To follow on from: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/1keliee/would_you_let_the_uk_back_in_the_eu_under_their/ – What do you miss from the UK not being part of the EU travelling, educational and trading bloc?
To follow on from: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/1keliee/would_you_let_the_uk_back_in_the_eu_under_their/ – What do you miss from the UK not being part of the EU travelling, educational and trading bloc?
Comments
6th largest global economy
Major world financial centre in London
A seat at the UN Security Council
A nuclear weapons power
Highly skilled economy with several world-class universities
Honestly? Buying random stuff like cheap books from stores that happen to be UK based. Now it means playing the customs lottery. A lot of companies used to have their EU branch in the UK, and are now effectively out of the single market.
Bought a gift for a friend for 30 GBP recently. Ended up having to pay 15 GBP for shipping. Then got a customs + handling fee for 30-ish EUR. Just… no.
Otherwise nothing much has changed for me. I can still travel there and use the eGates, give or take that new pointless eTA scheme. I suppose I couldn’t move there without a visa now, but that’s never been of interest.
Not paying customs when ordering books from the UK. Now I just order from other EU countries.
being able to buy plants and seeds from them š It is impossible now ….. so sad.
I hope they will have a new referendum and join us again. WE ARE FAMILY
I’m sure we can find a lot of things that are way more important, but at my very personal level, it’s that I used to order Cornish fudges and crackers every Christmas season, but after Brexit it became really difficult because you never know when a package will get stuck at the border, and customs are insanely high.
Also my brother was thinking about working as a windmill engineer in Orkney and Brexit made it too difficult to envisage (not just after it happened, Brexit while it was happening was making things unpredictable). He moved to Belgium instead.
Not paying customs when buying online (something I used to do quite frequently… now, not so much).
Travel has become a bit of a nuisance, also I think there are now fewer UK band touring in the EU. Other than that, I can’t think of any impact on everyday life.
I want my mackerel back, but no, the British catch them all now!
There were nice suppliers of exotic timber in the UK, specially for luthiers. Now, some of those woods aren’t even allowed to cross the borders because it’s too complicated, paper wise.
Being able to just nip over to the UK without having to bother with a visa.
I don’t get free internet in the UK on my mobile phone as a part of my data plan. That’s the only thing I’ve felt personally.
Reading the comments of that other thread I see lots of comments saying the UK needs to adopt the euro, Schengen etc. or else theyāll never get back in the EU.
Are these just Reddit demands or do regular people in the EU actually care about this?
As based on the comments on this thread here it seems a lot of people donāt really care much that the UK left the EU, as it hasnāt directly affected their daily lives much, so if the UK rejoined with their original opt outs they had wouldnāt this also have no direct effect on their daily lives as it would just go back to the status quo?
Personally I donāt mind getting the euro and Schengen etc. but if those were the things to hold us back from rejoining the EU Iād be devastated tbh.
What i miss from the Uk as a German? My british and scottish friends. They used to travel a lot more and we met every now and then. But they do that less now.
Nothing.
That’s not a joke comment or anything, it’s just to give my objective point of view. I expected [things], but so far nothing
Traveling there, not just as EU citizens but also as EU residents. Visa and biometric scan fees for citizens of third countries are insanely high. There’s some really beautiful places in the UK but we’re not going to pay 300 pounds just to get in…
Some internet shopping and its now further down on my tourism short listā¦
I used to order online stuff from the UK way back when but luckily Amazon Spain opened a few years before Brexit.
It does make me sad that the UK left the EU, as a former UK resident. However, I personally havenāt felt an impact of Brexit.
For Ireland, good value used cars, car & motorcycle parts, engineering workshops.
The UK is big in audio. Prices are a lot higher now. For the rest Iām still glad they left the EU. The UK has been ruined by their press and the tories. There are a lot of reactionary ideas there similar to the ones in the US.
Not having to worry about customs documentation and fees.
Right to work in London – I lost count of the recruiters that reached out to me and disappeared the moment I mentioned I need visa sponsorship
As a metalhead, my gripe it’s harder for UK bands to do concerts in the EU. For each country they need to obtain work permit, their merch get stuck at the customs, etc. For big bands like Iron Maiden it’s a hurdle, but for smaller ones that’s a lot of time and money wasted.Ā
There is an interview with one of my favorite vocalists that he explains all the problems:Ā (starts at 2:20 ) – https://youtu.be/1-M2Fept42E?si=ima199EeJ9P8AHys
Sorely miss having a major member state that usually put the brakes on federalist ambitions.
I used to buy Lea&Perrins Worcestershiresauce in bulk from the UK once or twice a year since it’s so expensive and sometimes hard to get exactly this brand. Now it’s not worth it anymore since the customs would be way too much.
Online shopping mostly.
I used to frequently order books, video games, electronics and even some clothes from UK stores. But after Brexit almost all of the websites I used to use have either closed down or stopped shipping outside of the UK.
And the opportunity to potentially get a job in the UK with minimum administrative hassle was also a bonus since in my line of work London is a global hub.
For me itās cheap vinyls. For many of the very niche bands that I love thereās usually a US based label that sells vinyls cheap but at horrendous shipping costs.
And then there is very often a UK counterpart. When the UK was in the EU I was able to order my desired vinyls from the UK, usually for very cheap or no shipping costs. They even often matched euro prices and didnāt even charge currency conversion to pound or straight up offered the euro prices directly.
Nowadays Iām actually finding that itās often cheaper to order in bulk from US opposed to the UK prices with customs and shipping and pound conversion.
The only thing is buying books from the UK. They take a long time to arrive. Otherwise, nothing really.
I miss not having to walk over the border in Mini Europe.
Having to pay import/export taxes when buying something. Also, not being able to travel freely without border clearance.
