The big Brexit thread - news, updates and discussion

[Pickman's model]

10/10 for the swerve. You suggested that Lambeth weren't being straightforward in their statement. So I asked you to back that up.

They aren't being straight-forward in their statement

 

[Pickman's model]

Oh, that sounds mysterious. Please elaborate on Lambeth's subterfuge and be sure to back it up with some proof rather than pro-Brexit bluster.

Meanwhile, here's proof of Brexit causing an increase in steel prices.

Price explosion has building contractors staring into abyss

“Prices are rising at the drop of a hat, where’s it going to end?” Clive May, owner of Briar-Grove Developments, a small bricklaying business in Mold, north

www.thetimes.co.uk

The quotas mentioned in the Belfast telegraph article have been in force for years. They are not new. UK to extend quotas and tariffs on most steel imports

 

[editor]

The quotas mentioned in the Belfast telegraph article have been in force for years. They are not new. UK to extend quotas and tariffs on most steel imports

Perhaps you missed this line: "Brexit and the introduction of the protocol have been challenging, particularly in relation to price rises for materials, demand and navigating customs."

 

[Pickman's model]

Perhaps you missed this line: "Brexit and the introduction of the protocol have been challenging, particularly in relation to price rises for materials, demand and navigating customs.

Perhaps you could point out where it occurs in the article in my post

 

[two sheds]

It's true, a few people are doing that.

But from my perspective it seems more common on these threads for Remainers to claim Brexit as the sole cause, and then get upset when asked to justify their claim.

Also remember that Remainers lost the vote so all of the things they hate about Brexit (whether real or imagined) are happening. You'd expect them to be more bitter.

And again - most people on here who voted remain are on the left. And a lot of the things they're complaining about have come from cunts of tories being in power rather than left wingers voting for Brexit being responsible.

It's lazy language from remainers when they talk about 'brexiters' being responsible for all of the shit we're getting, though. The referendum was before the 2017 election where there was a reasonable chance of a Labour government being in charge. So 'Brexiter's couldn't have totally predicted the tories being in power.

 

[TopCat]

“ James Reed, chairman of Reed, one of the UK's biggest recruitment sites, told Radio 4's PM programme that pay for jobs in hospitality and catering had gone up 18% on the jobs advertised on their sites, and 14% for all jobs paying £25,000 or less.
No wonder people have suggested that in a post-Brexit, post-Covid world, worker power is back.”

Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

From hospitality to road haulage, firms say they can't get staff. So are employees now calling the shots?

www.bbc.co.uk

I’m just bumping this as it’s more important than bollards.

 

[Poot]

I’m just bumping this as it’s more important than bollards.

Literally the next 2 paras after the ones you quoted say:

However, there is another theory as to what has been going on: that we are simply in a temporary post-pandemic rut, and normal service will resume before long. On this account, we haven't yet recovered from the spanner that Covid has thrown in the everyday workings of our labour market.
The argument goes like this: the pandemic has pulled the rug from certain kinds of activity, while pumping up demand elsewhere. It has switched demand for retail jobs to online shopping and delivery for example; it's taken jobs from city centre sandwich shops and put them in to the suburbs where you find people working from home.

I'd love to think worker power is back but I don't think it's as straightforward as that. Things have changed significantly during the pandemic. So a brief shake-up seems about right.

 

[editor]

Literally the next 2 paras after the ones you quoted say:

However, there is another theory as to what has been going on: that we are simply in a temporary post-pandemic rut, and normal service will resume before long. On this account, we haven't yet recovered from the spanner that Covid has thrown in the everyday workings of our labour market.
The argument goes like this: the pandemic has pulled the rug from certain kinds of activity, while pumping up demand elsewhere. It has switched demand for retail jobs to online shopping and delivery for example; it's taken jobs from city centre sandwich shops and put them in to the suburbs where you find people working from home.

I'd love to think worker power is back but I don't think it's as straightforward as that. Things have changed significantly during the pandemic. So a brief shake-up seems about right.

Yep. They're only paying more because they have to. For now. Trying to claim this as some kind of long term win for workers all because of Brexit is wildly disingenuous.

 

[andysays]

Since we're playing "let's pick out the bits that we think support our position and ignore the rest", thought I'd throw this in

Add Brexit into the equation, and the old assumption that companies can just hire extra people from Eastern Europe to fill any gaps can no longer be taken for granted.

This is why it may be more than just a short term shake up. Only time will tell, of course.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Each.Bollard.Costs.Ten.Thousand.Pounds.

 

[two sheds]

They should just use cones

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

They should just use cones

They already have a truck-proof thing there, concrete blocks. Ten grand a bollard, ffs, more backhanders than Wimbledon fortnight down Lambeth Town Hall.

 

[kabbes]

Each.Bollard.Costs.Ten.Thousand.Pounds.

This does seem utterly mental. If nothing else, I’m not taking advice on procurement costs from anybody that views £10,000 a bollard as being the right amount to spend. At best, they’re incompetent.

