Today is the 8th anniversary of the vote to leave the EU

Was it only 8 years!
It seems longer.
I blamed Cameron for calling the referendum. Then he scooted off. I don't think he believed the result.

Just back from Denmark (in EU) where the roads are in excellent condition and everywhere looks prosperous.

Where are all the anti- migrant fanatics now?

No it's all very depressing.

yggdrasil

a) it wasn't a vote, it was a referendum
b) There should have been a level of agreement both on the number of people participating, and the majority yes or no. This is what is usual with referenda.
c) the difference between yes and no was minimal, no clear majority shown. And there were consideralby fewer than 50% of the electorate involved
To make it clear, it was a false result, and should have been rerun without the lies on the bus, and we would be a lot better off with a valid result, whichever way it went

I agree with most of your suggestions about how the referendum should have been run, but no it wasn’t a false result.It was on a counted vote of those who bothered to vote and the result for leaving was over a million more than remaining.

Oreo

MayBee70

I’m afraid that when people give first hand accounts of the hardship and heartache that Brexit has caused them it falls on deaf ears to those who don’t seem to have been affected by it

I’m not a moneybags by any means, haven’t had a holiday in years, have a tiring job and do some childcare as well.I have a tiny terraced house.I have to be honest on this thread which is why I say that Brexit, tho I didn’t vote for it, hasn’t affected me and I suspect many others.
I have no holiday home in France or anywhere else to be able to complain about any tariffs.

Oreo, I wasn’t aiming that comment at you. It was more a general observation of what has happened over the past 8 years.

Grammeretto the population of Denmark can’t be compared to that of the UK, it’s tiny there, also they pay much more in taxes, so no surprise about their good roads.

Thanks Maybee70 😃

We have thrown away our nearest, free trading partners and are still desperately looking for others further afield. Once upon a time we liked our neighbours in Europe but now we have become xenophobic and bitter.
When I was in the extra long queue for passport control on Friday, someone in the fast lane turned to me and joked about the stupid English. I ofcourse replied that we in Scotland voted remain but it didn't change a thing.

Grammeretto the condition of the roads in Denmark, or anywhere else for that matter, has got nothing to do with Brexit, and everything to do with how much money the Danish government has been prepared to spend on their roads. Our roads are in a disgraceful condition and I hope the next government will put some money into getting our roads back into better condition, but I’m not holding my breath.

The uk is the least prosperous of the larger economies in Europe.

You can tell that the minute you step off the boat, from the state of our roads, to the generally infrastructure, to the state if our schools to the general look of our high streets and parks.

LAs no longer have the resource to keep our community facilities at a level that you can see in Europe.

Like Oreo, although I consider us to be comfortable, we have never been in the position of being able to afford a holiday home in Europe (or the UK) so I’m really not concerned if people who do have a house abroad, or live abroad, have been affected by extra expenses caused by Brexit. The reason I voted to remain had nothing to do with my personal circumstances, which remain unchanged by Brexit, but because I believed it would be better economically for our country. Not a selfish reason, but a reason for the whole of our country.

Young people were affected badly by Brexit. They no longer have all the advantages that we had of easy access, the possibility of working in Europe for as long as they wish, education in foreign universities, buying affordable homes etc
We have let them down in so many ways..

Yes my young second cousin was able to spend a year in Sweden at one of their universities, she benefited enormously from the sort of freedoms the EU offered.

My grandsons have been stripped of that opportunity. One in particular would have loved the opportunities that would have brought him.

The European young have a definite advantage over our young people when it comes to jobs.

Germanshepherdsmum

Hasn’t affected me either keepingquiet. As Oreo has said, there are other reasons for the increased cost of living. I voted to remain, but frankly when we were able to have the covid vaccine ahead of the EU I was glad we had left. And I wouldn’t now wish to rejoin.

That’s refreshing to hear. I would have been the same had the referendum gone the other way. I would have accepted it and moved on. germanshepherdsmum

I don’t think it's healthy for people to hang on to all this bitterness for years and admit to crying for days just because the votes didn’t go their way.

I had an old schoolfriend who moved to Spain. In the run up to the referendum she was posting on social media several times a day. Awful scaremongering rubbish and ridiculing and belittling anybody who planned to vote Leave.

When the result was announced she nearly lost her mind. She was posting so much really nasty stuff about people voting Leave that other old schoolfriends questioned her sanity. I cannot imagine holding on to all that hatred just because the result wasn’t what you wished for.😱

Romola

A teacher of French and German and the wife of an original equipment manufacturer whose main markets were in the EU, I campaigned night and day for weeks and months to remain. And I cried for two days solid when the leave result was announced. To us, Europe was not "abroad" any more, we were part of perhaps the only benign bloc on the planet.
The loss has been emotional as well as financial. I shall hate my black passport when it comes up for renewal next year.

There are brightly coloured passport covers available for the easily offended. 🤣

Neither can I. It didn’t go the way I wanted, I was shocked at the result but life goes on and I have not suffered any disadvantage. I accept that some others have. When people talk about wanting to rejoin I wonder if they have any idea what that would involve - I suspect not.

