One year on was it worth it?

[Simon_100]

I think both of the above answers were actually correct.

The licence to drive was transferable...but France, Spain and Germany also required an additional qualification to actually drive as an occupation for an employer in their state. Driving in those countries was always regarded as a profession, and this is reflected in the very high standards of amenities offered to truck drivers on the continent... Les Routiers restaurants for example. Indeed, in Germany, a truck driving is so highly regarded that truck drivers can countersign passport applications, like directors, doctors and lawyers do here.

Now we have the (Europe-wide) Driver CPC, so anyone who holds this and an appropriate licence can work as a driver in any European state.

I didn't know that Richard, Mrs S had her Class I LGV transferred to her Spanish license when we moved here in '97 but never looked for ork with it - she dropped it after a few yeas as the medicals were a) more frequent and b) more expensive as the test criteria were more strict and extensive. So antihero 'urban myth' exploded about dodgy foreign truckers - but let's not mention the Portuguese ... :whistle:

Meanwhile Alan's point about Dutch and Germans on the look out for properties in Spain is byte a good reflection on the general lack of interest in ordinary citizens here about the while Brexit thing. OK, there are lots of news items here but in general the only thing people here get interested here is the fate if manchester Unity¡ed and City, mainly because of Mourinho - ex-Reall Madrid manager and Pep Guardiola, ex-Barceloa FC manager - are 'news'. Plus the belief that there's nothing and Englishman like ore than to rill a cheese down a hillside of a Sunday morning ...

I'll get me coat ...

Simon

[micksea]

A lot of countries have opted out of the driver cpc scheme,something else it seems only us brits adear to

[lebowski]

As a european national hgv driver you can work in uk without taking a test...if i was to drive in france or spain i need to take hgv tests before i can drive there...hypocrits...

They have more to loose as exporters than we as gross importers do...spain is getting expensive for expats some.are scurrying back to uk...

Sorry, but how is that hypocritical?

The UK could equally choose to impose the extra demands, it's not the EU's fault that constituent countries have different laws.

[lebowski]

Back on 'one year on': the situation for ex-pats has never been less clear. There has never been any government stance on anything to do with rights of UK citizens living in the EU, some 1.5 million Brits, whose rights have been simply ignored during the entire process. So much for 'caring' government ... and you do have to wonder what the government thinks of UK residents' 'rights' to such liberties of sleeping in bed with the confidence that you may live to see the dawn of the next day - evidently nothing if you are poor and living in a high rise building ...

Regs

Simon

I totally agree, the government clearly doesn't give a stuff about Expats, but then they didn't allow a large number of Brits living abroad a chance to vote in the referendum!

I am none the wiser as to my future here in France after May made her offer, an offer which made us look like a bunch of amateurs. Hardly the best start to negotiations.....

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

A lot of countries have opted out of the driver cpc scheme,something else it seems only us brits adear to

Countries were given a time window in which they had to introduce it. Germany, for instance, delayed because they already had a professional qualification in place. But as of 2016, I think you will find all European nations, including some not in the EU, had introduced it.

Romania, realising they had a lot of work to do, started in 2003! I'm tempted to make a nasty remark here about how bad must it have been before?

[Simon_100]

Back on 'one year on': the situation for ex-pats has never been less clear. There has never been any government stance on anything to do with rights of UK citizens living in the EU, some 1.5 million Brits, whose rights have been simply ignored during the entire process. So much for 'caring' government ... and you do have to wonder what the government thinks of UK residents' 'rights' to such liberties of sleeping in bed with the confidence that you may live to see the dawn of the next day - evidently nothing if you are poor and living in a high rise building ...

Regs

Simon

I totally agree, the government clearly doesn't give a stuff about Expats, but then they didn't allow a large number of Brits living abroad a chance to vote in the referendum!

I am none the wiser as to my future here in France after May made her offer, an offer which made us look like a bunch of amateurs. Hardly the best start to negotiations.....

