Food price fears as Brexit import charges revealed

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 97 points – Food price fears as Brexit import charges revealed
bbc.com

The government has revealed how much companies will have to pay to import foods from the EU due to Brexit.

Small imports of products such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will be subject to fees of up to £145 from 30 April, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

The Cold Chain Federation said the new charges would hit food prices.

The government said the fees would pay for "world-class border facilities".

The fee, known as the "common user charge", will apply to animal products, plants and plant products entering the UK from the EU through the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel at Folkestone.

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Oh no! It's the consequences of our own actions!

Except nearly half of the people impacted didn't vote leave...

That's the risk of living in a democracy, I suppose. The majority wins and everyone has to deal with the consequences.

Brexit is the Donald Trump of economic policies.

So many people in the last 10 years have voted for things based on the premise of “how bad can it be,” not realizing they were really voting for “fuck around and find out.”

They are voting for things based on lies and disinformation from unscrupulous politicians and their gofers and propagated by devious and opaque algorithms.

They are not victims. They are proud fools.

Declaring literally half the population "fools" or "dumb" is a bit extreme, don't you think? If it was 10% sure, if it's 50% something else is going on. Dismissing it as "it's just fools" will do nothing to improve it for the next election or referendum (as you can see with Trump in the US now).

We live in a time where it's all too easy for a small group with malicious motives and money (be it corrupt politicians, foreign governments or rich olicharchs businessmen) to sway the public opinion. That is the problem that needs fixing, by limiting the echo chamber effects of social media, the power of media conglomerates, and better education in general.

It'd be interesting to know what percentage of those that voted for Brexit actually knew what the Customs Union was. I suspect incredibly low. Yet Brexit got through on jingoism, populism and downright lies, oh and greed.

This is why I'm not for referenda generally. Decisions like this are way too complicated and have way too many difficult to foresee implications for anyone to make a well-informed decision on, unless you take the time to really study it. It's the whole reason we have the governmental system we have: you elect people you think will represent your opinion best, who then have the dedicated time to do the research required.

I understand your argument and there's some truth to it. But on the other hand exactly these kinds of decisions (joining/leaving the EU/NATO/...) have an incredibly strong possible effect, so them being done only based on the decisions of some politicians that were elected on some promises possibly quite unrelated to that decision has its own set of problems.

Falling to an endless onslaught of misinformation and hate stirring through a system which poorly educated you. Perhaps they appear as proud fools but they are also victims in their own right. Being preyed upon by companies, media organisations, and politicians.

I can see hundreds of small businesses going under along with thousands of jobs because of these stupid import tariffs and fees. Yet they dress it up and justify it as something good. That income stream will dry up damn quickly when the imports stop along with exports.

Brexit has been a vote to repeatedly punch ourselves in the face.

Remember when you are struggling to afford to eat... Your conservative coworkers, neighbors and family did this. And they did it gleefully, as conservatives do.

Nothing good in all of human history has ever come from conservatism. Nothing at all.

Can't wait for the new generation of smuggling. BRB buying a rowboat and a cove

Unmanned autonomous dinghies monitored via a LoRa mesh are the way. The Cove is a good shout, though.