this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday will blame Brexit for costing the UK economy £140 billion ($178 billion), calling on the government to “urgently” rebuild relations with the European Union to stem the decline.

Britain’s EU divorce has also meant there are 2 million fewer jobs nationwide than there otherwise would have been, including 290,000 lost positions in London, according to research by Cambridge Econometrics commissioned by City Hall that the Labour Party’s Khan will reference in a speech at Mansion House. Half of the total job losses are in financial services and construction.

“The hard-line version of Brexit we’ve ended up with is dragging our economy down and pushing up the cost of living,” Khan will say, according to excerpts released by his office. “The cost of Brexit crisis can only be solved if we take a mature approach and if we are open to improving our trading arrangements with our European neighbors.”

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[–] obinice@lemmy.world 68 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Okay but think of all those millions we were sending to the EU that can now be spent on the NHS!

Just like the bus said! Right guys?

Guys?

[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 38 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Just think of all the trade agreements Britain has made now that it can independently negotiate! Why, the FTA with Australia alone increased GDP by checks notes 0.08%. Wait, that can't be right. Surely the British public weren't misled about any of this?

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

You know what’s closer to the UK than Australia?

Literally any European country.

In fact you can just drive goods into Britain from Europe or put them on a train instead of shipping/flying it from literally the other side of the world.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And you can have those deregulated pillows you've always dreamed about.

[–] Wodge@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And the return of bendy bananas!

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

Pints of wine!

Sam Allardyce will be delighted.

[–] 13esq@lemmy.world 58 points 10 months ago

That's over £2000 for every man woman and child in the UK.

I want to be outraged, but I'm so politically fatigued.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago

£140 billion ($178 billion) so far

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

In the words of my ex, "I thought it would've been bigger."

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if anyone learned anything. I wonder if the people who did learn anything learned the more general case of "conservatives have bad ideas"

[–] verysoft@kbin.social 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Its funny because they started it from a conservative trying to prove the people wont do it. Said conservative then resigned when people went ahead and did it.

[–] wiccan2@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Said Conservative has also been rewarded for all of this by being made a lord.

[–] andthenthreemore@startrek.website 15 points 10 months ago

Put that on the side of a bus.

[–] june@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is there anyone that’s still defending brexit and calling it a good thing?

[–] WilloftheWest 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My bootlicking family, who insists “we got our country back” but refuses to elaborate when I ask basic questions such as “from whom? How? What has materially changed?”

[–] june@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Ok, so the same type that argue that trump was the best president we’ve ever had but can’t point to a single reason why.

[–] EnderMB@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Funny enough, an article came out after the Brexit vote called "The Sociology of Brexit", where they detailed why people voted for it. It was basically because London is responsible for our entire economy, leading to large parts of the country having few jobs, no industry, and the government largely not giving a fuck. In their minds, things couldn't get any worse, so they didn't care that experts were saying "it'll ruin the economy", because the economy hasn't helped them out at all.

Why I distinctly remember that article is because it predicted that the exact same thing was likely to happen in America, and that Trump would win the presidency. Usually, UK politics is a good 10-20 years behind America, but it's something that translated directly across the atlantic.

[–] SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 3 points 10 months ago

"He's trolling the libs so hard! Haha!"

— my shitbrained ex friend

[–] EnderMB@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Nigel Garage made it to third place in I'm A Celeb. There are a lot of thick flag-shaggers out there that still have their head in the sand.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

the money went somewhere.. it's in somebody's pockets, just look around and see who got rich.. i'm betting it was the people who were already disgustingly wealthy before the big move..

[–] straypet@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you have a car worth 20k and you total it into a wall, those 20k don't go into someone else's pocket, that value is just gone.

Brexit is the wall, the UK's economy is the car.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

You are thinking about economy as a Zero sum game, but that's not how economy works. Even if there are people that make money when the economy is down, that doesn't mean they make as much as others have lost. If they did, the economy wouldn't be down, it would merely have shifted.
The fact that economy is NOT a zero sum game, is kind of a corner stone in how EU works. We all benefit from being able to trade with each other on equal terms.

The fact that UK is doing as poorly as they are, kind of proves the idea is right. You can be against EU for ideological reasons, but being against it for economic reasons, make little sense. And the Brexit campaign constantly hammered the idea, that despite all reason, UK would somehow benefit economically from Brexit. Anyone who believed the Brexit propaganda were conned.

The ones that might gain from this, are the filthy rich, who are working on undermining UK welfare and general conditions for middle and lower class people, to exploit the population more for their own gains.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

the shift in relative wealth is even bigger

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Yes, working class is being systematically undermined, I think that may have been part of why the likes of Boris Johnson wanted out. They are doing things now that wouldn't be legal as an EU member. For instance limiting the democratic freedom to protest.

[–] radiosimian@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Dude. The UK broke its trade deals and left. Now it pays increased taxes on all goods and services from the EU.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Some were paid off, others kompromized. Brexit was a pootin endeavor.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

he works for the world billionaire class, and they are the ones who profit by this kind of thing

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can anyone explain how this increased the cost of living other than companies being greedy?

[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 39 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Legislation, paperwork, border checks and tariffs make it more expensive and difficult to transport stuff to the UK. Companies importing from the EU pass on the higher cost of transport to customers. Customers now pay more for the same thing because it costs more to import.

EDIT: Should also mention that this applies to stuff made in the UK too. I doubt there's many industries that don't use anything from the EU for raw materials. If you make a widget with German steel, you still pay for that import even if your widget is made in the UK. That cost gets passed on to customers too.

[–] BritishDuffer@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Also the falling value of GBP makes importing anything much more expensive.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Gotcha, thanks!

[–] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

What they really mean is "Brexit gave tory cunts the opportunity to rob the uk economy of £140bn and stick it their own pockets" someone needs to punch sunak in that smug horse face of his. Cunt!!

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

🇮🇳: Nice!

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

140 in reference to what? What percentage of GDP is that? I don't like large numbers that don't have a reference point listed too. It might as well say £1.4e11 because it's just as descriptive and meaningless without a sense of proportion. A percentage would have been a lot more useful.

[–] bluemellophone@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You don’t need a percentage to make that number meaningful. That amount of money would nearly fund the US Navy for 1 year. They operate multiple nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does a number comparing it to a US thing contribute as much as giving a reference point to the UK thing? Comparing it to something outside of the UK doesn't make it very relevant to UK people. Especially since most people have zero concept of the US naval budget as we tend to lump all military spending together in the US.

I just looked it up and the entire military budget for the UK is $68 billion. "Brexit cost UK twice annual defense budget" offers a much better scope. It hits in a way that a number too large for people to grasp just can't do."

[–] bluemellophone@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

You do you, boo boo.

[–] Lightrider@lemmynsfw.com -2 points 10 months ago

Fuckingcapitalists