If we were to rejoin the EU tomorrow, what benefits would you miss most about Brexit?

[Cousin Jack]

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Brexit won, Remain lost, we have left the EU. Why do people not get this?

If you REALLY want to, try to justify rejoining, but-
A) the price will be steep.
B) there may not be too much support for paying that price
C they might just say "Non" anyway

Me, I'm bored, as I suspect others are, with rehashing all the old arguments.

[mangocrazy]

If it was a one-off cost for leaving, maybe we could make our peace. But it wasn't - it's the gift that keeps on giving, costing the British economy more every day. Do you enjoy throwing money away every day?

[Mr Moofo]

Low paid jobs being filled by migrant workers were underpinning the UK economy - field in Lincs, Amazon, the hospitality trade. Folks were much happier when underpaid labour was keeping there Costas cheap

[Hoonercat]

Good luck with the 'British public supporting farmers' theme. A very large proportion are too busy struggling to pay their rent for the small box they live in, energy bills and rising food bills to give too much thought to farmer Giles not making enough profit while living in his £2 million farmhouse*.
The British public had the chance to support farmers back in 2016, but chose not to. Or maybe they thought that higher overheads and lower subsidies were a recipe for success?

So-called ‘direct payments’ from the EU based on land area made up 60% of farm net income before Brexit but have been slashed by at least 35%, with more cuts to follow.

*Personally I think it's appalling the way farmers have been treated in the UK, but unlike many, I'm not struggling to make ends meet.

[Horse]

If there have been tangible benefits from leaving the EU, someone will be able to list them.

I'd miss the doubling of my hourly rate of pay for driving artics (part time) if we re-joined and the Europeans prepared to work for very low wages came back.

My BIL says the same, since Brexit his pay went up and he's competing against less EU people
Pub staff wages and coffee shop wages are up, less EU migrants and shortages of staff

UK holiday resorts are rammed,
Farms where we live are paying more

Many of those things were developing before Brexit. The driver shortage was across all of Europe, removing drivers just improved the situation elsewhere. There's a finite number of drivers.

Similarly with hospitality, there was already a shortage of staff. With Covid, many returned to their original countries and haven't come back.

UK holidays? Big covid effect there, people not travelling. With prices ramped up by UK providers, that's likely to level out again.

There may well be plenty more jobs available. But are there enough suitable people to fill them all?

Of course, many of the general public will resist this and still want cheap stuff

I don't remember 'prices will rise' being put forward as a plus point for Brexit.

[DefTrap]

"Brexit will be great for coffee shop workers and the odd artic driver". They should have written that on a bus. It's a golden age for the economy.

[Cousin Jack]

The UK has been living on borrowed time for years, propped up by cheap imported labour. Originally it was from the empire, then from the EU. It was never going to last, the Polish plumbers were long gone back to Poland as the Polish economy improved, the last crop of Lithuanians and Latvians were just waiting for their economies to improve too. The only imported labour that are committed t staying are the criminal gangs who see the UK as a happy hunting ground with rich pickings and lax law enforcement. Brexit just crystalized the issue.

We need a reset. We need to become a high wage, high tech, high achievement economy, with low levels of unemployment and even lower levels of the unemployable. The UK benefit system is not just broken, it is arse about face. Unemployment benefits should be time limited, disability benefits should be phased out almost entirely, most 'disabled' people are perfectly capable of work, we just need to fit the work to what they CAN do, rather than focus on what they can't do. Sickness benefits need radical overhaul too, some tough love is needed. Schools need a similar shake up, far too many kids from poor families see little point in education, so they finish up as poor adults and then have poor kids.

Will this be easy, no.
Will this be quick, no.
Will this be painful, yes.
Will this happen, dunno, but Brexit provides an opportunity. Let's not waste it.

[Ant]

Yeah but the thing about high wages is that it pushes the cost up of supporting that, so the product becomes more expensive, then inflation rises to account for it, then those who wanted the higher wages all of a sudden aren't liking that everything is more expensive as a result of thier services becoming more expensive.....a vicious circle.

