The Brexit thread

[Yorick]

I can drive up to 7.5t.

On my Spanish licence I have C1 and C1E

[Felix]

I can drive up to 7.5t.

On my Spanish licence I have C1 and C1E

As i have on my UK one. Its the folk that passed after Jan 97 that are limited to 3.5t and cant tow but the tow rule is getting binned this year as far as i know.

[wheelnut]

Perhaps the government didn’t think cheap foreign labour was necessarily a bad thing? It is how the world has turned for many a century.

[Yambo]

Perhaps the government didn’t think cheap foreign labour was necessarily a bad thing? It is how the world has turned for many a century.

Cotton would have been more expensive without it!

[wheelnut]

Cotton would have been more expensive without it!

And the pyramids would have been a lot smaller!

[Pirahna]

And the pyramids would have been a lot smaller!

The pyramids were built by well paid Egyptians, no slaves required.

Talking of cheap foreign labour, there's a Facebook page for jobs in my local area, lots and lots of carers required. That's another area which is going to need to up it's pay rates.

[DefTrap]

I think it needs a line in the sand, regardless of what was said before Brexit, we're here, and the loudest voices seem to be agreeing that the UK is suffering because of the withdrawal of foreign labour.

If the government had put schemes in place to mitigate this, it would have been admitting that many Brexit voters were right all along, that they had failed to protect UK workers and the UK was indeed running on the back of cheaper foreign labour, encouraged, supported and protected by a proxy UK government sitting in Brussels.
So no plans were in place to support UK job seekers or young people looking to enter the job market, or support of certain vulnerable industries.

The Tory machine didn't want Brexit, they blindly ignored these issues, so why would they put mitigation plans in place for issues that they wouldn't admit even existed?

And Corbyn had been advocating Brexit for his whole political career, his limp wristed effort at an opposition to it was transparent and Brexit happened as a protest vote against both parties. Against the tories for being tories and against labour for abandoning them.

Parliament failed the UK public and blaming this mess on one political party just shows that you're trying exceptionally hard to ignore why it happened.

Nope, you can't blame the guests at your 'shit party' for objecting to the pile of shit you're about to serve them because they didn't try hard enough to stop your shit-based cuisine.

49% of the voting population thought this was a terrible idea, pointed out the terrible consequences and were told they were either fibbers or making a meal of it.

We can only deal with the here and now, which is what the brexit ostriches wanted all along I think, before they came up with a rationale that suited them anyway, blame the victims.

It turns out there is no brexit 'bus money'. Not a bean. Brexited away
It turns out the jobs available post brexit are actually great because your brexit-voting nan genuinely dreamed of your career slaughtering animals or shitting in a bag in the back of a truck in an M25 lay-by.

[Hoonercat]

I think it needs a line in the sand, regardless of what was said before Brexit, we're here, and the loudest voices seem to be agreeing that the UK is suffering because of the withdrawal of foreign labour.

If the government had put schemes in place to mitigate this, it would have been admitting that many Brexit voters were right all along, that they had failed to protect UK workers and the UK was indeed running on the back of cheaper foreign labour, encouraged, supported and protected by a proxy UK government sitting in Brussels.
So no plans were in place to support UK job seekers or young people looking to enter the job market, or support of certain vulnerable industries.

The Tory machine didn't want Brexit, they blindly ignored these issues, so why would they put mitigation plans in place for issues that they wouldn't admit even existed?

PM Theresa May, Conservative Party Conference October 2016

I know a lot of people don't like to admit this - [for] someone who finds themselves out of work or on lower wages because of low-skilled immigration, life simply doesn't seem fair.

Boris, October 2021:

So what I won’t do is go back to the old, failed model of low wages, low skills supported by uncontrolled immigration

In the space of 5 years, two Tory PMs have spoken out about the issue of low pay and immigration. They have had plenty of time to prepare the UK for the effects of Brexit, while publicly recognising the issues.

[Count Steer]

Heard a good stat on the radio recently. It is estimated, given voting profiles, that 1 million Brexit voters are now dead. Didn't even stick around to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

[irie]

Loving how Brexit and Covid side effects are being conflated, pure quality.

