BPX078: Brexit - A Decade On

[QualityChimp]

Tory voters voted for Brexit as they regarded having foreigners from EU nations living here as a threat to British culture and national identity.

Labour voters voted for Brexit as they regarded having foreigners from EU nations living here as a threat to native British workers (“taking our jobs”, etc).

That’s all there is to it. It was all based on xenophobia, just dressed up with different ideological justifications.

I think we have to be careful with sweeping generalisations, though.
Will Self said "Not all Brexiters are racists, but almost all racists will be voting for Brexit"
So I know where you're coming from, but it's not quite as clear-cut as that, especially with the Leave campaign writing lies on buses and so on.

I don't think a lot of people understood the implications, thinking it was just about immigration or the meddling EU banning bendy bananas.

I work for a company that manufactures and ships its products in the UK and after Brexit, we were having a catchup meeting with all the staff where the directors say how the company has performed in the last 12 months.

Inevitably, someone asked if Brexit would affect us.

The owners are a company based in France and the CEO is French. He said, it wasn't proper for him to give his opinion on Brexit, but on a practical level, we imports components in from Europe, make and assemble them in the UK, then ship them back as whole products to Europe.
If we have to start paying taxes to ship the components in, then pay to ship the products out, then we will just build a factory in France.

You could have heard a pin drop as the real-world implications of us leaving the EU finally crystallised to a lot of people in the room.

[Lebowski]

reminds me of the Stewart Lee stand up on Brexit

and it wasnt just racists that voted to leave Europe.... ****'s did as well

this line gets me every time

not eveyone that voted to leave europe wanted Brittan to immediately descend into a unaccountable single party state exploiting peoples worst prejudices to maintain power indefinitely, some people just wanted bendy bananas.

[QualityChimp]

Amazing!

Oh well, I guess there's yet another positive to Brexit - comedians have plenty of material to work with!

[wakka]

That's a great bit by Stewart Lee.

I don't think you can satisfactorily boil down why Britain voted for Brexit into a single statement. It's a swirling maelstrom of reasons, from our deep seated sense of exceptionalism, to the war waged on the EU by the British media over the course of decades, fear of immigrants, and a whole lot else besides.

A huge factor was the effectiveness of the Leave campaign. It played successfully on the innate pro-activity of 'leaving' versus the comparatively inertial 'remaining'. The negatives of leaving, per the Remain campaign, were simply part of 'Project Fear', a sinister plot to keep the UK shackled in servitude.

The opposite of being fearful is of course being brave. The implication was that that was what you were, if you voted leave. A brave iconoclast, taking back control and restoring sovereignty, making Britain truly 'Great' once again.

Just a shame that absolutely none of it was true.

[Dogg Thang]

That stage is a health and safety nightmare. That wouldn’t have been allowed pre-Brexit.

[teddymeow]

I mean, as a ruse to get people to stop talking about Pig-gate, David Cameron played a blinder...

Nah, it was an utter cluster**** of ****ing clusters!

[Neon Ignition]

The mixture of factors is one of the biggest issues in the room when it comes to Brexit, largely because the Tories have spent the entire time acting as though Immigration was the sole reason it happened and basing everything off that single factor - and even then doing it poorly. Immigration was such an easy issue to swipe away after Brexit, they've made this mess for themselves

[Neon Ignition]

2017 - The aftermath of the Result splits the Nation as the Tories begin to Fall into Chaos
Analysis in the year that followed the referendum showed Leave voting was much more prominent in areas where Austerity had had the most severe economic effects, had Austerity not been so aggressive do you believe Remain would have prevailed?

[QualityChimp]

There was a weird chain of events where some people voted Leave because they were tired of the status quo (not the band) and wanted to shake things up and stick it to The Man.

They then had the vote The Man to get rid of the perceived reason for their austerity.

[Protocol Penguin]

And Corbyn was pro-Leave despite the vast majority of the Labour Party all but begging him to campaign for/commit to Remain.

I was a Labour Party member all of my adult life up until Corbyn took the party down that path (and I voted against him being leader as I knew his history and how dangerous it would be to have his lead the party as the referendum approached). Although I’m beginning to think the party should’ve let him openly campaign for Leave in the referendum, independently of the official party line, because honestly, the man’s deep unpopularity could’ve swung it for Remain.

[QualityChimp]

Nottinghamshire strawberry grower stops production due to cash crisis



"For decades, Starkey's Fruit has grown blackberries, raspberries and strawberries for supermarkets, farm shops and wholesalers.

In recent years it was growing about 800 tonnes of soft fruit in polytunnels.


But Ms Starkey, sales director for the farm, said the business has been "squashed at both ends", with rising wages for pickers meeting inadequate prices from buyers.


She said traditionally they would use up to 140 pickers, mostly from the EU.


The farm said it faced unsustainable labour costs in November at the end of the season
"Many of them had come to us for years, they knew it was a good place to work," Ms Starkey said.


"But with Brexit it became more difficult and they just did not feel welcome."


The farm then used agency workers from further afield but the costs had soared.


The tunnels have been cleared with much of the equipment being sold to growers abroad
"The prices are set by marketing groups, we have no say in that - and it was clear the situation was only going to get worse.


"So we have sold our growing frames abroad, so perhaps in Romania or somewhere they are growing strawberries for our supermarkets with our frames, which is ironic," Ms Starkey added."

[Asura]

Nottinghamshire strawberry grower stops production due to cash crisis

It shows how Brexit was kinda like kicking over a Jenga tower.

Because on the one hand, I don't know how I feel about businesses that require migrant workers to function. Like, while I get that it was part of what made their business work, and I feel for them, it still feels a bit "off" that such a thing was able to exist.

But at the same time, I doubt people will pay £6 for a punnet of strawberries.

And I suspect most people prior to Brexit knew that, but the point is that a lot of our economy, food logistics etc. where based on a fine balance of how the world previously worked. Now that's changed and things are going to have to work differently.

[Neon Ignition]

2018 - Brexit Paralyses May's Government
Unable to agree on the terms on which the UK should withdraw from the EU, the Tory Government slipped into chaos and in fighting with vote after vote driving the country further and further toward freefall from the block. The events would soon cost Theresa May her role as Prime Minister, was May wrong in her approach or was this when the real face of the Tory right wing emerged?

[Cassius_Smoke]

It shows how Brexit was kinda like kicking over a Jenga tower.

Because on the one hand, I don't know how I feel about businesses that require migrant workers to function. Like, while I get that it was part of what made their business work, and I feel for them, it still feels a bit "off" that such a thing was able to exist.

But at the same time, I doubt people will pay £6 for a punnet of strawberries.

And I suspect most people prior to Brexit knew that, but the point is that a lot of our economy, food logistics etc. where based on a fine balance of how the world previously worked. Now that's changed and things are going to have to work differently.

It's multifaceted. EU workers were cheap labour, but many of them would travel to the UK for the work, earn money and then go back home with pounds converted to Euros.
Many UK workers wouldn't be willing to work back breaking Labour for minimum wage, it's unfortunate but true. Our work and society has progressed away from agriculture, in a way that rural Europe hasn't, so they are more accustomed to it.

[Neon Ignition]

2019 - The Tories Win a Landslide Victory Promising to Get Brexit Done
Ousting May from office, Boris Johnson takes over as Prime Minister and heavily promotes getting Brexit done utilising heavy attack methods against Labour including fake websites and his media links. Winning the General Election in a landslide, the Tories put it down to Johnsons own popularity - But did the Tories win on this basis or was it down to voter frustration over how long the Brexit process was taking?