this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago

He told The Independent: “We thought that was a disastrous act of economic self-harm.”

Sums up Brexit pretty well.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago

There are other destinations in Europe. Who needs the UK? I used to go there occasionally, in the past, but if they don't want visitors anymore... so be it.

[–] farcaster 25 points 8 months ago

The UK is confused. It hurt itself in its confusion.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

lol

Guess I'll never travel to the UK again. Why would i bother to carry a passport for some island in the north sea?

[–] woelkchen 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why would i bother to carry a passport for some island in the north sea?

It's not like they ever adopted a sane currency. At least a passport is useful all over the world, their niche currency is not accepted in any desirable travel destination.

[–] filister 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Don't forget that they have Scottish pounds which everywhere outside Scotland are snubbed and you can exchange them for less than the British pound even though in the UK they should be interchangeable. This blows my mind

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Could the Scots introduce the €€? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Scottish but have lived in 5 EU countries and 11 cities in the UK. Never have I heard of this, nor experienced it exchanging in country, either direction. I had a decent root about online and only see this discussed anecdotally; mostly in Reddit posts. I can’t say for certain this isn’t happening, but it does sound like an urban myth of sorts.

[–] filister 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In the country I am originally from the exchange rate is actually different and some exchange offices even refuse to take them. And I also have a friend who lived there and who told me the same story that when traveling he was only taking British pounds with him because of difficulties exchanging the Scottish ones.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have heard of issues using Scottish and NI money while travelling; they’re less recognisable than Bank of England issued notes. I have just never encountered a variable exchange rate on different issued Sterling notes. Was this an EU country?

[–] filister 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes, it is an EU country, but it was a couple of years ago. So again things might have gotten better and my original statement might be completely wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Thanks for more details. I don’t want to say you’re wrong though, I don’t have the data for that, just anectdotally in my experiences, this hasn’t impacted me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Looking forward to in ten years, when all EU citizens enjoy their full pre Brexit rights in the UK, the UK abiding by all EU standards to gain access back to the market again and all the while the UK has no say in the European politics anymore but simply can choose to abide or go back to harming itself.

[–] then_three_more 9 points 8 months ago

You been remove half the words from that headline and its still true

Brexit ~~ban on EU ID cards~~ 'disastrous act of economic self-harm' ~~, says tourism boss~~~~

[–] filister 9 points 8 months ago

Before brexit their biggest import and export partner was the EU. After, it wasn't anymore and I still scratch my head and wonder who thought this was a good idea back then.

Not to mention that their agricultural sector was relying heavily on migrant workers from poorer EU states. Now those are also mostly gone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

~20 years ago we were on vacation in Zeeuws Vlanderen. It was e x t r e m e l y boring. (Sorry, Zeuws Vlanderen). So we decided to hop over the channel to visit England. Our kids were too young to have their own ID cards, and as citizens of Schengenland we were not prepared for the UK border control. Of course nobody on the French side cared to tell anyone about British immigration rules. So we were at the border control in Dover without IDs for our kids. They accepted their health insurance cards, and we spent a wonderful week in Kent and London, even meeting a veteran from the battle of Arnhem. Luckily they let us leave as well – it occured to me only years later that leaving might have become a problem.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


With visitor numbers to leading UK tourist attractions struggling since the pandemic, a tourism leader has put part of the blame on Britain’s ban on Europeans travelling on ID cards.

After Brexit, the UK banned EU citizens from making business or leisure trips with their national identity cards.

The government’s central forecast in its impact assessment is that the UK would lose 890,000 visits by European citizens each year, with a financial loss of £590m.

The main beneficiaries of the UK imposing extra red tape on prospective language students are Ireland, Malta and the United States.

In 2022, Patricia Yates, chief executive of VisitBritain, told MPs: “You will find destinations like Hastings absolutely decimated by a lack of school visits.”

Talks are understood to have taken place between senior UK tourism figures and opposition politicians on the prospect of widening exemptions swiftly were a Labour government to be elected.


The original article contains 612 words, the summary contains 149 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] nivenkos 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Don't people always carry passports anyway? A lot of airlines refuse ID card only travel so it's always too risky IMO.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In the EU I don't. Never needed it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Many people even only have an ID card and no passport. So requesting one would be €80 more for a trip

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

German here: There are two kinds of ID, our normal ID card, which everyone has and the passport, which is rarer. We can travel to the whole Eurozone + Turkey + most of the Balkans + Switzerland + Norway with the ID card, so basically to most of Europe which is currently not at war. Many people don't own a passport, because they can travel as much as they want through Europe.

A passport costs 70€ and you have to do the whole bureaucracy for it, take a picture and visit your local town hall. So if I want to visit the UK with my wife, it would cost us 140€ extra and we might have to take time of work to get the passport. The alternative would be, well, every other European country. France. Spain. Italy. Why go to London, when you could also go to Rome oder Paris and it's cheaper?

Also: The UK was of course a popular destination for school trips. All pupils are learning English and therefore it kind of was a natural destination. Visit London. Go to a few museums. Visit that Shakespeare theater. Those trips are impossible now because you'll run into serious problems with pupils without german citizenship.