[Yambo]

You missed a a bit.

Will this be easy, no.
Will this be quick, no.
Will this be painful, yes.
Do we have the politicians (of any colour) around that are capable of implementing these ideals? No
Will this happen? Not in my lifetime.

[Cousin Jack]

You missed a a bit.

Will this be easy, no.
Will this be quick, no.
Will this be painful, yes.
Do we have the politicians (of any colour) around that are capable of implementing these ideals? No
Will this happen? Not in my lifetime.

I have a suspicion you may be right. I had hopes the current lot might rise to the challenge, but recent events do not support that view.

[Horse]

The UK has been living on borrowed time for years ...

We need to become a high wage, high tech, high achievement economy, with low levels of unemployment and even lower levels of the unemployable.

benefit system
Unemployment benefits
disability benefits
Sickness benefits
Schools

Will this be easy, no.
Will this be quick, no.
Will this be painful, yes.
Will this happen, dunno, but Brexit provides an opportunity. Let's not waste it.

By the sounds of your list, Brexit is irrelevant, both to the issues and potential fixes.

I doubt whether any politicians, of any flavour, could achieve any meaningful changes.

[Horse]

Surely you're not suggesting that everything that has happened in the UK isn't singularly attributed to Brexit?

Good lord, have you told anyone else?

Not yet, no. Thought I'd see what reception it got here before venturing further.

Of course, all of that further deterioration as a result of Brexit was completely unpredictable.

[Cousin Jack]

Brexit just brought forward the issues that would have happened anyway. Unless of course we could continue to find sources of cheaper and cheaper labour. Perhaps Syria and Iran would have joined the EU, that would have kept it going for a few years.

[Cousin Jack]

By the sounds of your list, Brexit is irrelevant, both to the issues and potential fixes.

I doubt whether any politicians, of any flavour, could achieve any meaningful changes.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

We have an opportunity to change, we may, or may not grasp it.
If we don't the situation will get worse, new politicians (and perhaps new parties) will arise, and new opportunities will arise. And new problems too.

[irie]

Me, I'm bored, as I suspect others are, with rehashing all the old arguments.

The endless nostalgia.

[Docca]

Well, just on a single note, membership of the EU has been so awesome for the UK that UK farms are now only financially viable by employing foreign workers and subsidising their revenue via EU grants.

FWIW I voted Remain because it suited me personally, but I think the gist of leaving was to take the pain and at some point be able to stand unassisted.

Or spend the next decade arguing about who's the dickhead

I argument here

[demographic]

I'm getting notes of bitterness and sour grapes from the brexiteers now.

Green shoots of change getting you worried?

[Cousin Jack]

I'm getting notes of bitterness and sour grapes from the brexiteers now.

Green shoots of change getting you worried?

Sadness, perhaps, for wasted opportunities, but no bitterness here.

[demographic]

I'm getting notes of bitterness and sour grapes from the brexiteers now.

Green shoots of change getting you worried?

Sadness, perhaps, for wasted opportunities, but no bitterness here.

Aye, right.

[Count Steer]

I'm getting notes of bitterness and sour grapes from the brexiteers now.

Green shoots of change getting you worried?

It will be a cold day in hell before the ones that took the Brexit maggot, hook line and sinker, even contemplate, never mind admit, that they bought (and tried very hard to re-sell in a very aggressive way) a complete pup. They come up with reasons that were never in the debate, talk about a long term project, forget how abusive they were, ask us to stop talking about it and that we have to dig in and help make it work and they're the ones that thought, lo! 'taking back control' meant giving it to a competent authority

The day that one of them on here considers, even vaguely, that they made a mistake and screwed us all up then, maybe, we can stop pointing and laughing at the ridiculous wriggling, posturing and whataboutery that seems to be the order of the day,

Until then, you won...get over it.