[arcturus17]

Well, many people already warned about this, but Brexiters retorted with two arguments:

(1) The lack of EU regulation would allow the UK to negotiate its own trade deals with non-EU countries, potentially making up the loss of trade with the EU

(2) The lack of red tape would also allow the UK to become find new efficiencies in the production of goods and services

The UK is a resourceful country so in the long run they will make up for some of the loss, but I doubt they will ever reach the same trade potential as if they had stayed in the EU. What's clear is that the short term looks dire for a lot of businesses.

[jlokier]

> The lack of red tape would also allow the UK...

The irony being that red tape has gone way up due to Brexit, not down, and this was obviously going to happen to anyone with even small amounts of experience with international trade.

Things have become so much more expensive and difficult that some businesses are shutting down due to non-viability, some EU businesses have decided they can no longer ship to the UK (not worth the hassle), and UK businesses have decided they can no longer ship to EU countries.

There was one company I saw recently that now ships products to every country in the world except the UK, because the UK is currently more difficult to deal with than random third countries.

[radicalbyte]

I'm British and living in The Netherlands.

The British - like the Germans - are good at doing. They're going to have a really hard time for the next decade but they'll pull themselves out of the slump.

The Dutch - they are more "managerial", the culture involves spending a huge amount of time talking and very little doing. Our PM is a great example - he's an identikit guy in a suit, who ticks all of the boxes. Even as far as keeping the parts of his life which do not confirm to standard quiet. No vision, manages like a soft MBA, mediocre. Looks a saint compared to Johnson or Trump. The previous guy was the same.

Just compare our vaccination efforts to those of the UK or Germany. Miles behind. We're probably still discussing the ethical ramifications and impact of the human rights of the tiny subgroup of people who will reject the vaccination for hipster*/religious reasons

* Management culture, so you have an army of dummies who study something easy at university so they can get a career in middle management, drinking coffee and reading/sharing pseudo science on Facebook.