EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

If you look at somewhere like Hungary, Poland, or the Czech Republic, all of their self-inflicted problems are blamed on the EU. I don’t think it’ll be any different in the UK after Brexit - all of the dumb brexit types from the ERG down aren’t suddenly going to say ‘o shit u were rite’, they’re going to double down on their bullshit and blame the EU for everything.

If Brexit destroys the country then Cameron and the Brexiteers will be blamed.

More likely it'll be blamed on remainer's attempts to block the one true brexit, and the EU of course. Particularly by the Mail, Telegraph and Sun.

Maybe we could eat freshly unemployed car workers?

They probably taste like swan.

hmmmmmm swan the taste of victory

Rumours of extension to 1st Jan 2020 and that the UK will definitely leave at that date.

"yeah yeah, definitely have it ready by then"

Are they owned by the Queen as well? ;)

I know someone who's absolutely convinced that now wages in construction are significantly better than they were before the vote, and people who couldn't find a job now can. Is this true? Paging clever people who read about this.

We are currently building an extension. Out here in Gloucestershire wages are similar to London and sometimes higher. The consensus amongst local tradesmen is that fewer new builds are happening but more people are choosing to do extensions rather than move house. So the static house market is improving one area but depleting another.

But this is opinion and conjecture.

The RICS sentiment surveys from 2018 seem to agree:

https://www.rics.org/uk/news-insight/research/market-surveys/uk-construction-and-infrastructure-survey/

Obviously nothing's actually happened yet, so all this means is that political uncertainty hasn't yet derailed construction work.

There's also a mention in this press release of "£1 billion in additional HRA borrowing" creating work in public sector housing. No idea where that came from, I don't remember hearing about it.

Does all of this not look more like a reaction to sdlt changes + general property market than specifically brexit related, tho? Obviously the two aren't entirely unrelated but the direction of the market started before Jun 2016.

Absolutely - @alialias 's pundit could be correct about the state of hiring, but that doesn't say anything directly about Brexit.
Particularly as Brexit hasn't happened yet, so the only likely effect would be the indirect one through political uncertainty.

There’s a shortage of labour so wages have gone up in the sector, as has the cost of materials. Just ask Joe Lewis.

A client of ours valued a building in London for reinstatement purposes back in September 2013, the value was £19.6m, in October 2018 the revaluation put it at £26.6m.

There’s a shortage of labour so wages have gone up in the sector, as has the cost of materials. Just ask Joe Lewis.

This is the kind of thing I'm struggling to counter. It basically backs up his general anti-immigrant stance, and vibe is that everyone has 'gone home' since the vote and so now people can work who couldn't. 'The country's full'.

Thanks for the interesting responses.

The building sector has stated a few times now that they are facing a worker shortage, that’s going to push up demand for those who are available and that may translate into higher pay. However, fewer workers overall, even if paid more, can’t build as much so the sector will decline, long term, or find a way of bringing in more workers- as productivity is directly linked to warm bodies. Or bring in bricklaying and plastering robots.

Can I just say this seems remarkably close to what's actually happening: "Britain to repeat its Brexit offer loudly and slowly until the foreigners get it"

I'm disappointed that I didn't make this connection.

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I actually really enjoyed the Owen Jones interview, just because I hadn't heard him speak before and it was reassuring to hear he spoke as little sense as I'd expected.

I know we're not meant to call Brexiteers thick, bigoted cunts, but let's not forget that they absolutely are:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/30/it-is-terrible-but-i-still-want-it-crewe-voters-size-up-no-deal-brexit

The old guy is probably senile

Chocks away

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/31/theresa-may-will-not-be-flying-to-brussels-in-spitfire-bbc-clarifies

But why isn't she flying there in a Spitfire?

That's exactly the sort of thing we wanted when we voted Brexit.

She could fly on a modern jet, but the Rolls Royce engines became German this morning.

" Oh, how we'd laugh, when Brexiteers are forced to become economic migrants."

Remake of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet anyone?