Seven years after Brexit, Britain has the highest inflation in four decades
A combination of factors caused chaos in the region: strong winds, a greater number of vehicles leaving for Holy Week and the delay in checking passports of travelers between the two countries.
This bureaucracy among European neighbors is just one of the consequences of a decision the British made almost seven years ago.
1 of 2 UK exit queue — Photo: JN UK exit queue — Photo: JN
Britain faces a crisis that can be explained with the help of a tomato. The vegetablelooking fruit was rationed in UK markets in some chains the shelves were even empty with a percustomer sales limit.
She claims that the UK could have dribbled some of the impact of these crises had it not been for Brexit.
Kings College University researcher Joel Reland explains that this result is mainly due to immigration.
“As citizens of the European Union, workers from 27 other countries could come and go freely. The main aim of Brexit was to control this flow,” he stresses.
And the promises went even further: there would be more funding for the public health system, more jobs for the British and higher wages.
“But seven years later we see that this does not correspond to reality,” says the researcher. What we have seen in the past few months has been a strike in healthcare, transportation and various sectors.
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Since formally leaving the European Union, the UK has lost over 460,000 European workers and only 30% of this workforce has been matched with people from other countries.
“For example, you’ll see ‘Hire’ signs all over a street in central London, because a lot of companies are having a hard time filling vacancies these days,” says Fernanda.
2 of 2 On the streets of London there are many signs announcing the hiring of workers’ — Photo: JN On the streets of London there are many signs announcing the hiring of workers’ — Photo: JN
“We haven’t seen any increase in jobs for Brits because there are labor shortages in sectors that rely heavily on immigration,” says Joel.
There are fewer people working in shops, in transportation and also in tomato fields. When the UK was part of a single market, companies easily hired Europeans. Now they have to bring in workers from more distant countries like Nepal and end up paying more, for example for work visas.
That explains Sarah Schiffling Temporary visas last less than the annual tomato growing and harvesting season, forcing many companies to train two sets of employees. And if it is more difficult to plant there, after Brexi it has become more complicated to bring it from abroad.
“They have additional forms, additional inspections. All this, all this bureaucracy, increases the time to bring production to the UK, so that’s certainly one of the reasons why you can’t find tomatoes as easily as before,” says Fernanda.
In a year, for every five tomatoes consumed by Britons, on average four were produced in other countries.
“We saw huge queues at ports,” says expert Sarah Schiffling. This is even more of a concern for those selling fresh produce.
“Brexit has increased food prices by about 6%,” says Joel Reland, based on industry studies.
A poll shows that around 20% of those who voted to leave the European Union regret it. The main answer is that things have gotten worse.
“It’s hard to say how much of this is Brexit’s fault, but if the country were still in the bloc it wouldn’t be as vulnerable to international crises,” says Joel.