Still waiting for those benefits.

[Nick]

To be fair, mobile operators always screwed you outside of Europe, to the point of getting a new SIM and even phone was preferable to using your own phone

I use Three ATM, but will be changing my business account cause they are crooks when it comes to travelling. I pay £5 + VAT per sim for unlimited txt, data and calls , but the hit me with the fair usage policy which hits me hard. 

[BeElBeeBub]

Interesting, thanks for that https://esim.holafly.com/

I used a local SIM once before on a trip and it was a nightmare to set up but Holafly and the eSIM seem to have advanced the art light years.

But as you say, some networks (eg Sky that I use) only charge £2 for roaming.  O2 is free in Europe but the bastards sting you for £6 a day outside the EU and UK. 

To be fair, mobile operators always screwed you outside of Europe, to the point of getting a new SIM and even phone was preferable to using your own phone

[Unlucky4Sum]

£2 a day is about the average charge so how you get a £2K bill I don't know. I use HolaFly and buy a E-Sim which is cheap as chips.

Interesting, thanks for that https://esim.holafly.com/ 

I used a local SIM once before on a trip and it was a nightmare to set up but Holafly and the eSIM seem to have advanced the art light years.
 
But as you say, some networks (eg Sky that I use) only charge £2 for roaming.  O2 is free in Europe but the bastards sting you for £6 a day outside the EU and UK.  

[BeElBeeBub]

£2 a day is about the average charge so how you get a £2K bill I don't know. I use HolaFly and buy a E-Sim which is cheap as chips.

I'm sure someone can manage it.

The point is roaming is no longer universally free.

This was pointed out before and dismissed as project fear.

It has come to pass.

Now the argument (which you also made) is "it's not that much more". 

It isn't a vast amount, maybe £20 or so.  But it is another example of brexit promises ("there won't be roaming charges!") not coming to fruition, and also of brexiters shifting the goal posts.

[BeElBeeBub]

And nobody has ever said it wasn't important, just that is becoming less so every year. Brexit deems we can trade with whom ever we like, and it is now starting to stretch its wings. Like it or not we are now starting to see the benefits.

We could trade with whoever we liked before Brexit (sanctions excepted).

The EU wasn't becoming a less important trade partner over time. It was becoming a smaller % of overall trade over time.

The two things are not the same.

Importance is not the same as trade volume.

Taiwan is the UK's 32nd larges trade partner. It accounts for about 0.5% of UK trade, and we have a trade deficit (exp-imp) of just under £1bn a year with them.

However, Taiwan is responsible for 90% of the advance semiconductor production in the world.

Taiwan is of massive importance to the UK, because without it huge chunks of UK trade with other countries -  it to mention our internal economy, wouldn't be able to occur.


As it happens we have made it harder to obtain items from Taiwan because they now have to either come direct or have to go via an extra customs step if they go via Europe.

[Nick]

A foreseen but dismissed benefit of brexit is that journalists can now write articles like this every year.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jun/17/roaming-charges-how-to-avoid-the-dreaded-phone-bills

I also suspect an uptick in the production of "Mum of four fuming after £2000 phone bill from trip to Paris" type articles.

£2 a day is about the average charge so how you get a £2K bill I don't know. I use HolaFly and buy a E-Sim which is cheap as chips. 

[BeElBeeBub]

A foreseen but dismissed benefit of brexit is that journalists can now write articles like this every year.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jun/17/roaming-charges-how-to-avoid-the-dreaded-phone-bills

I also suspect an uptick in the production of "Mum of four fuming after £2000 phone bill from trip to Paris" type articles.

[Nick]

Nick you know precisely eff all about farming. The food standards in recently negotiated trade deal are not fine at all.

But no examples as usual. 

[papasmurf]

British farmers screwed them selves by sitting on their arses and taking handouts from the EU for growing nothing. The fields near me are now actually growing things for the first time in years. We are getting foods from all over the world now, king prawns from Panama and Vietnam. We had lamb from NZ decades ago and it is perfectly fine, our food safety standards and those we trade with are fine.

Nick you know precisely eff all about farming. The food standards in recently negotiated trade deal are not fine at all.

[Nick]

With the tories signing trade deals that risk food safety, screw British farming, and many other aspects of business.

British farmers screwed them selves by sitting on their arses and taking handouts from the EU for growing nothing. The fields near me are now actually growing things for the first time in years. We are getting foods from all over the world now, king prawns from Panama and Vietnam. We had lamb from NZ decades ago and it is perfectly fine, our food safety standards and those we trade with are fine. 

[papasmurf]

 Brexit deems we can trade with whom ever we like, and it is now starting to stretch its wings.

With the tories signing trade deals that risk food safety, screw British farming, and many other aspects of business. 

[Nick]

But it's getting a smaller % of the total because nonEU trade is increasing at a greater rate than EU trade did.

EU trade was still increasing, especially our imports - much of which enable the exports to nonEU countries.

Eg components for British made cars.

Just because the % of the total that EU trade represents is falling doesn't mean it's importance is falling.

And nobody has ever said it wasn't important, just that is becoming less so every year. Brexit deems we can trade with whom ever we like, and it is now starting to stretch its wings. Like it or not we are now starting to see the benefits. 

[BeElBeeBub]

Not my fault if you can't read.
The 45% EU share of our total trade is getting smaller. Is this this your intelligent posting again?

But it's getting a smaller % of the total because nonEU trade is increasing at a greater rate than EU trade did.

EU trade was still increasing, especially our imports - much of which enable the exports to nonEU countries.

Eg components for British made cars.

Just because the % of the total that EU trade represents is falling doesn't mean it's importance is falling.

[Nick]

Complete fiction ^  see the actual ONS data (and not junk from KipperWiki)

Not my fault if you can't read. 
The 45% EU share of our total trade is getting smaller. Is this this your intelligent posting again?

[patman post]

Dunno, but according to the House of Commons Library, in 2022 the UK's exports to the EU totalled £340 billions, not £770 billions. I don't know where you are getting your figures from, but you seem to be quoting the Islington Gazette

That's total trade between the two — and it shows that the UK is importing £430bn from the EU — not necessarily a bad thing if the £90bn difference is being employed well, like lessening the UK's highest ever food price inflation, mortgage rate rises occurring several times a week, and sorting out essential services that are bedevilled by shortages and strikes...