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Cont: Brexit: Now What? The Perfect 10.

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On the Dutch news this morning was a short bite how lots of tech companies are moving from the London exchange to the one in Amsterdam and how that is increasing revenue. Cheers Nigel.
 
That is basic economics. It will find a level, and we will be poorer for it.

A significant drop in EU trade will mean that Brexiteers can claim victory - a greater proportion of UK trade is with the rest of the world.....:crazy::crazy:

Remoaners will point out that Brexiteers promised that trade with the rest of the world would rise to more than replace any lost EU trade rather, rather than trade with the rest of world dropping less.

Either way Brexit + Government's horrible mismanagement of Covid = We're ****** :(
 
A significant drop in EU trade will mean that Brexiteers can claim victory - a greater proportion of UK trade is with the rest of the world.....:crazy::crazy:

Remoaners will point out that Brexiteers promised that trade with the rest of the world would rise to more than replace any lost EU trade rather, rather than trade with the rest of world dropping less.

Either way Brexit + Government's horrible mismanagement of Covid = We're ****** :(

Still now we have control of our borders, we can deport those with criminal records - which will make a change from deporting those who actually are British citizens.

Oh

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...sing-pressure-over-deletion-of-police-records
 
Meanwhile, supermarkets are reporting a shortage of certain fresh veg - cauliflowers, broccoli and lettuce, among others. Our upcoming Sainsbury's delivery might be short of a few veg and other things. MrsB is worried about her regular delivery of authentic (i.e. smelly) Camembert, though I'm more of a Cheddar man myself. A bottle of Malbec has been put in as a substitute for a box of Merlot :eek:
 
Meanwhile, supermarkets are reporting a shortage of certain fresh veg - cauliflowers, broccoli and lettuce, among others. Our upcoming Sainsbury's delivery might be short of a few veg and other things. MrsB is worried about her regular delivery of authentic (i.e. smelly) Camembert, though I'm more of a Cheddar man myself. A bottle of Malbec has been put in as a substitute for a box of Merlot :eek:

Yes, substitutions are often very bad, and sometimes quite amusing.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/17-times-supermarkets-tried-substitute-7932009
 
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The developer I’ve talked about previously has decided they will grow their existing EU based studio and close their UK studio by summer - they have a crunch period coming up in September and since they can no longer move staff around as needed they can’t take the risk of not having a pool of employees.

The current UK based staff will be offered a chance to move if 1) they want to and 2) they are eligible to work in the country. Personally I doubt any of them will want to move, this is an established company with many “mature” employees who have worked there for over 10 years and to be blunt the other studio is in a godforsaken area in a bleak country lacking much of the comforts of a UK based life.

They’ve been talking to a journalist from a major newsgroup so their story may get a wider audience.
 
The developer I’ve talked about previously has decided they will grow their existing EU based studio and close their UK studio by summer - they have a crunch period coming up in September and since they can no longer move staff around as needed they can’t take the risk of not having a pool of employees.

The current UK based staff will be offered a chance to move if 1) they want to and 2) they are eligible to work in the country. Personally I doubt any of them will want to move, this is an established company with many “mature” employees who have worked there for over 10 years and to be blunt the other studio is in a godforsaken area in a bleak country lacking much of the comforts of a UK based life.

They’ve been talking to a journalist from a major newsgroup so their story may get a wider audience.
I think you are wrong. I am sure Tech was one of the areas Boris said would boom after Brexit. Tech, green energy and food banks, I think that was the three.
 
The developer I’ve talked about previously has decided they will grow their existing EU based studio and close their UK studio by summer - they have a crunch period coming up in September and since they can no longer move staff around as needed they can’t take the risk of not having a pool of employees.

The current UK based staff will be offered a chance to move if 1) they want to and 2) they are eligible to work in the country. Personally I doubt any of them will want to move, this is an established company with many “mature” employees who have worked there for over 10 years and to be blunt the other studio is in a godforsaken area in a bleak country lacking much of the comforts of a UK based life.

