A thank you to Brexiteers.

[Maggot]

Curious that a story which is 100% about tweets made by someone with an EU flag next to their name should blame Brexit for delays from Athens, in Greece, famously in the EU. Did they also focus on the omni-shambles that is Schiphol, CDG or FRA right now? No, blow me down with a feather.

The issue with the lack of staff has not absolutely nothing to do with Brexit. The airports and airlines used Covid as an opportunity to lay off thousands of staff, particularly low paid baggage handlers/check in staff etc, despite the furlough scheme:

‘Final call' for aviation support: 5,164 aviation jobs lost every month as industry ‘forgotten’ by government

…

www.unitetheunion.org

They also attempted mass fire and re-hire attacks on workers: Heathrow Airport braced for fresh strikes in ‘bitter’ fire and rehire dispute

Now things have opened up again they have found it hard to recruit workers on the shitty contracts they offer hence the staffing shortages.

So the Gove story is yet another example of Remainers working hand in hand with corporations and capital to muddy the factual waters. You thought they might have learnt after P&O, but no...

Where to start

The trouble with such accounts is that whilst scouring the news for anything that affects the UK that could possibly or impossibly be blamed on Brexit is that they ignore similar issues in their beloved EU. I had a friend come over here three weeks ago via Lisbon on TAP , the flight from Manchester was delayed because of a shortage of baggage handlers, the connecting flight from Lisbon to here was canceled and she had to book a hotel to fly the next day and that flight was delayed due to staff shortages at Lisbon airport. Both in the UK and in the EU airports and airlines laid off staff and tried to take advantage of covid by rehiring on less wages .

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I think that where the misunderstanding is happening is that when people ask about the "benefits of Brexit" they want examples of real things that have really happened in the real world as a real result of brexit. And that can be convincingly shown to have come about because of Brexit, rather than have happened to happen after Brexit.

What they don't want is the list of "possibilities", which have been outlined ad nauseum since before the vote.

It’s amazing how easy it is to find actual, tangible, measurable, negative consequences, yet for anything positive we have to accept mere possibilities

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I also find it a bit frustrating to hear about things that, yes, were good for capital, such as free movement of people around the EU to work, study or play, and frictionless trade with no customs duties, as if these were purely elitist concerns. They're really not. Many working class people are badly affected by the removal of these things, reducing the possibilities of what they can do with their lives - particularly young people, the group that voted against Brexit overwhelmingly across all social classes.

To deny this requires you to reduce working class people to a patronising stereotype.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

View attachment 337971

I've posted evidence from the union representing airline and airport workers showing how the staff shortages were directly caused by bosses using the pandemic as a pretext to lay staff off and use fire and re-hire. You've posted a meme of a crying child. We'll leave it there eh.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I think that where the misunderstanding is happening is that when people ask about the "benefits of Brexit" they want examples of real things that have really happened in the real world as a real result of brexit. And that can be convincingly shown to have come about because of Brexit, rather than have happened to happen after Brexit.

What they don't want is the list of "possibilities", which have been outlined ad nauseum since before the vote.

It's not 'people'. It's a small group who want to fight the Referendum over and over again. And whatever is said they just come back with endless questions seeking to shift the goalposts or change the subject.

Anyway, it's been fun seeing you all. I'll be back in a few months to see how you are getting on. Remember not to play with sharp things!

 

[SysOut]

It used to be the left who welcomed change and the right that wanted things to remain the same.

No. The liberals have been the most successful revolutionaries.
The french revolution was a complete success and even in those countriees where the revolutions per se failed, the liberals nevertheless prevailed without revolution, e.g. Germany.

In the UK there was no revolution, but the monarch, like the Kaiser, accommodated their wishes which is where we are today.

As we are on the Brexit thread I will say again that its real tragedy was the defeat of a disorientated Labour leadership

Where's the self-criticism?
If you haven't fixed the problem with Labour, nor created another party, as has happened in some EU countries, your talk of "possibilities" is absurd - don't you agree?

 

[Karl Masks]

'Shut out left wing alternatives'

No doubt, but he didn't follow an actual left wing leader of the party who stood as leader in two generl elections. Said leader is then blamed vociferously and solely for all Labour's failings, the point being that they are now even more determined to make sure that never happens again. Besides, if Starmer goes who is there that could stand?

 

[Karl Masks]

Karl, let's deal with one thing at a time. Do you have any comments on the credible research you asked for and which I supplied? Or just more questions?

