge on what he buys. (£53.56 in 20% VAT+ £12.50 handling fees on a €250.49 train) /6
This means that EU collectors low-ball his sales (coz they know charges are coming) and he can't compete on a level playing field for with EU bidders for an EU product, since they don't have VAT+ handling. Cry me a river, you say. Well, I do. /7
Similarly with José Martín Quesada who was sent some home baked pastries by his mother in Spain after Christmas which arrived rotten after weeks waiting for health certs etc. “My mother sent the most innocent parcel of home-cooked food and it was declared a biohazard.” /8
Cry me another river. Is Mr Quesada going to starve no? Was his Christmas ruined? Probably not. But his mother's attempt to show him some seasonal consideration was made impossible. Multiply these stories out by the thousands, tens of thousands, and it's a sorry tale I think/9
I've wrote about au pairs being blocked for no really good reason (to much mockery) but that's 50k cultural interactions a year - young Europeans meeting brits, learn English, young English kids meeting EU citizens, hearing languages...realising the world is round, not flat. /10
I've written about the outbound travel industry - young brits going to work in campsites and skiing chalets, running canoeing holidays or guiding musical tours...all that is now made measurably more difficult. Gravity will take it's toll./11
This week's Lords EU committee report on #Brexit and Services tells the story... here @SBIT_UK explains.
As I type UK companies are not signing chalet contracts that would create jobs for UK hires this summer./12
Sorry, image missing.
Again. Not the end of the world, things might get a bit pricier etc. But all just part of the incremental losses caused by building barriers that have material impact - if you have an Irish passport, say, you'll find it easier to get hired. Just a fact. /13
It's no good saying "we're out of the EU, not out of Europe" because a lot of European - the wiring under the plasterwork - is driving by EU rules and regulation. Over time, people will bother less, in both directions. /14
Similarly with the decision to drop Erasmus+. The Lords report worth reading on this, but the Turing scheme is nothing like a replacement and - again - ignores the reality that the EU is a our neighbour. It's another rock in the road. /15
Sorry, image missing
twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1375381463252795395
so thats ok then.
