Prepping for Brexit thread

mattpaint wrote: »

I've begun quietly filling up my pantry with food that lasts from the EU that's going to become hard to come by after we leave. It's a seriously sad state of affairs that it's come to this.

I see no reason why food from EU will be "hard to come by" once we leave. Are they not going to sell it to us then? And any tariffs will be of our choosing, not imposed by EU


For those of us who were alive pre EU, Common Market, we used to buy cheap food from Common Market then, they were dumping it because of their over supply & rigged market subsidies to their farmers


The farm subsidies still exist, and I doubt French farmers will be blockading ports to stop us buying their produce instead of letting it rot in their fields

Farway wrote: »

I see no reason why food from EU will be "hard to come by" once we leave. Are they not going to sell it to us then? And any tariffs will be of our choosing, not imposed by EU

For those of us who were alive pre EU, Common Market, we used to buy cheap food from Common Market then, they were dumping it because of their over supply & rigged market subsidies to their farmers

The farm subsidies still exist, and I doubt French farmers will be blockading ports to stop us buying their produce instead of letting it rot in their fields

Let's hope you're right. The owners of a Spanish deli/restaurant I shop in aren't as confident unfortunately.

Farway wrote: »

I see no reason why food from EU will be "hard to come by" once we leave. Are they not going to sell it to us then? And any tariffs will be of our choosing, not imposed by EU

Firstly, if there's no deal, on 29 March 2019, then there won't be a transition period. Contrary to Leaver politicians saying that we will have countries queuing up to sign deals with us, several have objected to the way in which the EU and UK are proposing to split agricultural import quotas. We aren't a WTO member in our own right and it only takes one country to say no and we are blackballed, Argentina for example.

If we do get accepted by WTO then we have to abide by their rules. There's no question of us winging it all ourselves, having our own standards and tariffs. Who would want to buy our food, for example ? Farmers have recently been caught out dodging Red Tractor standards.

The Commonwealth is unlikely to welcome us with open arms. Commonwealth countries are the ones objecting to the quota split. They see it as being disadvantageous to them and too advantageous to a small island. Secondly DFID has been telling poorer countries that a vote against UK means no aid and they don't like that bullying. CARICOM in the Caribbean is a trading bloc and British territories, who didn't get a vote, will find themselves facing tariffs to export to EU-owned territories in CARICOM, and cut off from EU aid programmes.

If you're an exporter of anything, who are you going to prioritise, an island of 65m people or a continent with 480m people, the biggest trading bloc in the world ? If you are mired in red tape that eats into your profits, you'll want to prioritise countries in the same system because it's less hassle.

The Channel Tunnel is French-owned now. Stena Line isn't British, neither is DFDS. These EU- member state owned companies will follow EU law. British driving licences will be invalid in the EU unless the driver has an International Driving Permit. What about insurance ? What about safety standards of vehicles ?

The Le Touquet Agreement is between UK and France. What happens if France pulls out ? UK customs would return to Dover.

So it is likely that even before March, food from the EU and elsewhere may become scarcer. Companies may choose not to renew contracts which expire between now and March. No-one can force them to supply us.

I hear you, maryb , and now I think is a good time to revisit the purpose and theme of this thread as stated in post 1, I.e. what preps can be made to make things easier, less expensive and less disruptive when Brexit does happen. I would advise anyone who wishes to debate the pros and cons, the rights and wrongs etc that there is an active Brexit thread on the Discussion Time forum which covers just about everything Brexit related, and the regulars there are more than happy to debate with fresh blood.

IIRC the Prepping thread - a new beginning came about after a similar discussion between posters on whether or not it should include political / current affairs viewpoints, and a voting system was put in place by moderators in order to reach a decision. The majority voted to include posts with political and similar content. Perhaps the same thing should be put in place for this thread? Or alternatively a second Prepping for Brexit thread started so that all viewpoints can be included?


Threads in an open forum - particularly on a subject like prepping for Brexit, which will mean different things to different people - are inevitably going to develop organically in many different directions.
Surely all views add to everyone's learning and perspective?








































Personally, my prepping priorities are medium/long-term - for example, ensuring that we are as professionally well qualified as possible / as competitive as possible in terms of employment, so that we are in a strong position to retain good jobs whatever may or may not happen. I am also very, very concerned about the dire state of public services - I am a senior manager in local authority crisis services and any additional pressure or disruption, however it is caused, will impact appallingly on many of the most vulnerable families, which in turn impacts adversely on society. Others will have different priorities based on different viewpoints, which I would like to know more about - the more the merrier imo.