Brexit rage

[holeinyourhead]

What's happened in the last 10 days has really affected me. It's all I think about tbh and I feel so enraged at seeing the politicians lie to us so lavishly then bail on us so swiftly, yet I'm completely powerless to do anything. I marched, I wrote to my MP, I've signed petitions. I'm obviously one of the 48% who wanted to remain. I can't find fault with the 52% who voted to leave, it's not their fault. It's a democratic process, I understand that of course. Everyone's entitled to their view and it's not that I'm a sore loser. But the catastrophic fallout isn't what even the most hardline leave voter would have wished for, there's no Brexit plan, and the future looks very bleak. I was at a conference today and a Conservative MP and a Brussels Eurocrats both agreed a recession in the medium term is now inevitable. People around me seem to be getting on with things - I wish I could too - but I've been very tearful and sleepless and worried sick. I run a European business just out of start up phase, employing a handful of people who by chance are not British born and who are now very nervous themselves about the future. The more I read the more hopeless I feel with each passing resignation. AIBU to feel like this? Does anyone else feel the same? Am I going nuts?!! I feel very alone.

[FoggyBottom]

YANBU, at all. And I'm not so sure of the "democratic" nature of the vote. The Leave vote was just shy of 52% of the people who voted. But 9 million people didn't vote. I think it's reasonable to assume they weren't bothered and do accepted the status quo, which makes the Leave vote far less sure.

Most countries with a government serious about major historical and lice-changing changes require a two-thirds majority.

I hope things aren't as bad for you and your business as you fear.

[WallisSimpson11]

YANBU, at all- there are so many people like you. 48% voted Remain and had this been a compulsory vote- the results would've been different.

I used to hear so many people (in the Cotswolds) say there was no way Leave would win the referendum. And of course most of these people didn't vote as did countless others- I'm sorry but the Brexit situation is a farce.
And don't believe for one minute that it's going to be put in practice soon- NOT a chance.
So stop crying

[TheDowagerCuntess]

YANBU - I have become a bit obsessed with it all, and I don't even live in the UK (though am here at the moment).

I feel utterly gobsmacked at the way the Leave campaign has been run, the lies and the mass defection on winning. I mean, WTAF?? It completely and entirely undermines the result.

The people that lead us here are immoral in the extreme. It's not acceptable, and I can't understand why Leave voters aren't up in arms.

[sandrabedminster]

Yabu. Both sides were filled with lies.

All of us exiters knew it would be a rocky few weeks for long term gain.

[EssentialHummus]

I'm the same OP - European, married to a non-EUer, settled here, feeling very up in the air and with plenty of undirected anger.

I feel like the country I chose to move to (and contribute to, and make a family in) has vanished. It hasn't, of course, but it's hard to remember that sometimes.

[freetrampolineforall]

Someone in my family has their business affected by this too. We were all Remainers for this and other common sense reasons.
All I can suggest is to have a mega strategy session where you think the weird and the unthinkable. Some solid ideas might come from it. And I know that is very little comfort when it all looks so bleak.

[EssentialHummus]

All of us exiters knew it would be a rocky few weeks for long term gain.

Weeks??!!

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

weeks?????

That just sums it all up right there.

[Topseyt]

You aren't alone. Many share your worries and concerns.

I voted remain. I have two DDs who both see their futures as tied up with the EU, esepcially DD1 who will graduate in European languages next summer. They were part of my reason for voting the way I did. My other reasons were that Brexit was too much of a leap into the unknown, virtually no experts recommended it, the lies were blatant and it also became clear during the campaign that there was NO clear plan for what to do if Brexit won.

Even so, I think that the utter chaos and devastation we have had has exceeded anyone's wildest expectations. I felt Brexit would be a disaster, and so far it has been.

I share your anger. Boris and Gove hoodwinked their voters. They lied, failed to plan, and they didn't expect to win. The looks on both of their faces and their body language at the so-called "victory" speech said it all. They weren't celebrating, they were shell-shocked and horrified.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

I think the balance of lies fell very much to the Leave side.

[Vickyyyy]

It is absolutely ridiculous that there was no plan at all for if the vote went the way it did. I know Cameron and co didn't want it to, but there was always going to be a chance and as such there should have been a backup plan there. All of this everyone washing their hands of it and buggering off is a pisstake.

[KindDogsTail]

YANBU
It is just so shocking:

That something of such tremendous importance was decided by 38% of the electorate, many of who did not understand the issues.

Lots of people did not even know their vote would count because the voting system was not the normal UK one;

That the promise of the referendum was set up by DC to keep some voters Conservative rather than lose them to UKIP - a pawn for political ends;

That no proper vote guidelines were made, for example, about what proportion, out of what number of the electorate, would mean an appropriate majority decision.

