Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

westernpromise

I've just re-let my flat in central London to three French graduates. They are between 24 and 26 years old and they've come to London to make careers here. They're on about £35 to £37k apiece. The rent's just under £30k a year, so they're splitting that three ways. They're having an adventure and they're very excited to be in London. At their ages and career stages they can look forward to rapid pay improvement.

I mention this because it occurs to me that I never hear of young Britons doing the same. Literally never. I have never ever heard or read of young Britons decamping overseas to seek their fortune in another EU country: in Madrid, in Vienna, in Berlin, in Paris (which would be my choices in order if I were 24). I don't mean short-term non-jobs working as waiters or holiday reps - I mean people uprooting lock stock and barrel and making a serious commitment to live elsewhere.

Is this happening and I'm not hearing about it, or is it not actually happening? If not, I do wonder why the enthusiasm among the yoof for EU membership, because from what I can see (and my letting agent confirms this is far from unusual), they are turkeys in favour of Christmas.EU membership is allowing ambitious young EU foreigners to come to London and live and make careers here, but our own don't appear to be seeking jobs in media in Cologne or textiles in Dusseldorf or leather in Madrid. A flat and three decent London jobs have gone to three French women with the bottle to come here and make a life. Is there a similar traffic the other way?

Enterprise_1701C

Staffybullterrier wrote: »

First of all Brexit or no Brexit the best way to get house prices down all over the country is to tax the buy to let landlords out of existence then we can go back to a situation when Maggie was in power ( YES MAGGIE THATCHER ) when home ownership was at the highest its ever been.
Secondly the EU is just another layer of very very expensive pen pushers that we can do without. Full stop.
Thirdly youngsters cannot get on the housing ladder because they spend too much on Starbucks, the latest phones, the souped up high insurance cars, the gap year out and finally half of them are not clever enough to go to university anyway. All the teachers , lecturers and politicians are kidding youngsters into thinking that they are all going to fall into their dream job and earn £70K a year .Some of them need to take a reality check and perhaps learn a trade instead .At least you wont have the student debt around your neck.

Whilst I agree with a lot of that, what about all the renters that can't get a mortgage? Of course you would also be shelving social housing, is that such a good idea?

We need to let housing settle for itself. If kids choose to have a life before buying a house is it so bad?

I do wish they would make university for the elite again though, so many go and get nothing but debt out of it, they need to ramp up the entry levels again, cut out the mickey mouse degrees and make a degree worth the paper it is written on. It is nothing to do with class as blair seemed to think it was, it is to do with ability, and some kids just don't have what it takes.

westernpromise

Blair was just a typical left-wing snob. He thought you were nothing without a degree so he dumbed degrees down so that anyone could get one.

kabayiri

westernpromise wrote: »

...
I mention this because it occurs to me that I never hear of young Britons doing the same. Literally never. I have never ever heard or read of young Britons decamping overseas to seek their fortune in another EU country:
...

I have 3 young nephews. Right now, one is in Denver; one in London (soon to be Toronto); and one in Sydney.

Last weekend, we were talking about a friend's daughter who lives and works in Germany....except most of her friends don't know she is English. It's not like you wear a badge or anything.

Maybe you are mixing with British people with limited ambitions?

You don't even need to move nowadays. I am in contact all the time with people in Western USA; India; and Australia. There is not much need for face to face bar the occasional visit.

westernpromise

kabayiri wrote: »

I have 3 young nephews. Right now, one is in Denver; one in London (soon to be Toronto); and one in Sydney.

Right, none of which are in the EU. So it's not like the EU is a key part of their life plan.

Maybe you are mixing with British people with limited ambitions?

Perhaps. It's more of a dog not barking thing. You can hardly open a newspaper without reading an article about how hard it is for snowflakes and millennials to buy property. We are also repeatedly told that the young are Remainers. I am therefore mystified that I have seen exactly 0 articles about Remainer millennials who've taken advantage of EU membership to make a life in Vienna that Brexit is jeopardising.

In fact, among British expats, Brexit seems to be of most concern to old gits on the Costa del Sol, who are from the demographic that mainly voted Leave!

You don't even need to move nowadays. I am in contact all the time with people in Western USA; India; and Australia. There is not much need for face to face bar the occasional visit.

Again, though, one is left scratching one's head. If the advantage of the EU to da yoof is the opportunity to live and work in the EU (which it's often said to be), why don't they live or work in the EU, and why do they think they even need to?

I'd be genuinely interested in some stats on this. Anecdotally, the yoof that I know who want to leave the UK don't want to live in France, they want to live in Australia.

Herzlos

There's apparently 1.3 million Brits living in the EU. Not all will be pensioners in Spain:

https://fullfact.org/europe/how-many-uk-citizens-live-other-eu-countries/

I've known a few yoofs who've done uni years in the EU (mostly France), but I suspect that's a tiny number overall.

Arklight

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/09/airbus-space-contract-will-move-from-uk-to-continent-because-of-brexit

A potential !!!8364;200m contract between the European Space Agency and Airbus in Portsmouth will be moved to the continent because of Brexit, the managing director of Airbus said on Wednesday.

Airbus will move all the work for the ground control for the new EU satellite navigation system, Galileo, from the UK to France or Germany should it win the bid.

Colin Paynter, the managing director of the Portsmouth based Airbus Defence and Space told MPs that it was !!!8220;committed!!!8221; to this move as part of its bid for the contract, which it submitted on 24 April.

Its decision is a response to the European Space Agency!!!8217;s rule that it will only allow EU member states be the lead contractors on Galileo work after the 29 March 2019 when the UK is scheduled to leave the bloc.

!!!8220;We have committed, should we win that bid, we will do all of the work in the EU 27 in our sites in France and Germany,!!!8221; Paynter told the Brexit select committee.

Great job Brexitwits.

Great job.

mayonnaise

Arklight wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/09/airbus-space-contract-will-move-from-uk-to-continent-because-of-brexit



Great job Brexitwits.

Great job.

Apparently, we're going it alone.
Our own Global Navigation System, satellites to be launched from the Spaceport on the Shetland islands.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/956646/brexit-news-uk-eu-brussels-galileo-gavin-williamson
Global Britain firing on all cylinders...

Moby

Arklight wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/09/airbus-space-contract-will-move-from-uk-to-continent-because-of-brexit



Great job Brexitwits.

Great job.

What's your take on Corbyn asking the Labour Peers to abstain rather than vote for the amendments on the EU Withdrawal Bill?

kabayiri

westernpromise wrote: »

Right, none of which are in the EU. So it's not like the EU is a key part of their life plan.

...

I agree. Why should they look to the EU? Would you choose a spell in Greece or the Gold Coast in Australia?

I like Greece, but I think they have enough youth unemployment to worry about right now. Same with Spain and Italy.

Within my family as a whole, the focus has moved from Europe to much wider. Maybe it really is down to this globalization business. It's hardly surprising, when so many of us get to mix with Indian IT guys, or Chinese parts producers.