Jingsamichty

Excuse me, but this thread is not the place for discussing Brexit woes, this is about Brexit's mighty benefits.

• Blue passports*
• Beer in pints and road signs in miles**

Any more?

* Never mind that they could have been blue when we were in the EU.
** Never mind that even when we were in the EU beer was already sold in pints and road signs were already in miles, that's just details. Hurrah for Bozza and his wizard negotiating skills!

Atlantic Xpat

Mighty trade deals with good old 'Merka. Indeed, Canada and Mexico. Chlorinated Chicken, Maple Syrup and Corona beer for all!

dbd33

I rather admire Johnson. He,

- made up nonsense about the EU (banana regulations, imposition of metric, requirement to accept all immigrants from EU countries), got paid for it
- realized his remainer status didn't make him stand out, he needed a better gimmick, went Brexiteer, got elected for it
- embezzled funds to support dubious business, got laid out of it
- fathered so many children that he's lost count while railing against the feckless poor, got a laugh out of it

He's the shit's shit.

mikelincs

Looks like another Brexit benefit is a shortage of fuel at petrol stations, again due to lack of HGV drivers, which is, of course, a Bexit benefit. Once people had got wind af a possible shortage, then panic buying has started, resulting in some petrol stations closing down as their tanks are empty, this exacebates the situation and people go looking around queueing at other stations.

Jingsamichty

I must pick you up again, it is just doomster-ing and gloomster-ing to say there is a "shortage of HGV drivers". You should instead view it as a Brexit benefit and say that "we sent all those Poles and Romanians back where they came from."

Cheers, Nigel!

Johnboyuk

You are right about the lie. Boris was originally a remainer and he jumped on the Brexit bandwagon to further his own ends. He has stimulated 'English' nationalism in the former Labour (and deprived) areas and promised them a 'golden era'. They will soon find out that this is another lie. Car manufacturing, for example, at its lowest since the 1950s and that is centered in pro-Brexit areas. I can see plenty of negatives and I am waiting to see the positives, if there are any.

scrubbedexpat142

I've found one! I now have the privilege of paying (the equivalent of) 50 Euros a month for our (previously free) public transport passes! Deep joy!

Johnboyuk

Well now they are scrambling to issue visas to bring them back again because they have suddenly realised that the Brits don't want to (or cannot) do these jobs. They would rather stay on benefits. On top of that, we have record numbers of refugees and we cannot even send them back to country of origin as we could under EU rules.

dbd33

So can we now say conclusively that electing Donald Trump, while monumentally stupid, was not the most stupid decision by an electorate this century?

Johnboyuk

Probably, the trouble is, he is currently leading Biden in the polls so history may be repeating itself. The IR35 tax issue is also partially reponsible for the shortage of drivers and this has the potential to spread into other areas when/if the economy starts to fully recover, as is the practice of giving the haulage industry special treatment for visas. Spitting Images is having a field day. No wonder they brought it back.

philat98

The greatest Brexit benefit is unifying the EU. Voters in Poland, Hungary and Italy might be looking at the caos Brexit is creating in the UK and decide not to go in that direction.

Johnboyuk

I think many people have underestimated the unifying effect the EU has had on many countries, especially in the Balkan regions. However, the current problem is home made with an uninformed public and an inexperienced government. Let's say they could have been better prepared. On top of that, the British people love a drama. The irony is, Boris will probably come out of all of this smelling of roses because of the success of the vaccine rollout for Covid so we may be stuck with him for a long time to come. When I saw him quoting Kermit the Frog at the climate conference, I had to wonder if we had hit a new low (no offence to Kermit intended).

Jingsamichty

I find it strange that the UK government insists that the "supply chain problems" are nothing to do with Brexit, yet to alleviate the problem they're going to issue more visas to allow EU drivers to work here.

Shard

They will be blaming the pandemic for years. Talk about a Get Out of Jail Free card. In due course the next generation will grow up and realise that Farage and Johnson sold them down the river, and perhaps rejoining the EU will become a possibility. Although I am not holding my breath.

Danny B