Oh no!! Brexit not going quite as well as hoped

[newfhouse]

"Well of course not. It's those uneducated ones with the dark skin who can't even speak the language. The least they could have done is learn English on the way over " - Colonel Gammon Fitzpatrick-Smyth.

I think more the problem is that, just as in Trumpism, it was easy for the Brexit campaign to make stuff up to either scare people or just promise stuff that was never going to happen. The remain campaign as with most liberal or left-wing campaigns relied on facts, statistics and experts. Those aren't exciting. We already have those.

But promise sunlit uplands, better deals for farmers and fishermen, more money for the NHS, better control of borders so there are more jobs for local people... what's not to like? Doesn't matter if it's all made up, it sounds good. Tap into all that anti-EU sentiment that Boris has been brewing for the last 10 years - bendy bananas, banning hair dryers - that's stuff we just don't need. Never mind that the bit s that are true came mostly from the UK anyway.

It's only once your job is gone, you can't afford fuel and, the key workers are out on strike, inflation goes through the roof and the legal system collapses that some people being to think - maybe we were being lied to?. Even then, for some people, their is an innate confidence that the Government will sort it out before things get too bad. Maybe they will, but I doubt it will be this government.

The people who wanted this didn't want any of the things in the campaign. They wanted better and easier ways to retain their wealth and become wealthier. Newspaper barons protecting their wealth and hedge funds, same with Politicians. The EU wanted more transparency on offshore companies. Instead we have freeports - licenced tax avoidance.

This was never about us and them - just about them.

Every. Damned. Word.

 

[Fab Foodie]

"Well of course not. It's those uneducated ones with the dark skin who can't even speak the language. The least they could have done is learn English on the way over " - Colonel Gammon Fitzpatrick-Smyth.

I think more the problem is that, just as in Trumpism, it was easy for the Brexit campaign to make stuff up to either scare people or just promise stuff that was never going to happen. The remain campaign as with most liberal or left-wing campaigns relied on facts, statistics and experts. Those aren't exciting. We already have those.

But promise sunlit uplands, better deals for farmers and fishermen, more money for the NHS, better control of borders so there are more jobs for local people... what's not to like? Doesn't matter if it's all made up, it sounds good. Tap into all that anti-EU sentiment that Boris has been brewing for the last 10 years - bendy bananas, banning hair dryers - that's stuff we just don't need. Never mind that the bit s that are true came mostly from the UK anyway.

It's only once your job is gone, you can't afford fuel and, the key workers are out on strike, inflation goes through the roof and the legal system collapses that some people being to think - maybe we were being lied to?. Even then, for some people, their is an innate confidence that the Government will sort it out before things get too bad. Maybe they will, but I doubt it will be this government.

The people who wanted this didn't want any of the things in the campaign. They wanted better and easier ways to retain their wealth and become wealthier. Newspaper barons protecting their wealth and hedge funds, same with Politicians. The EU wanted more transparency on offshore companies. Instead we have freeports - licenced tax avoidance.

This was never about us and them - just about them.

You just can't see how wrong you are can you?

Britain 'absolutely not' broken, says Boris Johnson​

Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog.

Boris Johnson has said Britain is “absolutely not” broken at the end of his premiership, and claimed that “this country has got an incredible future and has everything going for it”.

Asked outside a police station in Lewisham, south London, whether Britain “was broken” in the final days of his leadership, he responded: “Absolutely not. This country has got an incredible future and has everything going for it.

“Look at the place that people want to invest in. Which is the country that attracts more venture capital investment now than China? It’s the United Kingdom.

“Which country has, I think, more billion-pound start-up tech companies than France, than Germany, than Israel put together? It is the United Kingdom.

“Why do people want to come here? Because it is the place to be.

“What we’re doing now, and what I’m proud that we’ve done over the last three years or so, is put in a lot of things that will make this country fit for the future.”

 

[icowden]

Britain 'absolutely not' broken, says Boris Johnson

Apparently he is taking a week to do a farewell tour to celebrate his achievements in office.
Many are wondering what he plans to do with the other 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds, and if it involves a fridge...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Apparently he is taking a week to do a farewell tour to celebrate his achievements in office.
Many are wondering what he plans to do with the other 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds, and if it involves a fridge...

Apparently, Boris Johnson is an anagram of Delusional....

 

[BoldonLad]

...which is in itself horribly nuanced - I'm not racist but....

Nobody seemed to take issue from 'foreigners' from the USA, Canada, Australia coming here to work....

I don't see how you can know that, unless you surveyed the entire UK, plus, there are precious few Americans, Canadians, Australians in Sunderland.