I love the UK and we have family over there but tbh it didn’t change much for us. I had to do the ETA but other than that? Nothing really changed much.
I feel sorry for the people who voted to remain especially since every time we visited we saw things slowly and steadily stop working in the UK. I don’t think it’s necessarily because of Brexit but it took the opportunity for people to appeal to the European Union to get their rights protected.
Especially housing in and around London as well as public transport is really going downhill it seems to me. But I guess the rich don’t need public transport as long as they can milk their tenants
I stopped ordering from UK online retailers. Before, they could just send the package to Finland. Now, it gets stuck in customs for several weeks, because customs doesn’t have any sort of obligation to move faster. Also, the import duty makes sure that it’s cheaper to look for EU-based alternatives.
I used to send my niblings Terryās chocolate orange each Christmas together with their presents. For the last 3 years I buy their gifts in Poland to avoid 2021 disaster, when their presents got stuck at customs for 2 months and my sibling had to pay a hefty fee to get it back.
Books. Specifically RPGs. I used to buy them all the time from the UK; it was cheap, reliable, and easy. Now of course, duties are ridiculous. I recently took a trip to the UK to visit my daughter and I bought a large number of RPG books becauseā¦here was he chance. Canāt get them from the States (and I expect that situation to get even weirder) and ordering from France or Germany can be odd since often the books I want are in those languages. I live in Hungary so not exactly a bastion of RPG books sales (we have two pretty decent stores, but the owners seem to have tastes different from mine, so no dice, so to speak).
I guess the EU would look cooler on statistics if we had an extra 65 million people and a trillion or 2 more gdp.
I thought more of the political and wider impact here than only personal stuff.
The diplomatic power of the UK would really be helpful. When the EG back in the 1970s formed it’s relations to China, UK diplomats were essential in that.
In that respect, you always heard and read that the Brits were a lot more constructive in the EU than their administrations made it look like.
I used to order things from Amazon UK.
Now I have to use Amazon ES.
My family, we cant afford going there and they cant afford the travel insurance, sending stuff from or to Uk is to expensive and too much hassel and sending over money well cheaper for me, 6 pounds while they have to pay 20 pound to send to me.
I miss the access to the cheap cars you have espacially the enthusiast stuff wich is way cheaper than here
Since my favourite T-Shirt Shop moved from scotland to ireland, I don’t miss anything from the UK.
Honestly, nothing. There was a transition period of “now where can I get a hold of this thing?”, but I have now gotten used to not dealing with GBP anymore and have found all I need around the rest of the EU.
Frozen shit from Iceland and half the crap from M&S that was way cheaper.
The only thing I miss is the fact that I could easily order things from there. Still hate how much more I need to search for what I want, since all the shops I used from the UK are now way too expensive and it takes more time because stop at the customs.
I’m partial to a John Smiths ale. Brexit happened and boom gone. Again not the end of the world just a personal thing I liked.
I can’t buy their used warhammer models without paying import fees
Travesty
Buying fresh food & bringing it back home, or vice versa, bringing fresh food into the UK.
Otoh, not a huge problem as no-one has stopped and/or fined me yet, but officially, it’s smuggling these days (feeling a little cheeky!).
Being able to order stuff from UK & have it delivered swiftly without being held at the customs, and without having to pay any fees.
I used to order a lot of stuff from small family businesses from the UK (wool yarn, cosmetics, stationery, etc), but the customs fees & taxes make it too expensive.
I feel really sorry for those business owners, but I can’t afford to buy from them any more.
While I could list stuff I used to be able to buy without having to pay import duty, mostly I miss the sense that the key players of Europe are in the same union as lil’ old Lithuania and we are all together. I don’t like the animosity towards the British that people show on reddit and other pro-EU places after Brexit.
Plus size clothes. After Brexit our selection has drastically diminished because most of the UK no longer ships to Europe.
Not being able to order vinyl from UK record stores without having to pay high shipping fees + import duties. Otherwise itās all the same for me.
I do think Amsterdam is more expensive now than London, especially for food. In the past I found London extremely expensive, but not anymore.
Like others have already said, ordering stuff from the UK. I’ve only ordered one item since Brexit. It took 6 weeks to arrive and it was nearly lost in customs. After Brexit, it’s easier to order from the US or China than from the UK.
Honestly, the people.
Brits are generally just very nice, interesting and fun people. Stag and Hen Dos and drunk party Brits can be a bit annoying, but even the boisterous ones usually behave when you ask them to, and overall the positives far outweigh the negatives.
I have had so many positive experiences with visiting Brits.
One example of multiple:
3 lads visiting my country randomly walked by while I was moving in. After a brief talk, they went, “Alright, move in sweat sesh is also a way to experience a country. That haul, which floor?” and so they spent 2 hours helping me move in. Afterward they stayed for pizza and beer with me and my friends.
There are noticeably fewer Brits visiting now, and they feel a bit dejected. I would like to see Brits back again with the spirits up.
Some vitamins are best found in UK but customs 0,17ā¬ + 5ā¬ processing fee on 9ā¬ items taught me to find alternatives in Germany
Not being able to buy anything from the UK anymore. Thatās about it.
I have lots of friends in the UK
Just before Brexit I had contemplated moving near one of them because their school had a job opening for a language teacher
That door is now firmly shut.
Well the UK had one of the best airdoft tuning stores for specialized parts and has one really great drone store.
The both had parts easy accessible, which where not to find in the rest of the EU. Now it is cheaper to order from Hong Kong directly.Ā
And no, I won’t be the one paying for brexit.Ā
I miss not being able to go home and take my dog with me without a butt load of paperwork (I’m a Brit living The Netherlands, luckily now with Dutch passport).