That no contingencies were set up in advance in case Leave was decided.

That DC then resigned when the referendum decided Leave.

That UKIP/Nigel Farage mislead voters then left, when he was really the initial cause.

That BJ who hijacked Leave and swayed a lot of people by apparent charm and lies to vote leave, then left.

That no plan is in place.

That problems of poor people/so many people with inadequate housing, health-care and education which the government had not addressed, and had nothing to do with being in the EU anyway, will not get better and Labour did not inform people about this and what they would lose.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

It's interesting how the non-expert Leave voters 'always knew' things would come good, against overwhelming evidence from a broad cross-section of experts in every field imaginable that this was highly unlikely to be a rocky few weeks let alone that there would ever be long-term gain.

People are complacent about the economy. It's not ok. Don't look at the FTSE 100 and breathe a sigh of relief. This is the calm before the storm - not a storm like 2008 but still a horrible period with no redeeming features or guarantees of ending.

[Topseyt]

Sandrabedminster, if you think it will only be a few rocky weeks then you are living in cloud cuckoo land. It will take years.

A lot of people's livelihoods and futures are on the line here. That isn't something to crow about or be proud of!

[Vickyyyy]

I was raging at my mothers decision to vote leave. It was all about 'those bloody foreigners stealing our jobs'..for some reason she had in her head that all non-British born would be kicked out of the country the next day...BUT..this is the worst part (ignoring her xenophobia...) she said if it all goes tits up she has enough money to retire abroad anyway and leave this sinking ship! Charming.

[molyholy]

Yanbu. It is an absolute farce and very worrying. I used to work in an external funding unit at a college and the millions and million of pounds we received from the European Social Fund, and the real jobs it created, was phenomenal. Councils got funding from europe too. I don't think "brexiteers" hate that word realised this kind of thing. Not to say they were ignorant of the fact, but that they were fed and beleived, a lot of bullshit. LOL at a pp who said rocky few weeks

[lljkk]

I'd like to know what "lies" the Remainers told.

There were many reports "Experts predict xyz if we Leave". Those were reported as expert opinions not facts, so they can't be the "lies". What are the Remainer lies, then?

[mumsnit]

I work in HE. The future looks challenging to say the least.

I feel wretched about it too OP but I am hoping that if nothing else it will mobilise the young to get out and vote next time!

I also feel sad that people (as above) think the rocky patch has passed when it hasn't even begun. Irony will of course be that those who primarily voted for Brexit will end up the hardest hit too.

[holeinyourhead]

Sandrabedminster you are dreaming if you think by September we will be back to normal! If that was the case then I definitely WBU. The media as as culpable as the politicians on both sides, and the right wing press have stopped running anything on this bus and are busy with the leadership race. It's deplorable. I'm ashamed of being British right now

[whois]

YANBU

I don't understand how people are not more angry about the shit economic situation we're going to be, all because the population was asked to make a decision on something they couldn't comprehend. This was one for parlement to vote on. Cowards.

[SmilingHappyBeaver]

YANBU. DH has just had the potential for several millions of pounds of research funding from the EU frozen, because the funding (which would have guaranteed jobs for tens of people in the UK for several years in his company) was to be phased over the next couple of years, and now no-one knows what is going on so no-one can make a decision. Heartbreaking - he has been working for years on this project.

It makes me so fucking angry that those with the most to contribute to society (by means of generating business growth, creating the opportunities for inward investment and paying massive amounts of tax) are being scuppered by a small % who believed they are hard done by.

The government does need to address income inequality in this country, but anyone who thinks Brexit will magically reduce social division is kidding themselves... we will all be poorer, income inequality will be greater, and society will be more hateful. What a horrible world we are creating. It keeps me awake at night too.

If Brexit was the right outcome for the country, it shouldn't feel like this. I'm looking at you Boris and Nige. What role models they are for victory! I'd hate to see them on a losing side. Or maybe they are.

I have a tiny glimmer of hope that our (democratically elected) parliament will have to vote (democratically) on whether to invoke Article 50, once we have a true picture of what the cost will be to the county. Shame neither side though to do this BEFORE the referendum. Wankers.

[Yabbadabbo2]

We've cut the dead weight away, Greece, Spain ,Italy if that's what being in the EU is all about with mass youth unemployment and a commission thinking a united states of Europe is the answer were better off out in the world. The EU has barely left recession over the past decade so we would have likely suffered either way

[holeinyourhead]

Ladies in relieved to hear you're as furious as I am!!

[EarthboundMisfit]

YANBU. I am still very down about it every day.

[PavlovianLunge]

YANBU. Oh and sandra, do get back to us, say, early August, and remind us that the rocky few weeks are over, because unless I'm very much mistaken, things are going be rocky far, far beyond then.