I haven't read it all yet, so I'm happy to accept the conclusion that the EU has racist immigration policies for the sake of this conversation. I'm not saying it doesn't, btw, it's a capitalist instituation after all, but the alternative is where we, Britain, is at right now, and we are sending a small number of refugees to Rwanda as red meat for Tory supporters (while bring some back from Rwanda btw).

I just don't know how this helps the case for leaving

 

[Karl Masks]

Brexit didn’t lead to that. The election of a Tory government did.

A specific Tory government, shaped by Brexit

 

[SysOut]

No. The liberals have been the most successful revolutionaries.

To correct myself: of course, as revolutionaries, the liberals are "left"
Now they are the right, i.e. status quo, but their colour revolutions can be seen as left.

Btw, to confirm this idea of "left" and "right", during the Yeltsins putsch against the putsch against Gorbatschov, C-Span, at least, referred to Yeltsin's lot as the "left", and the pro-soviets as the "right".....

Ah, to win, one must also control the narrative - and the vocabulary. With that, "right" have won hands down.

They've redefined "antisemitism", "socialism", "left" "working class", "middle class".. even "genocide". Newspeak.

Once, the left controlled the vocabulary, but that was with Marx, Engels and Lenin

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

View attachment 337971

Have you the slightest fuck what is going on in the world?

 

[Ax^]

It's not 'people'. It's a small group who want to fight the Referendum over and over again. And whatever is said they just come back with endless questions seeking to shift the goalposts or change the subject.

Anyway, it's been fun seeing you all. I'll be back in a few months to see how you are getting on. Remember not to play with sharp things!

in my own defence you brought up immigration,

saying that if i'd made the mental gymnastics that would be required to think that the Brexit vote was for Britain to get a more inclusive
and less racist immigration policy i'd more than likely want a few months off to think about it

 

[editor]

So remind me how things have improved for casual workers since Brexit...

Why are farms recruiting fruit pickers from 7,000 miles away?​

A shortage of farm workers created by Brexit led to 8,000 tonnes of berries going unpicked last year. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine only made the shortage more critical – Ukrainians made up two-thirds of all workers arriving on seasonal worker visas in 2021, with almost 20,000 working on British farms. When war broke out weeks before the picking season was due to start, recruiters had to look beyond Ukraine, with a rise reported in farm workers arriving from Indonesia, Nepal, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

How much do farms rely on seasonal workers from overseas?​

A great deal. In 2019 about 2,500 workers came to Britain on a pilot of the seasonal worker visa. This year the number is expected to be 40,000, with many coming from distant countries and little funding or infrastructure to investigate the circumstances of their recruitment.

Why are pickers on UK farms arriving thousands of pounds in debt to brokers in Bali?​

AG Recruitment, one of only four licensed agencies allowed to recruit under the UK seasonal worker scheme, was tasked with filling a shortfall in farm workers quickly this year, including in Indonesia.

With no previous experience in Indonesia, AG sought help from the Jakarta-based Al Zubara Manpower, which appears to have gone to brokers on other islands who charged exorbitant fees to the workers they introduced.

The managing director of AG, Douglas Amesz, said he personally recruited candidates in Jakarta for Clock House farm in Kent, that applications and visas were only processed by AG, and he was unaware of brokers levying charges. He said he was “extremely concerned to learn of the allegations that have been raised”.

Why UK farms are recruiting fruit pickers from 7,000 miles away

Last year, Ukrainians helped plug post-Brexit labour shortages. With the focus now on Asia, it’s unclear who should police issues such as illegal broker fees

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

Taking back control etc etc

Immigration has increased since Brexit, admits Tory MP

A Brexiteer Tory MP on Monday admitted immigration has increased since Britain voted to leave the EU.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[brogdale]

Taking back control etc etc

Immigration has increased since Brexit, admits Tory MP

A Brexiteer Tory MP on Monday admitted immigration has increased since Britain voted to leave the EU.

www.standard.co.uk

Any chance of a pay-wall bust here?

 

[Pickman's model]

Any chance of a pay-wall bust here?

Don't need one with the standard

 

[Ax^]

just open the article in an incognito window

does not store cookies so you cool

 

[bimble]

Taking back control etc etc

Immigration has increased since Brexit, admits Tory MP

A Brexiteer Tory MP on Monday admitted immigration has increased since Britain voted to leave the EU.

www.standard.co.uk

I am glad that standard readers are going to realise this, if people understand what’s happening (brexit hasn’t reduced immigration) that might lead somewhere better possibly. This graph makes it clear as day, everything is & will continue to be done to try to keep the labour pool big and pliable.

