Brexit reduced goods exports by £27bn – with smaller firms most affected

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1. Try to read on what it takes to export just a book to an EU customer. It’s not just customs to be paid or shipping that’s the issue, that is almost a non-issue.

   There is so much bureaucracy that a small business can’t afford. Even if you sell just a few items to the EU, you have to charge the proper VAT rate by destination country AND report it to the EU but you can only do that with a partner INSIDE the EU. Naive thinking is that you can just pay in from the UK and have it done.

   Then there are also recycling fees, eg. if you sell books to france, it’s made of paper and paper has a mandatory per kilogram environmental fee – payable in France. And Germany another system. Etc.

   It’s practically suffocating small and medium sized business exports, unless you’re a large corporation who can afford to do the accounting and paperwork.

   (I don’t claim to be 100% correct on all above details, but this is what I found when I tried)

2. The Hidden Cost of Outsourcing post Brexit: A Slow Descent into Irrelevance

   I work for telecom and the trend is similar, Every telecom and IT job that isn’t bolted down has been outsourced to countries like India, and the consequences are catastrophic. Governments are watching silently as this trend accelerates, leaving their tax revenues gutted and their talent pools hollowed out. Here’s the harsh truth:

   1. Eroding Local Talent: With jobs leaving, the local workforce is left with fewer opportunities. The younger generation, seeing no prospects, avoids STEM careers altogether. Over time, this leads to a complete loss of expertise in critical fields like telecom, IT, AI, and cybersecurity. We’re building dependency on foreign labor—and that’s a dangerous gamble.

   2. Massive Tax Leak: Outsourcing doesn’t just cost jobs; it drains national budgets. High-wage local jobs fuel income taxes, and their loss creates a fiscal black hole. Add corporate tax avoidance, and governments are left scrambling for revenue. Why aren’t they acting on this? The silence is deafening.

   3. Short-Term Thinking, Long-Term Collapse: Companies celebrate their cost-cutting wins while communities crumble. Outsourcing saves money for now, but it cripples innovation and economic resilience for tomorrow. The West is setting itself up for failure, falling behind in industries it once led.

   4. Where’s the Push for STEM? Despite these glaring issues, governments aren’t aggressively promoting STEM education or protecting high-value industries. Why? Likely a mix of lobbying by corporations focused on short-term gains and a lack of strategic foresight. But this lack of action risks permanent economic and strategic damage.

   The bottom line: We’re trading long-term stability for short-term profits, and it’s a bargain that will push us into irrelevance. It’s time for governments and businesses to wake up and prioritize local investment, innovation, and sustainability. Otherwise, the future won’t be one we can afford to compete in.

   —

   Why Governments Aren’t Pushing STEM and Tackling the Tax Problem

   Governments’ inaction on STEM and outsourcing boils down to a few factors:

   1. Corporate Influence: Large corporations lobby hard to keep labor costs low. Outsourcing serves their bottom line, and they exert significant pressure to avoid regulations that would force local hiring or STEM investment.

   2. Short-Term Focus: Politicians often prioritize visible, short-term wins (e.g., stock market performance, GDP growth) over long-term investments like education and talent development.

   3. Globalization Myopia: Many governments are stuck in a mindset that globalization will solve everything. They’re reluctant to regulate outsourcing due to fears of retaliation or trade barriers in other industries.

   4. Lack of Public Awareness: Outsourcing’s damage is gradual, not immediate. Unlike a visible crisis, it’s harder to rally public support for STEM investment or tax reforms tied to outsourcing losses.

   The danger is clear: without local STEM growth and proactive policies, we’re not just losing jobs and taxes—we’re losing the future.

3. We’re in this position because the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson lied to us.

   If it wasn’t for Brexit we’d be wealthier, there would be less poverty and suffering in the UK and the politics of the past eight years would have been more stable.

   If you voted for this and you now regret your decision, you should be doing everything you can to campaign against the cunts who did this to our country.

4. Yet people are still gonna vote for Farage and his goons at the next election like they did at the last election. People believe what they want to believe and in this post-truth era, it’s far too easy for snake oil salesmen like Farage to get away with it.

5. Still waiting on anything positively to have come out of this

6. Its killed so many small business it’s insane. The sheer amount of duty charged for people in Ireland is truely bizarre..

   Brexit fuckwits

7. Having worked on the legislative side of things, items that carry a CE mark are still acceptable in the UK but UKCA marked products do not qualify in the EU. This was one of the most straightforward Brexit benefits the government could have put in, some protectionism but instead did the exact opposite and added protectionism to the EU but depleted it in the UK. Twats

8. Alternatively, you can read research from other economists that says Brexit has had no effect on trade whatsoever:

   https://iea.org.uk/media/brexit-leaves-uk-trade-unscathed-finds-new-iea-report/

   The lesson? Economics is a pseudo-science which, like opinion polls, is easy to rig to say whatever you want it so say.

   Speaking as someone who studied it to post-grad level.

9. Prepared to be lied to again but with steroids from musk

10. I live in Portugal and everyone I know has long given up ordering anything from the UK. Sure I can order from M&S because they are big enough to have warehouses in the EU and have tons of staff to sort any needed paperwork. Ordering from small UK firms is out of the question. I ordered some sweets from [amazon.es](http://amazon.es) but failed to notice they shipped from the UK. The customs and admin fees were more than the cost of the goods. Even if you do get your goods they are likely to be held in customs for ages – my wife got a gift stopped in customs from a mate in the UK and had to send it back due to fees and paperwork.

    It makes no real odds to me as I can find and order what I need elsewhere in the EU (bar a few specialist things)

11. All my pro Brexit friends have the argument that it wasn’t Brexit that was the problem it was the implementation and we may not see the returns for another decade. Bullshit if you ask me

12. There are some people blaming Boris, unfairly.

    He delivered the exact Brexit the ultras wanted and kept shouting for.

    And he also promised “global Britain”, and he fully delivered that surely, 3 million more people from the globe than before Brexit.

    That’s success.

    Don’t you agree, Brexiters?

13. Nom nom nom eating up all those brexit benefits! Thanks guys!

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