I cannot imagine crying for two days if a referendum or vote for anything didn’t go my way. That’s a severe overreaction in my opinion. But then in some cultures, people burn the flags of countries they dislike in the streets, and I could never imagine engaging in such extreme behaviour in that way either.

there are brightly coloured passport covers available for the easily offended

Indeed there are.
However I have no understanding of being upset by the colour of my passport cover colour. Of all the most trivial reasons to be upset, I can’t think of one more trivial.

Whitewavemark2

Yes my young second cousin was able to spend a year in Sweden at one of their universities, she benefited enormously from the sort of freedoms the EU offered.

My grandsons have been stripped of that opportunity. One in particular would have loved the opportunities that would have brought him.

The European young have a definite advantage over our young people when it comes to jobs.

I have just had a quick look online, UCAS, UGOV and a couple of specialist sites all have guides on UK students studying in EU post Brexit.

Nobody has been stripped of the opportunity to go study/go to University in Europe.

Grannygravy But the most important cross country study programme was the Erasmus programme and that went with Brexit.

Talk to any academic (DS is one) and they will tell you the devastating effect that has had on their students undertaking further study in the EU and EU students(and their fees) studying in the UK.

Just because opportunities still exist doesn't mean that there are not now far fewer opportunities than their was. Many courses that would have been occupied by EU students ae now occupied by Chinese students, and as DS pointed out this weekend, many British universities are too dependent on Chinese students. As Chinese universities get better this flow will dry up, plus, and this is not beyond the powers of possibility. If China decides to help Putin by destabilising our higher education sector, all it has to do is order some or all Chinese students home.

This cutback also applies to scientific and technological research. DD worked for a big independent research centre. Most of its funding came from an EU programme called Horizon. Most projects were pan-European and brought together teams of scientists and engineers from across Europe. With Brexit, the UK could no longer apply for Horizon funds.

The government ahead of Brexit said this would not be a problem, a government scheme would follow seamlessly on from Horizon.

It didn't, of course. It didn't start for another three years, during which time DD like most of the European scientists had lost their jobs because funding had gone. EU scientists could move onto other Horizon projects in other countries. DD has been fortunate she quickly found another job, but not in scientific research. She now works in the finance sector. Other Uk citizens she worked with have also had to move out of scientific research, because they could not spend years unemployed just hoping the government would get is ducks in order and finance basic research.

Just because the disadvantages of Brexit are not hitting you on the nose every week does not mean that it is not having a profound affect on the British economy, seeing us fall behind in innovation and research, with the long term effect this will have on our international competitiveness and damaging our ability to trade with other ccountries.

Good post, MOnica.👏👏👏

My DD, also an academic, was at an academic conference when the referendum result was announced. She said that there was universal gloom among the attendees that day as they could see how it would damage our academic community and our standing in the academic world..

gg13 monica has said it for me

Thank you monica

Germanshepherdsmum

I didn’t say they were anything to do with Brexit, but because we were no longer bound by EU regulations we were vaccinated earlier than those in the EU.

I obviously haven't explained it very well. No country belonging to the EU was bound by any central regulations where the vaccine was concerned.

Each and every member state had complete autonomy over its own vaccine programme. The UK could still have vaccinated its citizens as, how and when it wished even if it had still belonged to the EU.

In essence, our early vaccine programme would still have happened and Westminster was at perfect liberty, under EU laws, to make that decision.

Unless I've completely misread your post, you seem to believe that the UK's early vaccine initiative was only possible because we were out of the EU. This is simply not true at all.

Well said flappergirl

I'll point out again that we did still belong to the EU when the vaccine programme was initiated and implemented. GSM ought to know that.

I remember seeing various politicians floudering about and somebody said " What about Ireland? " I believe the footage has been deleted.

Germanshepherdsmum

I didn’t say they were anything to do with Brexit, but because we were no longer bound by EU regulations we were vaccinated earlier than those in the EU.

Like a kind " I'm alright Jack" thing then?

Horrible really.

M0nica You were badly advised. Below is part of a document on the HMRC website:

The requirement will also be waived if:

professional effects are being returned to the UK to be used for professional purposes – including portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts (required by the claimant for their trade or profession)
collectors’ or heritage items (such as collectable items of furniture or ceramics) that were originally manufactured in the UK and have been acquired outside the UK
personal property of a UK resident is being returned to the UK for either:
personal (non-commercial) use of a UK-resident person
meeting household needs of a UK-resident person

‘Personal property’ includes:

household effects including personal effects, household linen, furnishings and equipment intended for the personal use of the claimant or for use within their household
cycles, motor cycles, private motor vehicles (and their trailers), camping caravans, pleasure craft and private aircraft
household provisions appropriate to normal family requirements, household pets and saddle animals

Requests for a waiver of the requirement to return goods no later than 3 years after the date of their export should be sent to the National Import Reliefs Unit together with:

the circumstances of their request that have been specified
why a claimant considers such a waiver would be reasonable, with regard to the specified circumstances

Contact the National Import Reliefs Unit for more information on these special circumstances.

Here's a link to the complete document.

www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-less-import-duty-and-vat-when-re-importing-goods-to-the-uk-and-eu