Voices: As Brexit’s impact deepens, Independent readers question the true cost of leaving the EU

As the UK continues to reckon with the aftermath of Brexit, debates over its long-term impact remain heated.

While some argue that leaving the EU was a necessary step for sovereignty and regaining control over borders, many feel that the economic and social consequences have been overwhelmingly negative.

Five years post-Brexit, critics argue the country faces rising costs, trade barriers, and a weakened international standing, with businesses struggling due to additional paperwork and lost access to EU markets. Economic growth has slowed, and many industries, such as finance, have seen job losses and relocations to Europe. Immigration has surged, contradicting promises of reduced movement.

When we asked for your views recently, many expressed regret over the decision, citing the loss of freedoms, opportunities for young people, and access to European services.

The lack of tangible benefits even led some to call for a reconsideration of the decision, while others still maintain that distancing from the EU was essential for the UK’s future independence.

Here’s what you had to say:

I have tried very hard to see any benefits of our decision to leave the EU.At every turn it has made our relationship with our biggest trading partner more complicated and costly with little or no reciprocal benefits.I have not been able to identify any piece of EU regulation or law that anyone can show was holding us back or was imposed upon us.

The disinformation and lack of understanding of how the EU functions is huge.The EU parliament is an elected body. It does not enforce laws in member countries; only the council of ministers can agree on laws and rule changes, and then each state parliament has to individually agree. So how this was a lack of sovereignty, I fail to see.

We are definitely worse off. I say tell the EU we made a mistake and ask if we can rejoin.

EddieM

Had it not been for Brexit, my wife and I would not have become French citizens. We moved here to Brittany in 2001. Since then, every return trip to family in the UK seems to be more expensive than the one before. OK, prices are up in France too, but we have a better life now than when we lived in Orpington, SE London. Not least in health care, a consideration that grows steadily as we grow older.

oldnuff

History is the answer, they still hold the memories of being beaten in war by England and then Britain. Even when we were members, they didn’t like us, so now this is shown even more.

My opinion is, we stop international aid that earns nothing back and build our security above everything else, rigorously defend our fisheries and all our assets. Accept friendship and nurture Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, they have been our allies even after the Empire. Trade evenly with any willing partners and try to find alternatives to the EU. Australian and South American wines are good, why use European?

Martyn

It was definitely worth it for Ireland, thank you very much. We took over a quarter of companies relocating due to Brexit (125), with France and Luxembourg also taking around 100 each. In June, London will lose Euro Clearing, which supports 80,000 well-paid jobs.

We have also been able to ban bee-killing pesticides and agree on an EU-wide finance scheme for Covid recovery. Britain would have vetoed both, as well as the tax transparency rules. Britain even vetoed the EU proposal to prevent China from dumping steel in Britain. So yes, we in the EU are very grateful for Brit’s jingoistic stupidity.

You are now the lapdog of Trump. State visits, rolling out the royal family, and plenty of flattery. For whatever scraps of trade you can get.

Damo75

I’d like to retire to Portugal, but without a visa I can only stay a maximum of 90 days. The cost of flights and travel each time I go is prohibitive. Also, without the funds in the bank required for a visa, I can never get one. It seems to me that the Brexit mantra of ‘regaining control of our borders’ has failed. As far as I can tell, we can’t stop the tide of immigration to this country (nor should we, since there is a net gain to our economy). Brexit seems to have had precisely the opposite effect, that is, to prevent emigration. Maybe that was the plan all along…

Mac

Brexit was poorly defined in its intentions, expressed as simply being AGAINST EU membership. Not FOR anything tangible. So it’s hard to assess. But the implicit objectives (reducing migration, deregulation, and prioritizing America or Asia) and the approach used to achieve them (nationalist rhetoric, bellicosity etc.) were not relevant or appropriate to addressing the UK’s main problems. Our main problems were not compromised sovereignty or EU vassal status.

After almost a decade, the benefits of Brexit are almost non-existent, hard to measure, and difficult to perceive. But the costs are enormous for the country’s economy, society, and international standing, as well as in every single sector of activity (including fishing, farming, and finance). Not to mention the many families and individuals affected whose lives have been constrained and their rights severely curtailed.

Any objective assessment would conclude something similar, but Brexit remains a holy cow that escapes public assessment. It is accorded the status of something untouchable, permanent, and beyond the power of public governance. Elevated from democratic accountability and public discussion, it now exists in the realm of God, king, and country.

Marsupial

Gove should change housing benefits and pay only from 28 years, only child tax credit. Young people should be sent to work… Unfortunately, there is no return to 2006 when people in the UK could find a job everywhere, get large benefits, and quickly get a flat with a union. The UK is changed and will never return to its former glory. Mr Cameron allowed a large emigration from the EU, i.e. seven million people, and Germany gave a five-year waiting period for benefits. People came to the UK for benefits and to Germany to work.

If a country has high benefits and a high tax-free amount, then an excess of people will destroy the budget and the country. That is why prices went up and taxes to find money for benefits, the NHS, and schools, but higher various taxes destroy family businesses and small businesses. That is why unemployment is growing. It should be remembered that 17 years have passed since Mr Cameron’s time, so the children of EU emigrants have already grown up and have their own new children. That is why spending on benefits, NHS, and schools is increasing… Only these children have British passports, so we do not count them as emigrants, but social spending is increasing. That is why the UK will have a big problem to develop… People will change governments every four years…

Martin

Efforts to mend ties are proving more complex than expected. On par with having cancelled our subscription to a gym club, it transpires that having been rude for the past 10 years is not helping. Or rather, our new polite behaviour is only handing us comments like ‘tough!’. All we want is to keep on accessing the club premises, but the club refuses to consider this on the grounds that we are not members. How unfair, as we paid the club fees last time just nine years ago… Britain has sowed, thus it should reap.