Yup, we're all up to our necks. My 'optimistic' view is that the State Pension - the contributions for which we had kept up to date until they added another five years! - will be frozen from the day you draw it, like it is in Australia, New Zealand, etc. and my 'pessimistic' view is hat if we have to become Spanish Citizens in order to carry nonliving here we might lose it altogether ... again not a single solitary word from HM Government, for which we still pay income tax ...

Back on to the OP - at last I hear you cry! - IMHO what you have in Britiain is an unconventional, or at least undeclared, state of civil war. With the country totally divided - including within families - and each side slowly doing serious material and/or economic damage to the other. Viewed from this perspective, individuals and businesses withdrawing their investments - thus affecting the general well-being of the nation - is either collateral damage (the 'soft' interpretation) or actual wilful use of economic 'weapons' to damage the opposite side.

At the very least, the poor on both sides of the fence will get a whole lot more poor and the rich will be both richer and over the seas and far away as the quality of life in Britain, in terms of public services* that everyone benefits from such as clean streets - how long ago did you see one of these? - personal sense of security - 'nuff said! - effective transport infrastructure ... dwindle away into the distant past and the dystopian 'present' that every developing - or shall we say formerly developed - country lives with becomes a reality.

All I can say is, "You did it."

I'll get me coat ...

Simon
* strictly speaking the public good - although these have long since become the private profit, which was nothing whatsoever to do with the EU, rater policies that were introduced by governments that the Great British Public elected in true democratic style ...

[lebowski]

Apparently the government said this in their proposal
“intends to continue to export and uprate the UK State Pension within the EU, subject to reciprocity”
But what it means by reciprocity is not very clear....
We're in a similar situation with pensions, but we're 10 years away from getting those, so a lot could change in the mean time. What really concerns us is healthcare, to have to fund that privately would be too expensive in a few years time and we'd be forced to go back to the UK and therefore be a burden on the NHS (if it still exists by then). May seems not to be worried about a lot of UK pensioners returning to the UK......
From the outside looking in it does seem that the UK has become incredibly divided by a question that was far too simple. The whole thing was almost treated as a bit of fun, lots and lots of lies and propaganda that were then passed off with a chuckle by jolly Boris and Farage. Trouble is for the rest of us, it's very shortly going to be reality. As my niece said "if I knew it was going to cause this much trouble, we'd have voted remain'.
Where is the UK's manufacturing that will drive the country and be the balance between imports and exports? Who is going to do the boring, tough, jobs that thousands and thousands of EU nationals do/did? I worked with the hospitality sector before I retired and every company I visited said they will struggle for staff if EU nationals go home. On average 10% of applications for vacancies were from UK nationals, of those maybe 1% or less actually came for an interview. They simply did not want to serve food, wait on tables, cook, clean, etc. In the opinion of every boss I visited, the UK nationals think these jobs are too much like hard work!
So who is going to make Britain great again...?

[interceptor]

[Dirk]

So who is going to make Britain great again...?

Certainly it won't be those that constantly talk the UK down and don't even live here.

[Simon_100]

Apparently the government said this in their proposal

“intends to continue to export and uprate the UK State Pension within the EU, subject to reciprocity”

But what it means by reciprocity is not very clear....

We're in a similar situation with pensions, but we're 10 years away from getting those, so a lot could change in the mean time. What really concerns us is healthcare, to have to fund that privately would be too expensive in a few years time and we'd be forced to go back to the UK and therefore be a burden on the NHS (if it still exists by then). May seems not to be worried about a lot of UK pensioners returning to the UK......

So who would believe this, certainly not the hundreds of thousand of women, including Mrs S, who thought they were going to get their pensions at sixty and built their lives around that 'promise' ...

So who is going to make Britain great again...?

Certainly it won't be those that constantly talk the UK down and don't even live here.

Well most certainly not those with some 'get up and go', because we've already gotten up and gone!

Regs

Simon