I am not agreeing with the "stop immigration" line, simply pointing out that, IMHO, it is about people feeling jobs are being taken, and/or wages reduced. In the area I live, the non-European population is very small, it was an objection to immigration, regardless of where they came from.

I actually find it ironic, since, in the area I live, many of the people objecting to immigration are second or third generation immigrants themselves!, their parents/grandparents having come here from Ireland.

 

[Deleted member 28]

The leave voters.
It's been great for the researchers- kept them in work!

It's going pretty well for me thanks, got a decent job, mortgage paid and looking at retiring in the next couple of years.

Next question.

 

[newfhouse]

Say it ain’t so…

A Conservative ex-UK Government minister has admitted that the Welsh public were deliberately misled about how replacement money for former EU funds would be spent in Wales.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/former-tory-minister-confirms-party-24888833

 

[PaulB]

Say it ain’t so…

A Conservative ex-UK Government minister has admitted that the Welsh public were deliberately misled about how replacement money for former EU funds would be spent in Wales.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/former-tory-minister-confirms-party-24888833

What a shock! The sort of shock nobody but everybody was fully expecting.

 

[cookiemonster]

It's going pretty well for me thanks, got a decent job, mortgage paid and looking at retiring in the next couple of years.

Next question.

How about your energy bills?

 

[jowwy]

How about your energy bills?

You cant blame energy bills on brexit………well you could try, but im pretty sure Russia have nothing to do with the EU and the war in ukraine is effecting the whole of Europe, not just the UK

 

[Bromptonaut]

I'm pretty sure we've already had a post here showing how our retail prices for domestic fuel are rising faster and further than in mainland Europe.

While the Ukraine war and Russian counter sanctions are a factor now gas prices were already shooting up a year ago.

Some of our problems are due to the way in which the privatised energy system has worked and evolved since it was devised and the perverse incentives generated. An example would be the spawning of dozens of energy suppliers, each with dozens of tariffs, and the number who've gone bust. The bail out costs go on everyone else's bills.

The rest of Europe, ie the EU, can also act together to try and devise mitigations. I know it's The Guardian but see:

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-prices-fall-europe-plan-winter-energy-crisis

 

[AndyRM]

You cant blame energy bills on brexit………well you could try, but im pretty sure Russia have nothing to do with the EU and the war in ukraine is effecting the whole of Europe, not just the UK

Russia have nothing to do with the EU? You've gone beyond parody here.

 

[icowden]

You cant blame energy bills on brexit………well you could try, but im pretty sure Russia have nothing to do with the EU and the war in ukraine is effecting the whole of Europe, not just the UK

Whilst all of that is true apart from the first bit, Brexit means that we cannot participate in the Internal Energy Market, which means that as we sold off all of our gas storage, we have no way to buffer against price changes. So yes, Brexit affects us with respect to energy. On the plus side, we don't rely on Russia at all for energy. On the negative side, Russia's actions affect the global price of gas enormously so we get skyrockets and plummets. The IEM would have helped us.

Unfortunately, Brexit has been unhelpful to the UK’s potential resilience of supply and price of energy in a number of ways. Although the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU provided a governance framework for the energy relationship, there has been little progress on this, in view of disagreements about the Northern Ireland Protocol, and unless renewed, these provisions will fall into abeyance in June 2026.

As the UK is now outside the EU’s IEM, which would previously have ensured reciprocal supply security, security of physical supply cannot be taken for granted, especially if there are external disruptions.

The Department for Business and Energy has ambitions for the UK to become a net exporter of renewable energy into Europe, but in the future, as a ‘third country’ in the eyes of the EU, the prospects for exporting to the EU’s IEM will be much less straightforward than they would have been during the UK’s EU membership.

 

[jowwy]

Whilst all of that is true apart from the first bit, Brexit means that we cannot participate in the Internal Energy Market, which means that as we sold off all of our gas storage, we have no way to buffer against price changes. So yes, Brexit affects us with respect to energy. On the plus side, we don't rely on Russia at all for energy. On the negative side, Russia's actions affect the global price of gas enormously so we get skyrockets and plummets. The IEM would have helped us.

But we all still know that current issue with gas and electric is a world wide price hike and not a Brext/EU price hike, as much as people wish it was….it really isn’t.

 

[icowden]

But we all still know that current issue with gas and electric is a world wide price hike and not a Brext/EU price hike, as much as people wish it was….it really isn’t.

Of course. But there would be less of a hike if we were part of the IEM. Thus again, Brexit makes a bad situation worse.