[Horse]

lots and lots of carers required. That's another area which is going to need to up it's pay rates.

If it's funded by local councils, are the rates that they pay going to rise?

[Count Steer]

Loving how Brexit and Covid side effects are being conflated, pure quality.

What Covid side-effects?

[Horse]

Loving how Brexit and Covid side effects are being conflated, pure quality.

What Covid side-effects?

Guessing, truck drivers sick or isolating?

[Count Steer]

Loving how Brexit and Covid side effects are being conflated, pure quality.

What Covid side-effects?

Guessing, truck drivers sick or isolating?

Ah. Those truck drivers that are still here. I see.

At a tangent I found this on the CIPD web site:

'Statistics from early 2018 showed that while 72% of employers have a dedicated training budget, growth in this area was comparatively slow. More than half (55%) said that leaving the EU has had no impact on their training and skills development investment, while 20% said it had caused them to reduce it. This shows that some employers are dialling back on development and training, at the very time they should be investing heavily to mitigate against the real risk of the current skills shortage worsening post-Brexit.

Interestingly, organisations that employ EU nationals were significantly more likely than employers that don’t recruit EU nationals to be investing in training and seeking to recruit from a wider range of under-represented or disadvantaged groups, such as older workers or those from minority ethnic backgrounds. This strongly indicates that organisations which employ EU migrants were typically doing so as part of wider efforts to find the labour they require and to build workforce skills, not because they were failing to invest in UK-born workers or looking to cut costs.'

So 55% of employers planned to do nothing, 20% to reduce training and skills development. Meanwhile, the ones that employ EU nationals were more likely to invest in UK-born workers.

[Yambo]

Heard a good stat on the radio recently. It is estimated, given voting profiles, that 1 million Brexit voters are now dead. Didn't even stick around to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

[slowsider]

Heard a good stat on the radio recently. It is estimated, given voting profiles, that 1 million Brexit voters are now dead. Didn't even stick around to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Après-moi, le deluge. To quote a prominent forriner.

[Horse]

Employers looking to save money on their workforce are the ones that dig around in all corners looking for people to recruit that won't demand high pay and packages. They're much more likely to recruit from older workers or those from minority ethnic backgrounds and then try to train them to do what they want them to do - it's cheaper.

Really? In the last couple of years I've had colleagues from:
Singapore
South Africa
Canada
Italy
France
India
and many more besides. Including Wales.

The company, as far as I know, didn't 'dig around' for them.

[DefTrap]

We seem to be coming round to the fact that the UK has an arsey workforce who would prefer to sit at home on benefits, rather than work hard in the pig-killing and bag-shitting industries. Not that surprising is it?

So, it turns out that Brexit is just another way to have a pop at the workers. Now that there aren't any immigrants to have a pop at anyway. You got there in the end. Brexited away ....

[DefTrap]

Maybe we just need to accept that there are some jobs folk don't really want to do in "this day and age" because they're a bit crap? And if the industries don't want to pour money into training and wages and the government refuses to help (to make a point?) then just let those industries die.

Market forces innit.

Abattoir worker wages start at 9.50 an hour by the way. Who wouldn't want some of that sweet, sweet Brexit gold? Seriously though - that's not a thrilling package when I could be at home in the warm dreaming of being a YouTube playa.

[Pirahna]

Really? In the last couple of years I've had colleagues from:
Singapore
South Africa
Canada
Italy
France
India
and many more besides. Including Wales.

The company, as far as I know, didn't 'dig around' for them.

All low or semi-skilled blue collar workers?

The last team I worked in had people from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy plus a couple of native English speakers (me and another bloke but I'm half Irish). The only one of the Europeans left is an Italian girl, all the others have gone either home or to other jobs in Europe. We're talking £100k plus a year skilled IT people, definitely not the sort you'd easily replaced.

Apart from Covid and Brexit there's a global shortage of semiconductors which is helping to mask any skilled labour shortage. The auto industry has been forced to slow or even stop production in some areas for example. Any industry that t required a computer chip is struggling.