Karma

As pointed out so effectively by many already on here, Brexit has failed totally. Tax revenues, which we desperately need, are down £40bn, inward investment is lower than it would be as EU members, business costs have inflated, our international reputation and influence have degraded, our young people are denied opportunities, and our freedoms to work and retire in 27 other countries have been taken away. Immigration has gone up rather than down.

We are still following EU rules because there is no practical alternative but have no say in formulating the rules. In short, we have managed to make ourselves poorer, less respected, and have actually lost control and sovereignty rather than gained it.

We now find ourselves stranded without European friends and at the mercy of Trump and Musk. And still, the politicians are too scared to say the obvious.

When someone – probably the LibDems – breaks ranks and points this all out, I suspect the dam will break.

MakeAmericaPottyAgain

Brexit was always a lie: the Leave campaign’s 2016 propaganda included promising we would stay in the Single Market yet ‘control our borders’ and forge lucrative trade deals with the rest of the world, all while supporting our struggling NHS.

Instead, we have the highest immigration, the longest passport queues, a flatlining economy, and a broken NHS. Any company wanting to serve the EU market will set up in Germany or France. 15% of our high tax-paying City jobs have fled to Europe to access that market. Young people can no longer work in the EU to learn a language and culture – we are isolated, diminished, and everyone knows we have made a serious mistake. And yet this Labour government is clinging to the same wrong red lines as Theresa May. Kier Starmer marched with one million Remainers in October 2019 asking for a People’s vote. How about having another vote now, 8 years after 2016, now we know what Leave actually means?

Eleanor

The conservatives tended to use the EU as a whipping post. That is, they blamed the EU for all of the unpopular legislation they wanted to push through. At the same time, British Prime Ministers would sell their grandmother’s for the chance to have their photograph taken on the White House lawn.

Add to that the fact that the EU is a socialist construct and the political leanings in the UK are much more capitalist. That did not make us “good Europeans”.

Both campaigns lied or lied by omission. The Leave campaign circumvented British rules on campaign spending by using the Canadian offices of a company offering the use of software that targeted potential Leave voters online, promising gold-laden streets if we left.

Whereas Remain failed to mention one of the requirements of a previous EU treaty, possibly Maastricht, requiring the UK to give up the London-based financial institutions that generate much of this country’s income. This would break the UK. We would become little Britain.

I would also question if there was any foreign interference in Brexit, specifically Russia. Nigel Farage’s principal backer has or had Russian connections. I cannot remember the guy’s name and I am not suggesting any kind of treasonous intent on his part, but Russia does have history in this area. There have been allegations of potential Russian interference in elections in the United States in recent years, and there should be no doubt that Brexit has not benefitted any country more than Russia. A weakened EU and UK eased the risks to him of his attempted annexation of Ukraine, and the same Russian ship that passed over the Baltic Sea pipeline when it broke also passed over the undersea fiber optic connection to the Shetland Islands when it broke. Brexit served Putin’s interest as well.

Kadien

Putting aside any type of for and against, the one thing I can’t believe is how vindictive the EU is to Britain now. Why do I get the feeling that they are using the UK as a whipping boy and a warning to other states who are threatening to leave? i.e. If you leave, this is what we will do to you. Was it right to leave? It was because we had a democratic vote, and for being democratic, Europe has taken it upon itself to make life as difficult as it can for us.

In a lot of respects, there are many people who will say, “F U, if this is the way you treat us, we have no wish to come back into your German and French-run club, even if we are worse off.”

Only my personal view.

John Amiri

In my industry, we regularly send people to Europe on high-value projects. Their equipment can no longer be driven or flown. Instead, there are reams of paperwork to be completed. Carnets, a thing of the past while we were in the EU, are back. We now must hire extra people to wrangle this. As a direct consequence of Brexit, shipping costs and times have been inflated.

In the immediate aftermath, one company ran up a six-figure bill for extended hire of kit because they couldn’t complete the appropriate paperwork to bring the equipment home. This was due to errors on the way out, which in turn was due to receiving wrong advice from the government department. This is entirely typical of the dumbassed incompetence and negligence of those who forced (by willful misinformation) Brexit on us.

All this has meant that our European colleagues have learned to be less reliant on our expertise. They have trained locals to replace us. Well-paid jobs have been lost.

Since then, I have weeded out ‘friends’ who were found to be guilty of voting for Brexit. Judge people not by what they say, but by the company they keep, and by what they do.

TrussedUpTurkeys

I assess Brexit using the criteria provided by Brexiters. “Take back control of our laws, borders, and money.” So let’s look at them.

Laws – The Retained EU Law bill was scrapped because it was crazy. All we’ve got rid of is stuff that didn’t apply to the UK anyway. Result = Fail.

Borders – Immigration has tripled largely because of Brexit. We have no returns agreement for refugees. The primary driver of Brexit has been the most spectacular Fail imaginable. We gave up frictionless trade to control immigration and it tripled. Astonishing.

Money – A GDP hit of 4-6% (£100bn+), drop in tax take of over £40bn. And people ask why taxes are at the highest level on record and the Winter Fuel Payment is now means-tested. Seriously, I can’t believe people don’t just admit this was a massive mistake.

BigShow

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article here.

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Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk