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Brexit and all that

Even the rabid Tory working in the city knew that Brexit would have a dramatic and long-lasting effect on the country (it didn't help that Johnson's government was incompetent).  So last week we had our third or fourth dinner with Adam (my son) his girlfriend and her parents.  My son works in the entertainment industry in London and has a flat in Notting Hill.  So my wife and I got an Airbnb for the weekend (Adam's current flat is too small for guests...and we like our privacy). 

We took the train down and really enjoyed the whole gettingaway adventure.  In fact, my wife warned me this was "the big weekend" where my son and his girlfriend would announce two things, first they are getting married and secondly they are expecting a child.  Our son was far too excited over the past few weeks for his mother to not figure out what was going on, especially when she saw the plans for the flat and an unredacted note about a nursery... 

It's not so much that I am pro-Brixit, in fact, at least 70% of City folks were against it, and the other 30% wondered how they could take advantage of the situation (bankers are not cuddly types).  Not only was the pressure mounting but the public was clearly pro-Brexit, and the pro-Brexiters campaign was good, while those against it were few and far between.  The Tories lied about everything and Labor basically sat out the whole process because their leadership was largely pro-Brexit (shame on you Jeremy Corbyn).

It was evident to my wife and me that it was going to be a "shitshow" and so like a lot of folks in the City we made a decision:  Several of my colleagues left for the continent.  In our company about 40% of the staff was European, about 90% moved back to Europe (remained with the firm) doing the same job they did in the UK for their European clients....but now on the continent.  Many like myself left the business entirely.  We were very lucky and sold our London house well, demand for homes (and land) in Norfolk was way down as were prices.  We anticipated that Brexit would cause many problems to the UK supply chain, the UK government made it worse, but much better for domestic farmers like us. 

Enters our dinner with Adama"s new future inlaws.  They live near Epping Forest (in Essex).  We have met them four times.  Roger, Jilian's dad, begins to moan about all their pro-Brexit Tory friends having to sell their homes on the continent because they are now limited to six months of residency permits.  Roger then asked me what I thought of the whole issue. I said, "Well your friends voted for Brexit and then decided to live in Europe, didn't bother to register or obtain residency cards.  They deserve what they got.  If they don't want foreigners in their "country" why should the foreigners behave differently.  Roger, we kicked the French out, so they kicked us out too.  It is exactly what we wanted.  Why would your friends complain when they got exactly what they wanted.  Everlyn and I set up our farm exactly to take advantage of the chaos that would follow Britain's exit from Europe, frankly, neither of us ever expected Johnson and his crew to be so incompetent and make our lives so much easier and profitable.

Roger looked at me and said what do you mean?  I said "Overnight the British government increased the time at our border crossing for freight from 5 hours to 96 hours what do you think happened to perishable goods?  Our farm focuses on providing domestically grown fruits and vegetables to the wholesale restaurant and hotel markets. They all saw the writing on the wall, and over a year period, demand for our products rose many-fold.  We knew it was coming and we were prepared.  It was evident for months that high-quality fruits and vegetables would not make it from the continent.  On the day following the UK leaving the EU nothing was in place.  There were no forms available to European farmers, wholesalers, and brokers for the importation of fruits and vegetables from the continent.  There were no special rules on the import of meats and therefore the rules that applied were the same for the EU as if you were exporting from Brazil or Argentina.  The UK government did not add more customs agents and none we trained!  In fact, most farmers believe that the government's actions were taken on purpose to prove something.  Although once everyone saw the chaos nobody owned to that little screw-up.  We knew that our prices for high-quality fruits and vegetables would rise, but we never expected the government would screw up so badly, that was pure windfall for us.

Roger's wife then said, why didn't anyone say anything about this.  I looked at her, and said, they did but nobody was listening.  

Anyway, I said, we are here for Adam and Jilian's announcement so children what is the big secret?

 So now we know, our first grandchild is due in early June.  We could not be happier!  Congratulations Adam and Jilian

  

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