EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

I am not one of the "all politicians are bad" crowd, if anything I wish more of us would at least join a party. (I did) Vote. Come up with policies.

I mean the Cons would not have such headbanger leaders if they had a lot of members from all over the UK...but they don't. Even the DUP WTF??? Who is even a member there...lots of people are pissed off with them.

BUTTTTTTTTTT it's extremely frustrating as the "bloody" politicians hold us all hostage atm.

Can you make a politician who has done some good here? And I mean done something which has not widened the religious divide.

Cha the definition of good may vary but:

School meals during lockdown
Bedroom tax (stupid idea) gets paid for here
We have a government owned functioning public transport company
Environmental protection bill
Paid leave for people that face domestic abuse

And a voting system that means small parties get a look in.

People are still blaming the EU over the NI protocol on the local newspaper sites...honestly, it's been nearly 3 years since the "oven ready deal" and 6 since Brexit.

WTF.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63240806

Loss of EU funding that Westminster is not replacing means we may lose charities that help find disabled people / ex prisoners het training and employment.

Brexit broken promises again. I recall talking to a Belfast taxi driver just after the vote who voted Brexit for the economy.

He visited the Somme battlefields (many Irish / what's now NI died there) and he said it should never happen again. So not anti EU I think...he bought the economic fables.

I told him ok but are we sure England is going to replace the EU funds?

I thought not, well FFS it's not good to be right.

A brilliant takedown of this Shittered Isle

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/10/uk-economy-disaster-degrowth-brexit/671847/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-theatlantic&utm_content=later-30548577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio

Its a good article.

I met a delivery driver on 28 euros per hour this summer. In a country with a 9 euro per hour minimum wage. Makes you think etc.

Writer doesn't seem to think climate change is a thing looking at his growth comments (unless he thinks Green Growth only?) and ultimately Reaganomics/Friedman's economic ideas =but only the worst of these= influenced Thatcher, ultimately an a USA > UK ideas migration.

Otherwise he's not wrong I think.

Writer doesn't seem to think climate change is a thing looking at his growth comments

I didn't come away from this article thinking this at all. Didn't he just talk about opposing factions rather than personal opinions?

OK you are right, I may read too much into it.

But he states "the left is anti-growth" which I don't see in the Labour party?

Perhaps the English Greens are "anti-growth" but they have 1 whole seat I believe?

I interpreted his words as meaning that the "academic left" are anti growth and the right is dominated by isolationists and therefore talking about extremes on the political spectrum. I agree its a bit ambigous though, curious to see how you read it differently.

I heard a new one today from one of my Brexit loving colleagues. He claims that Brexit isn't a success because the implementation was mismanaged by remainers.

I’m not agreeing with his statement, but certainly I had the feeling that remainers focused for far too long on trying to stop Brexit happening, rather than changing tack to making it as soft as possible.

He was referring to Cameron, May and Johnson (!)

I need to fix some plastic piping, and I fervently hope that imperial measurement horseshit will now be dropped:

https://youtu.be/OoImXonxAlw

Pipes and fittings are a nightmare generally (imperial and metric).

Have they not pushed that line from day one?

Perhaps he thinks it is his own original thoughts instead of the DM/whomever whispering into his brain :)

Exactly.

You can't sensibly argue the counterfactual with these people because they're only willing to entertain the magic combo that leads to their desired outcome.

I remember before the ref debating the "Germans won't risk their car sales and they control the EU" point, and leave supporters just wouldn't take on board any of my points. I reference this because to me it showed an unwillingness to entertain any relevant depencies - like Brits previous willingness to pay a large premium on German cars, or cheap debt reducing the real terms cost increase, or the forecast future UK car sales vs RoW, or... Etc. Everything was always argued in such basic terms.

However, I definitely think the whole process was mismanaged at almost every step and could have been done better. But I find it hard to see how that was as a result of "remainers being in charge" - except possibly had a leaver been PM then maybe they'd have had the confidence to acknowledge it would be a decade long process and that we would only trigger Article 50 once we had a plan.

I'd also say that it's easy to think certain things were obvious, but collective wisdom is a big thing. Remember when 14 Bike Co used to say filet brazed frame had more give than lugged? Or when everyone poo-pooed that guy (was it Mike-C) for running tyres at low pressure?

I never ever expected us to have a hard Brexit. I 100% thought we'd end up with a new hybrid that was worse than before but a bit better than the Nordics with lashings of spin and a union jack paint job.

I think ultimately there were a lot of negative emotions which led the leave campaign. Caused by newspapers owned by non Dom's, scapegoating immigrants, decades of lies and thought terminating EU cliches...

Then when the xenophobia and hard Brexit began the remainers also felt more negative emotions (hi!) but a proper investigation and airing never happened. Can't think practically when angry or upset already...

Now that everyone calmed down and logic returns the "it's a bit shit/project fear was right" thoughts get heard. Too late now, mostly.

It's completely stupid to call a binary referendum with no plan and then turn it mandatory.

But I'm not sure a "leaver" would have done better, it might have led to more trust and therefore a better outcome.

Maybe because that person would have also come up against parliament factions, with the erg wanting to watch the world burn, the DUP refusing to compromise, etc...

I never ever expected us to have a hard Brexit. I 100% thought we'd end up with a new hybrid that was worse than before

Agree. The mistake was believing Johnson, Gove etc from Vote Leave when they said things like “obviously we won’t be leaving the single market”

I really thought there would be some compromise where we got an “announcable” on free movement of labour that didn’t amount to much in practice, as well as leaving ECHR (which isn’t part of the EU anyway).

Probably because I didn’t expect them to risk throwing NI under the bus like they have.

Lol, reading back the above it sounds like I voted for it… needless to say I did NOT!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/29/brexit-red-tape-puts-brakes-on-uk-innovation-and-eu-sales?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Can this be renamed Red Bus tape? ;)

Lord Frost enjoying some scrutiny
https://twitter.com/Femi_Sorry/status/1590015901574709248

Not the Brexit I wanted - another peer with zero self awareness

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/10/brexit-next-boss-foreign-workers-uk-lord-wolfson?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other