 

[brogdale]

Each.Bollard.Costs.Ten.Thousand.Pounds.

6 or 7 Band D Council tax-payers could gather around each individual bollard and celebrate their personal, annual contribution to the enhanced security of the collective.

 

[kabbes]

Steel costs $167 a tonne, by the way. Even if they use a preposterous 500kg of steel power bollard, the entire cost of that raw material still only amounts to about 0.5% of the cost of the bollard. You’re not telling me that a movement in the price of the thing that is less than 0.5% of the overall price gives a material impact to that price

 

[Chilli.s]

This does seem utterly mental. If nothing else, I’m not taking advice on procurement costs from anybody that views £10,000 a bollard as being the right amount to spend. At best, they’re incompetent.

Someone somewhere is skimming a hefty sum for nothing, well probably more than one person

 

[andysays]

If Lambeth Council say it's all down to Brexit, I don't think anyone posting on this thread is in a position to challenge that.

I mean, what exactly are you suggesting?

 

[editor]

I'll look forward to some posters spinning this into something wonderfully positive

It’s not Covid that’s damaging British trade. It’s Brexit | Philip Inman

Report after report is reaching the same conclusion: exporters, including many in the red wall, will be suffering for a long time

www.theguardian.com

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I’m just bumping this as it’s more important than bollards.

never mind the bollards

 

[editor]

And bad news for pet owners

The UK is facing a critical shortage of vets that is set to intensify in the coming months as new EU export rules kick in, industry insiders have warned.

The pandemic has sparked a surge in pet ownership in the past 18 months, while Brexit rules demand more vets to sign export health certificates to move animals or meat between the UK and the EU.

But the number of EU vets arriving to work in Britain – which has traditionally plugged the shortfall in UK-trained vets – has dropped dramatically.

UK faces vet shortage due to Brexit export rules amid surge in pet ownership during lockdown

The number of EU vets arriving to work in Britain - which has traditionally plugged the shortfall in UK-trained vets - has dropped dramatically after Brexit

inews.co.uk

 

[editor]

And look at the heartache and hassle it's causing some people:

Some EU nationals in Wales may not be aware they need to apply for their children to be allowed to stay in the UK, according to charities.
Organisations which help applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) also said some parents struggled to provide the necessary documents.

Brexit: 'EU citizens in Wales unaware children need to apply to stay'

The 30 June deadline to apply to stay has passed, but some late applications will be allowed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[kabbes]

And bad news for pet owners

Are you a pet owner?

 

[editor]

Are you a pet owner?

Why yes I am. Why do you ask?

 

[kabbes]

Why yes I am. Why do you ask?

Have you noticed a problem with getting a vet?

 

[Supine]

Have you noticed a problem with getting a vet?

Does one persons experience decide if this is a thing or not?

 

[The39thStep]

Does one persons experience decide if this is a thing or not?

In the recent case of petit pois , yes .

 

[kabbes]

Does one persons experience decide if this is a thing or not?

I think before taking breathless newspaper reports on board as if they are gospel truth, it helps to engage at least a modicum of critical faculty, to be honest. Editor keeps on just throwing us out these reports without any sign of engagement with the accuracy of what each one is claiming and every time this is questioned, he first gets a bit arsey and then just ignores it and moves onto the next report.

That vet report is mostly actually pointing out that lockdown has seen an unfortunate and ill-advised explosion in pet ownership (which includes in no small part those who have not had pets before). I can well believe that it will be hard to accommodate all these extra pets, with or without Brexit. But there have been some interesting advances made too in the last few years in online vets, which can help pick up some of that slack. What’s more, with animal shelters now filling up with unwanted lockdown pets that in many cases may end up being put down, I think I want to see ground reports of how all this plays out in practice before I just buy that Brexit has deprived us all of vets.

 

[two sheds]

Private Eye has been going on for ages about the lack of vets and poor pay and conditions for vets in abattoirs, and with all the small abattoirs going out of business. Not sure how this affects brexit - anyone with a better grasp of this?

 

[The39thStep]

Private Eye has been going on for ages about the lack of vets and poor pay and conditions for vets in abattoirs, and with all the small abattoirs going out of business. Not sure how this affects brexit - anyone with a better grasp of this?

Nope but I was going to ask Mr Ski about his detailed knowledge of electric car production in the U.K. .

 

[brogdale]

Not really my cup of Tea, but today's edition of Aaronovitch's The Briefing Room explored UK labour shortages in various sectors.

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, Where Are All the Workers?

As the economy opens up again, is the UK short of workers?

www.bbc.co.uk

tl/dl or can't stomach Aaronovitch & his guests from liberal/capital? Précised: it's complex and causes vary between sectors and cohorts, but there's some pandemicy factors, some Brexity factors and some that are neither. One take away for me was how with FoM capital became addicted to hunger wage rates and shite conditions, happy to let other consolidator states pay for the education & training of their labour.