They’ve been talking to a journalist from a major newsgroup so their story may get a wider audience.

Which country is it? I don't think there are that many "bleak countries lacking comforts of UK life". Especially after Brexit...
 
Which country is it? I don't think there are that many "bleak countries lacking comforts of UK life". Especially after Brexit...

Yeah not many EU countries I wouldn't choose over the UK given the opportunity to be honest but that's not the typical English mindset.

Presumably from the description it was Romania, Bulgaria or somewhere like that? Depending on where you are there (outside the biggest cities) then yes some of the places wouldn't be my cup of tea.
 
Which country is it? I don't think there are that many "bleak countries lacking comforts of UK life". Especially after Brexit...

For many in the UK, they'd want similar infrastructure and levels of economic development to what they currently have in the home counties so that would exclude anywhere that used to be behind the iron curtain and most of southern Europe.

They'd also want English to be routinely understood so that they don't need to learn some horrible foreign lingo and the weather shouldn't be much worse than at home. IMO that would leave:

  • The Netherlands
  • Luxembourg
  • Urban Denmark
  • Southern Sweden
  • Bits of Germany
  • Tiny bits of France
 
Yes, substitutions are often very bad, and sometimes quite amusing.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/17-times-supermarkets-tried-substitute-7932009

I wondered if my (vegetarian) sister’s experience might have made it. Tesco Norwich sent her a meat lover’s pizza instead of a four cheese pizza, which she might have excused, but she was very annoyed at them putting in Lincolnshire sausages instead of Quorn sausages.

Edit - I suppose it depends on the size of box, but I’d probably prefer a randomly selected bottle of Malbec to a randomly selected Merlot.
 
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I wondered if my (vegetarian) sister’s experience might have made it. Tesco Norwich sent her a meat lover’s pizza instead of a four cheese pizza, which she might have excused, but she was very annoyed at them putting in Lincolnshire sausages instead of Quorn sausages.

Yes, everyone knows Quorn is in Quornwall, not Lincolnshire :D
 
For many in the UK, they'd want similar infrastructure and levels of economic development to what they currently have in the home counties so that would exclude anywhere that used to be behind the iron curtain and most of southern Europe.

They'd also want English to be routinely understood so that they don't need to learn some horrible foreign lingo and the weather shouldn't be much worse than at home. IMO that would leave:

  • The Netherlands
  • Luxembourg
  • Urban Denmark
  • Southern Sweden
  • Bits of Germany
  • Tiny bits of France

All nice places to visit, and in particular Copenhagen and Dutch cities would be livable. Luxembourg would drop off my list due to the high lost of living, as might Sweden. You could probably add a smattering of Southern European cities as well to the list of acceptable places for Brits to move. Plus Dublin. Tallinn is a great city, where a couple of my friends live, but when I visited last it was minus 16...

I think your point 2 will be more difficult to meet these days than desire to move, though. Without FoM, how many would be eligible ahead of an EU candidate for the job?
 
Which country is it? I don't think there are that many "bleak countries lacking comforts of UK life". Especially after Brexit...

Not going to say as it would be pretty easy to identify them - I asked permission to talk about them and they are fine as long as they can’t be identified by what I say. Their story may appear in the media soon so all the details will be out there.

One “comfort” of the UK is that the majority language is a form of English, in the other country they pretend to not understand English even when things are said very loud and very slowly!

As I said these are mostly “mature” people (if you didn’t know “mature” is a popular euphemism when we want to comment legally about someone’s age! Mature = older) They have roots put down, partners, children at school, homes and so on. To move permanently would be to tear all that up.


ETA: In case you think these are Little Englanders - they aren’t really, just average people. Most of them were used to going working in the other studio for weeks at a time, sometimes months but there is a huge difference between a temporary assignment were the company pays for your living costs, flights back to the UK every weekend and moving over there lock stock and barrel with your family.

