If you understand Brexit, you almost certainly can't understand why others don't understand Brexit.

It's a classic Catch-22 situation.

Simply put: they will NEVER have seen the sorts of information sources you have. So they literally don't know what they don't know.
Are they ill-informed? Yes, if we measure against reality.

Yet they could have consumed a vast amount of "information" from the tabloids, Farage, Brexiters, right-wing TV/radio personalities etc., and practically drowned in tweets and posts from like-minded folk on social media.
That's one of the main reasons why Leavers get annoyed if you call them ignorant. Many put in some effort.

(The other, of course, being that NOBODY likes being insulted.)

It's like training for a marathon when it turns out you were really up for rhythmic gymnastics.
Info bubbles are everywhere.

The only way to break out of them is to force your way out.

And the only reason to break out of them is if you know you're trapped in one in the first place. Which you're unlikely to if you're stuck inside it.
The information Leavers were fed in huge amounts was wrong, but it was *consistently wrong*. Key players all sang from the same satanic hymnsheet.

So it is too easy and too condescending to paint them as disinterested, or to claim "they should have known because it was obvious".
Be honest...

How often do you read the Express? The Daily Mail? The Sun? Do you make a point to regularly follow what someone like Farage is saying, in detail?

Maybe you monitor them all the time. But that makes you the exception, even among Remainers.

Now flip it around.
That's why the "Project Fear" label was so damaging and effective.

If every information source you're used to is telling you a single consistent message ("Them lot are just scaremongering") how do you know - I mean, actually KNOW - that's not the case?

Honest answer: you don't.
The single biggest guilty party is the BBC, if only because they tower over all others in terms of breadth of media coverage and audience reach.

Their insistence that all Brexit stories must have two "sides" nurtured the myth that it was all just opinion anyway.

From my book...
It's super frustrating now that real Brexit is here.

Reality is on the side of Remain.

So it's a huge shame to put the backs up of people who might come around (quietly) to understanding they made a mistake, by virtue of rubbing their noses in it and taunting them.

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More from @uk_domain_names

15 Jan
"'Shelves are half empty!': Shoppers despair as Brexit border chaos leaves shortages of salad, fresh veg, frozen food, wine, beer, and fruit"

The Daily Mail is dishing out hefty dollops of Brexit reality on a daily basis now...
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
"Scottish seafood firms are 'days from collapse' due to Brexit border chaos - as langoustine fishing boss threatens to dump TONS of rotting stock outside Downing Street if crisis isn't resolved"

Not one but two buckets of Brexit reality from the DM today.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
"Government will use post-Brexit shake up of workers' rights to ‘stimulate business growth’ amid claims 48 hour working week could be scrapped and holiday and legal requirements for breaks will be overhauled"

By golly, there's a third article today...
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
Read 4 tweets
15 Jan
"£34bn Brexit VAT bill pushes companies to the brink"

UK companies are having to find massive amounts of cash to pay new VAT bills on their exports, as a result of Brexit.
uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/brexit-va…
Why? It's COMPLICATED. This blog post explains it extremely well.

Short-n-sweet version: any firm which doesn't want to annoy their clients (probably fatally) by making them do all the paperwork & cover EU VAT will have to take on the task & cost itself.
avalara.com/vatlive/en/vat…
Here's an example of the other side of the equation (the case of Ireland).

As they point out, the VAT on imports is due immediately at the point of import, unless the trader signs up for deferred payment (which buys them a few weeks grace).
revenue.ie/en/vat/goods-a…
Read 7 tweets
15 Jan
Before Brexit, the burden of the infinitesimal amount of red tape required to export to the EU in commercial quantities fell entirely on the exporter.

But now, the hyper-convoluted system requires the importer receiving the goods to jump through a number of complex hoops too. ImageImageImageImage
In other words, the UK firm can be as ready as it likes. But if it can't persuade its counterpart to take all the right steps in just the right order too, the goods won't get through.

(Same logic applies in reverse to EU firms selling into the UK)

No wonder there are no queues!
HMRC's official estimate for the annual cost of Brexit red tape is £7.5 billion for UK firms... and another £7.5 billion for EU firms.

Thing is, UK firms now have no choice. The mountain of red tape is required no matter who they trade with, anywhere!

gov.uk/government/pub…
Read 4 tweets
15 Jan
It's very early days, but there's a sense the mood is beginning to sour on Brexit from some who voted Leave.

Can I please urge you not to undo the good work reality is doing by rubbing their noses into the fact it's "what they voted for". Let their discontent breathe and grow.
Instead, focus your firepower and your ire on the conmen and conwomen who brought us Brexit. The politicians, right-wing opinion formers, outspoken business owners, rogue economists and lawyers, etc.

It's their fault. They misled the entire population, promising impossibilities.
Important: above applies to Brexit, not to anything else!

So IF a particular Leave voter has ALSO proven to be a racist, for example (as demonstrated by their words and actions, NOT their vote) then by all means condemn them for that. Of course. Always.
Read 4 tweets
15 Jan
The Tories spent tens of millions on "get ready for Brexit" ad campaign (the one that didn't even mention Brexit, only that stuff was "changing") over many months...

And yet a lot of the crucial guidance was published in the last few days of transition. Some even after it ended.
For example, the updated Border Operating Model, with its mind-blowingly complex case studies, was only published on the afternoon of December 31, 2020...
gov.uk/government/pub… ImageImageImage
Here's another example: "Exporting active substances manufactured in Great Britain for use in EEA and Northern Ireland"

Again, this was first published on 31 December 2020 (and revised even more recently!)
gov.uk/government/pub…
Read 4 tweets
15 Jan
"Covid UK: Dover chaos fears as France demands truckers have Covid tests before being let in"

They want the reliable PCR tests not the shonky lateral flow tests the UK Government have been fobbing them off with. Problem is, PCR test results take 72 hours. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
Note that PCR tests don't have to take 72 hours to be returned ie that delay's not an inherent part of the test!

It's just that our truth-twisting wreckers have never really got it down to much less than that, presumably because of their "Buy Tory, not Expert" policy...
Add to the toxic mess the fact Kent Access Permits only last for 24H, and you can see how a very bad situation is likely to worsen.
Read 4 tweets

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