Ports feel the chill as trade re-routes around Brexit Britain

[AtW]

"In Holyhead, traffic has fallen 50% as hauliers stymied by Brexit find their way from Ireland to France without entering the UK

Perched on the shores of Anglesey, the island linked by road bridges to the north-west coast of Wales, Holyhead’s geography has given it a leading role in British-Irish trade since the early 19th century.

About 50 miles directly across the Irish Sea from Dublin, a journey of just three-and-a-quarter hours by ferry, Holyhead was until December the second busiest roll-on roll-off port in the UK after Dover. About 450,000 trucks rumbled through each year on their way to Dublin, with cargoes of meat and agricultural produce, secondhand cars and items destined for the shelves of Irish supermarkets.

But the UK’s departure from the EU has changed all that. In just seven weeks, freight volumes have plunged by 50%. The port’s owner, Stena Line, part of the shipping line owned by the Swedish Olsson family, is warning that the slump could be permanent.

Local politicians and businesses say jobs are now at risk. In this red-wall seat, where at the last general election a Conservative MP was sent to parliament for the first time since 1983, about 1,000 jobs depend on the port, 250 of them directly."

https://www.theguardian.com/business...brexit-britain

[AtW]

"In Holyhead, even Santa voted to leave the European Union. Santa’s other name is Richard Burnell. He’s 78 with a long white beard and he formerly worked in local government. This Christmas he will dress in a red suit and give presents to children on the Stena Line ferry.

“I think the idea of the EC [European Community] common market was fine,” says Santa. “But when it got to the stage that they wanted to rule the country, to govern us, I think this is what the people of Britain have kicked up against. We’ve got our own laws which go back hundreds of years.”
‘We were misled. I would change my mind now’


Burnell’s friend Beryl Warner also voted Leave. “In my opinion we were misled,” she says. “I’ve been doing voluntary work all my life, especially in the hospitals … We were told we would have £30 million more for the NHS, and that’s what really prompted me to say leave. I would change my mind now.”

Burnell is more optimistic. “There was a big fishing community in Holyhead, ” he says. “When the EC was formed, it vanished. And when we do get back to Britain we will have our trawling waters back … It’s going to be a challenge, no doubt about it, but it’s a big world out there. We can trade with the rest of the world.”


https://www.irishtimes.com/news/worl...k-up-1.3705798

[Eirikur]

They fell they have been misled, if only they had listened to the arguments remainers made.

[b0redom]

The problem was that the remain folks made none of these arguments. I only heard about things like the Euratom agreement forr buying radioactive isotopes to treat cancer after the referendum.

The UK helped write most of the laws to ensure that 3rd countries didn't get unfettered access to the EU. Those on the remain side should have been screaming it from the rooftops and they didn't.

[Eirikur]

The problem was that the remain folks made none of these arguments. I only heard about things like the Euratom agreement forr buying radioactive isotopes to treat cancer after the referendum.

The UK helped write most of the laws to ensure that 3rd countries didn't get unfettered access to the EU. Those on the remain side should have been screaming it from the rooftops and they didn't.

I suggest you read the posts from the time this sub forum was created just before the referendum

[b0redom]

Amazingly I think that the great British public at large don't read a subforum on a UK contractor website. There may or may not be links there, the point I am making is that (at least as far as I can remember) no one in the remain camp was making these points loudly. On one side it was, sunny uplands, we'll hold all the cards and on the other, we're all doomed everything will break and we'll all be dead/unemployed by Christmas.

I know because I was a bit on the fence at the time, and looking for proper reasons to jump one way or the other.

[AtW]

The problem was that the remain folks made none of these arguments.

These arguments were made externsively and they were countered by - "we'll be like Switzerland or Norway, so it won't be a problem", not that most folks who voted for Brexit cared about rational argument or even cared about consequences of their vote - they just did not think it will affect them personally.

[vetran]

They fell they have been misled, if only they had listened to the arguments remainers made.

What arguments? That brexiters were old, ill educated, retarded, xenophobic and hopefully they would die before the next referendum, sorry they thought you were the SNP!