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If the UK leaves the EU...Impact on Travelers?

If the UK leaves the EU...Impact on Travelers?

Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:03 PM
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If the UK leaves the EU...Impact on Travelers?

I can't think of one thing that if the UK leaves the EU in this June's vote that would impact the typical tourist - can you?

And I'd be interested in our FodorBrit friends' takes on whether they are in favor of leaving the EU or not and how they think the vote would go.

Is it the Donald Trump segment of the electorate that would vote to exit the EU or is it conservatives or what group is most in favor of ditching the EU.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:27 PM
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No effect whatsoever.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:38 PM
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It will have no effect on visitors. No, Not true, mobile phone charges will not have to be the same as in Europe, so that could affect things.

It will have an effect on Britons living in Europe, and there are believed to be about the same number of Britons in other EU countries as there are EU citizens in Britain.

It will have little effect on immigration to the UK. Crud jobs still need to be done and Eastern Europeans are the current immigrants doing those crud jobs, since the West Indians and Indians/Pakistanis have moved on to better jobs. It seems it is OK to complain about Poles, since they are white, but the racism is the same as it was when the first West Indians stepped off the boat, or the first Indians were imported to work in the mills.

The likes of Farage may rant, the Daily Mail and the Express too, but when it comes down to it I hope Britons vote to remain in the EU. Either way it will seriously affect the Conservative party.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:48 PM
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If UK leaves the EU...

...we will make British travellers take of their shoes at immigration points.

...we will ask them about their financial means to finance their travel into the EU.

...we will randomly select some of them, lead them to special interrogations and grill them.

...we will arbitrarily refuse some of them entry and send them back with the next available plane on their own cost.

Does this ring a bell?
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:51 PM
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I forgot:

We will confiscate the whisky bottles they try to smuggle into the EU (or try to smuggle them out of the EU, since whisky is cheaper here than in Britain).
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:54 PM
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:58 PM
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>

What are you talking about? The Donald Trump or any other segment of the U.S. electorate doesn't get to vote on or decide this. It's an EU referendum and has nothing to do with the USA.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 12:59 PM
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With the pound devaluing and possibly more after the referendum. It will be a cheaper place to visit as "your" currency should go further.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:05 PM
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Euro will tank, sterling will tank, Scotland will leave the UK and join Europe. UK nationals now working by right in Europe will be in the same boat as Americans now are. Brussels and Strasbourg bureaucracy will shrink. Bangers become legal again. Farmers go broke without EU subsidies. Amsterdam will once again become the financial capital of Europe, if not of the world.

Oh, tourists. More border/passport lines, UK nationals join the great unwashed (Americans) at border controls on the continent and EU residents join us at UK border control. A train journey from Paris to Edinburgh crosses two borders, not one. No one will have any idea how long s/he is allowed to stay anywhere or how long s/he has to stay away.

Flow of juggernaut trucks from France across England to Ireland will slow, preserving English roads. Oops, that's not tourists.

Independent Scotland will ban nuclear submarines and weapons. Cost of maintaining embassies and consulates everywhere while maintaining social benefits at home will bring Scotland to bankruptcy. English and International firms will move south, leaving Edinburgh deserted. Tourist business will tank.

More?
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:06 PM
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I believe most of the UK's large airports have come out against Brexit, so they must be worried about some negative impacts for the travel industry.

There is a low-wage labor force from other parts of Europe that does a large part of the work in the UK's hotel and restaurant industries, and if the benefits of working in other parts of the EU are better, that workforce will go there. In addition, if predictions of a financial shock were "Brexit" to occur materialize, travelers -- especially to London -- are likely to see the effects, just as they have seen the effects of building boom in London, and the expansion of Heathrow.

There are a great many people on the left in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe) who support Britain leaving the EU. As for Farage, he is not the equivalent of Donald Trump beyond the most superficial invocations of nostalgia for Ye Once Mighty Nation, plus a talent for grabbing attention. But Farage has been quite careful to separate himself from demagogic racist movements in Europe, and has already criticized Trump for his anti-Muslim bigotry.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:10 PM
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>>>"Scotland will leave the UK and join Europe."
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:13 PM
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Short answer: nobody knows for sure.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:15 PM
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>>Bangers become legal again.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:26 PM
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and they can serve chips wrapped in newspaper again? Serious points of concern to some I guess.

<What are you talking about? The Donald Trump or any other segment of the U.S. electorate doesn't get to vote on or decide this. It's an EU referendum and has nothing to do with the USA.>

Yes StCirq- but I were referring to the Donald Trump Let's Make the UK Great Again type Brits - after all 35% or so of Brits supported Trump's banning Muslims tirade. I were talking about the British who are like Trump - duh I do know Americans cannot vote in this UK election. Duh!

And I think we'd have to be living in Britain to really think how we'd vote - how EU memberships affects the common bloke - good and bad.

That said I've always been for a United States of Europe on what the EU was a start.

And once again it brings up that famous newspaper headline of years ago when fog closed Channel ports and no ships were going to or from the Continent: "Continent Isolated" (May be apocryphal - that story but kind of sums up this EU divorce.)
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 01:40 PM
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I forgot to mention that Ryan Air has said prices will rise for Ryan Air flights involving the UK and that Ryan Air would invest in building its business elsewhere:

http://fortune.com/2016/02/25/ryanair-ceo-brexit/
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 02:03 PM
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The prices for Marmite, Weetabix and Spam will got up in Europe.

But who on the continents wants Marmite, Weetabix or Spam anyway?
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 02:43 PM
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The European Union has never shown any interest in having Scotland join.

I suspect that might change if the UK leaves the EU and Scotland leaves the UK.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 02:45 PM
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And I also think that a Brexit might be just what it takes to get Scots secesssion approved by more than 50% of Scots.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 06:14 PM
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Will there be no more free healthcare for Brit expats in the EU ? If so, I think many will return to the UK.
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Old Feb 25th, 2016, 06:39 PM
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In worst case scenario, British citizens will have no more rights in EU than Americans or Australians. No right to work or residence, and Schengen limit of 90-in-180 days. Estimated 2 million Britons live in other EU states, and half of them in Spain. If they realise there will be no longer easy access to EU countries for work, leisure or retirement for them and their children, many Brits will think twice before voting for Brexit. They have enjoyed that freedom for 43 years. Will they just give it up for an uncertain future, cut off from the rest of Europe, in exchange for so-called sovereignty and self-determination?
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