 

[Raheem]

I am glad that standard readers are going to realise this, if people understand what’s happening (brexit hasn’t reduced immigration) that might lead somewhere better possibly. This graph makes it clear as day, everything is & will continue to be done to try to keep the labour pool big and pliable.
View attachment 338010

Maybe so, but your graph seems to show a drop in overall numbers of getting on for a quarter since the referendum. So, Brexit has reduced immigration, according to that. As a result the workers are, as predicted, all living the high life due to the unstoppable operation of supply and demand. Or maybe there's a lot of vacancies going unfilled. I haven't checked which it is.

 

[editor]

Maybe so, but your graph seems to show a drop in overall numbers of getting on for a quarter since the referendum. So, Brexit has reduced immigration, according to that.

You're forgetting the impact of Covid.

 

[Raheem]

You're forgetting the impact of Covid.

Maybe so, but (again, purely going off the graph Bimble posted) the impact you might attribute to Covid looks fairly modest in the scheme of things.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Illegal immigration has probably increased, though. Undocumented. I can't prove it but I feels it in me bones.

 

[two sheds]

Is this price cap thing true?

 

[The39thStep]

I didn't think there was one for all of the EU tbh. I know Spain and Portugal implemented their own price cap after not getting a decision from the EU around April. The EU later endorsed it. It is staggered over a year , starts at a cap of 40 euros per mega watt hour for six months and rises 5 euros a month ending on 70 euros per mega watt hour . The average price over the year is 50 euros per mega watt hour

(edited) Portugal are also refusing to agree to the EU call for a 15% reduction in gas as that would push up electricity prices. The drought has reduced the capacity for hydropower to create electricity.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Is this price cap thing true?

View attachment 338044

Probably an EU average, there isn't a unitary energy policy or cap afaik, but from what I can tell all the EU countries are doing a lot more than us.

Europe's efforts to shield households from soaring energy costs

Europe is facing a sharp rise in power bills driven by sky-rocketing gas prices, as war in Ukraine and European sanctions on Russia heighten concerns over the security of gas supplies.

www.reuters.com

 

[Raheem]

In France, the cap is 4% every six months or something.

Britain does seem to be the only place where forcing a large proportion of the public into sudden destitution is seen as sensible politics.

 

[xenon]

in my own defence you brought up immigration,

saying that if i'd made the mental gymnastics that would be required to think that the Brexit vote was for Britain to get a more inclusive
and less racist immigration policy i'd more than likely want a few months off to think about it

I generally appreciate smokeandsteams posts but this^ did make me LOL.

I was actually one of those Brexit spoiler voters cos stood in the booth I thought a remain endorses fortress Europe, ever more neo liberal reforms, but a no lines up with Farage, racists, Mogg Johnson etc. Course I thought remain would win narrowly.

Anyway, I said all this 5 years ago. Nothing's changed for the better as a result of Brexit IMO. I don't think Brexit is a win. The Lexit stuff is a week joke by no one near any levers of power except those they could have already wrestled away under the EU. But also, we are where we are. The brexiters I have beef with are the nationalistic, proudly racist Tory voting anti working class filth. Not those generally on the same side but with a different take.

 

[stdP]

Britain does seem to be the only place where forcing a large proportion of the public into sudden destitution is seen as sensible politics.

It makes the eyes of every true patriotic Briton well up to see the invisible hand of the market use the efficiencies of the private sector to bring the liberating effect of commodity hiatus externalities to the public with such strategic elan, in a way that precious few other countries could hope to imagine. Let us all feast upon hypothermic bulldogs this winter, and rejoice!

 

[xenon]

In France, the cap is 4% every six months or something.

Britain does seem to be the only place where forcing a large proportion of the public into sudden destitution is seen as sensible politics.

Shush, You can't interfear with the market. Banking crisis, well OK that was a one off. Covid OK, well yep.... Look it's about time we just let the people experience penuary it's the only way to achieve growth. Making average people richer doesn't do any wonders for the economy, you know. Also, you just lack graft.

 

[Humberto]

I argued for remain to an extent, but now it is gone I'm glad we won't be tied to the hard right currents that are rising abroad and can isolate and deal with those in our own country first of all.

The layers of neoliberal bureaucracy it would take while democracy is a background concern is suspicious. And to not be seen as not with the programme too as perhaps ethno-nationalism would accelerate (and still may).

That's not abstract surely?

Lovely sunshine though.