And as I said they may not even be eligible to move, being more mature quite a few of them haven’t come up the academic route so don’t even have required paper qualifications. From my small amount of research it appears that they will have to have sponsored employment so if they left the company for any reason they’d have to move straight back to the UK.
 
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Not going to say as it would be pretty easy to identify them - I asked permission to talk about them and they are fine as long as they can’t be identified by what I say. Their story may appear in the media soon so all the details will be out there.

One “comfort” of the UK is that the majority language is a form of English, in the other country they pretend to not understand English even when things are said very loud and very slowly!

As I said these are mostly “mature” people (if you didn’t know “mature” is a popular euphemism when we want to comment legally about someone’s age! Mature = older) They have roots put down, partners, children at school, homes and so on. To move permanently would be to tear all that up.


ETA: In case you think these are Little Englanders - they aren’t really, just average people. Most of them were used to going working in the other studio for weeks at a time, sometimes months but there is a huge difference between a temporary assignment were the company pays for your living costs, flights back to the UK every weekend and moving over there lock stock and barrel with your family.

And as I said they may not even be eligible to move, being more mature quite a few of them haven’t come up the academic route so don’t even have required paper qualifications. From my small amount of research it appears that they will have to have sponsored employment so if they left the company for any reason they’d have to move straight back to the UK.

I would think schooling would be a big issue for moving yes. I don't think language would be a problem in general especially in most big cities and you might find large parts of former Eastern Bloc countries are pretty fluent in English. You obviously have all the touristy locales as well in Southern Europe.

But you are probably going to have to send your kids to an international school where classes are taught in English and that can be expensive if the company isn't funding it.

If it was just me I'd quite happily move to Prague or Bucharest or Sofia but once kids are involved it all becomes more complicated. Especially if the likelihood is that it would only be temporary. I did for a period have a potential opportunity to relocate to Prague but I didn't pursue it.

But I wouldn't say these places are bleak or lacking in UK comforts. It's just the practicalities that are awkward.
 
Most likely you'll pay fees on receipt. (That's how it works here in Czech Republic)

Nope. I sent an email to the UPS guy who cleared it last week with Finnish customs and he replied, 'Seems the British have a problem over there with Brexit as they haven't scanned it yet. It's all clear our end. We can't say when you'll get it'.

If only I'd offered to pay the customs fee at the time. Now it is at least €54 (three days plus first three days no fee) so probably disproportionate to the value of the parcel.

UK: the world seems to be laughing at you!!! SORT IT OUT!!!
 
I...snip...

If it was just me I'd quite happily move to Prague or Bucharest or Sofia ....snip...

The EU based studio is not in any major city, think of an old style soviet industrial town that has - via a lot of terrible EU money - had quite a redevelopment over the last 10 years. And there are no international schools nearby - in fact there really is nothing nearby - transfer from the airport is a 2 and a half hour journey.
 
No, they've sent a parcel to the address they were given. Customs and import duties are not the responsibility of Amazon.

Not sure exactly what the process is in Finland but i imagine it will be held by the post office until you pay what is owed.

Of course you have to pay BEFORE you receive the parcel, why would anyone pay otherwise?

ETA: For future reference if you are getting sent any more Amazon parcels better to purchase from an EU Amazon site like amazon.de and then there won't be any taxes or customs to worry about.


AIUI if the person sending the goods is an Amazon seller (rather than Amazon itself) then they are responsible for all handling cost and cannot hold Amazon liable for them. However, when you buy goods from Amazon and they accept the delivery address you have chosen (IOW this seller or Amazon itself has consented to send it abroad for the specified postage shown). The postage cost is added on. End of.

The person who send me the package shouldn't have to worry any further.

In my experience, having sent stuff to Finland from the UK via Amazon, they usually do it via Amazon EU anyway, based in the Netherlands or similar.

Amazon de wouldn't let me register with them as they had me down as UK, although, strangely I've had no problem registering with Amazon USA, but cannot download kindle or mp3 stuff.

The parcel is being sent as a gift so I wasn't in a position to offer advice to the sender.
 
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