Coffee Shop

21 Oct 2021,  Rafe

Brexit has been most unkind!

I spent 30 years building up business in the UK, always bringing products in from two German companies into the UK, all up in smoke now. This year we lost 75% of our business in the UK because customers were worried. We had to pull out of the Harrogate Christmas Fair in January 2022, next year would have been my 30th year there. All very very sad.

We love to work with the Brits and the Irish and the Harrogate Fair, despite being hard work, was always a great time to meet customers who have become friends over the years and also competitors who had also become friends. This industry is like no other. The week of Harrogate will be very difficult for me. Normally I fly over, build up the fair, sell there, dismantle and then use the opportunity to visit family and friends whilst in the UK.

I am heartbroken.

25 Nov 2021,  Chris
With regard to the recent post by A P "I agree a great shame for many businesses. Unfortunately the problems in the UK are worldwide and not as a result of BREXIT. Kris is right, a great trading body, and still would of been if hadnt been pushed on by power hungry Eurocratic Socialists, to become an expensive (for the UK) , top heavy, unbalanced, unfair and now doomed federal state of Europe. Unfortunately they have done their damndest to make it difficult for us to leave (and dissuade others thinking about it), but as with most Empire`s it will in the end, become too big and too corrupt to survive. They will only have themselves to blame." Quite how the problems (for they are many) that are manifesting themselves in the UK are worldwide and not to be lain at the door of BREXI is factually untrue . Along with your (A P) statement that our membership fee to belong to the EU was expensive , this is disputed by Lord Frost and every Economist (worldwide) . The EU is not a Federal States of Europe , instead it is a close association of European Countries all wanting to better themselves, but to retain their Sovereignty. That is why they each (every Country inside the EU) have their own Postage Stamps, Rates of VAT, a Monarchy (if there's one available) , Banknotes , Parliaments and localised laws and bylaws . Empires indeed, mostly in the passage of time(sometimes quite a lot of time) implode and crumble, quite what an Empire has to do with the EU , I have no idea . Far from difficult to leave , the EU has really not involved itself whatsoever in the UK leaving the EU . The problem has been is that the UK had never really prepared itself to leave the EU . Its BREXIT Politicians believing (fantasists) that the UK leaving the EU would make little difference with how the UK traded with the EU in the Future. One fact escaped all Brexiteers and that is that you are either a Member of the EU , or you are not , if you are not you cannot reap any of its advantages . The ERG forced Pepper Pigs new friend into delivering a hard Brexit , but there was never really anything terribly much better on offer once we decided to shun the customs union and the single market . Brexiteers now have what they voted for , rejoice you won . Just let us all know once you (the Brexiteer) come up with a single advantage you have witnessed that will effect us all positively !
16 Nov 2021,  AP
I agree a great shame for many businesses. Unfortunately the problems in the UK are worldwide and not as a result of BREXIT. Kris is right, a great trading body, and still would of been if hadnt been pushed on by power hungry Eurocratic Socialists, to become an expensive (for the UK) , top heavy, unbalanced, unfair and now doomed federal state of Europe. Unfortunately they have done their damndest to make it difficult for us to leave (and dissuade others thinking about it), but as with most Empire`s it will in the end, become too big and too corrupt to survive. They will only have themselves to blame.
23 Oct 2021,  Kris
So sorry to hear this Rafe, you unfortunately will not be alone. As we all now know there was really no Brexit Deal (there never was) . We (the UK) paid to be a member of the most successful trading Association the World has ever seen for 47 years and it put us in 5th position (of the World Economies) , with a very disproportionate influence around the globe. When you are no longer a member of an Association you no longer get any of the benefits and this is what we are all beginning to experience now , in the huge rises to the cost of living for the inhabitants of the UK . What was sold as the "Sunny Uplands of Brexit" was and is a total fantasy , but apparently a believable one for 17,410,742 of the UK's Electorate for Voted for the UK we now all live in . As a perspective 28,355,758 of the UK's Electorate did not vote for this Brexit shambles we now find ourselves in . I was brought up in a Country that was an outward thinking Country, a land that faced up to most of its responsibilities , that took in many hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe fleeing wars and vile despot regimes. We took in Economic Migrants as well because it grew our Economy and after all a good number of us are decendants of Economic Migrants , some dating back centuries. The Country I was brought up in was England part of the UK and I was proud to call myself British . I however no longer recognise this land and the Nations that make up the UK , this is not the Country I was raised in and its no longer a Country I am remotely proud of being associated with . The UK is very fast becoming the latest Banana Republic , this and the despicable Politics being wielded by this Government of incompetents can all be laid 100% at Brexit's door . On the 16th of August this year I posted here in the Coffee Shop a question about Brexit ,as there had been so many "Leave Supporters" inhabiting this medium . I wanted to know what great opportunities had been gained by everyone in our Industry as a result of Brexit . Needless to say , there was not one reply , no-one it appears from all the "Leave" supporters (that were posting) had been delivered any great opportunities that they wanted to share with the rest of us . Now we have your Posting Rafe , which sums up what a complete disaster Brexit really is for everyone !! (in the UK and as an EU Citizen)
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