To think that most people voted to leave the EU to stop freedom of movement?

[Moomin8]

The proposed new rules the government have supposedly set out that are designed to keep out 'low skilled' workers seem to me like social cleansing. Most recently , when people moan about 'immigrants' they are always talking about people from Eastern Europe in my experience.

What really annoys me is that almost all leaver voters deny repeatedly that their vote had anything to do with the fact they wanted freedom of movement stopped.

Sorry if this has been done to death. But why won't people just be honest?

[GFhuman]

Maybe that's not the whole reason why. I think a lot of it was a vote against the woke, and the fact that labour is completely unelectable.

[slipperywhensparticus]

No most people apparently voted leave because they thought things were only going to get better if we left because apparently the eu dictate the laws to us a simple google will show you our own laws are what they based theres on back when we were a respectable nation

They had no idea of the costs and consequences and in all fairness we wont know properly for years

[Moomin8]

For clarity I'm talking about the original 2016 vote. Labour doesn't have anything to do with it really.

[MasakaBuzz]

In what way is it social cleansing? It’s about expecting would be immigrants to this country to be prepared to pay their way. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Every other country seems to do it.

As a country we should have the right to determine who can and who can’t come into the country.

FWIW - my overriding reason for voting out was the lack of accountability and the fact that there was/is no way my vote could influence the removal of somebody like a Junckers.

[Moomin8]

I can't see how it's about EU laws. Which EU laws do people disagree with? Most of them protect us.

[Moomin8]

In what way is it social cleansing? It’s about expecting would be immigrants to this country to be prepared to pay their way. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Every other country seems to do it.

Well the new rules seem to suggest that we only want immigrants who can do middle class jobs. Surely it's obvious that low paid workers also keep the economy going?

[mencken]

while 'all leavers are flat capped racists' is the received wisdom on MN, there are many reasons - this is not a popular thought on MN and you clearly refuse to believe it as you are firmly fixed on the idea. Spoken to all 17.4 million, have you?

Many were happy with the EEC but not with the EU.

many outside the London bubble were are pissed off with the 'second class' thing - massive transport investment in London, pulling lots of the jobs there, building the trainset to connect London and Birmingham and no further etc. None of these things are to do with the EU but if you have a government that says 'do this' you are more likely to get people to say 'actually, no'.

this is why the referendum was such a stupid thing to do - a really complex issue cannot be answered with a 'yes/no'.

having an unelectable opposition doesn't help.

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Yes I agree- and indeed its one of the main reasons I voted leave.

I dont believe an open door immigration policy is a positive.
I dont think we should have a ban on immigration either
a common sense approach works for me.


Yes Eastern Europe Migration is deemed to be the bigger issue as it is grossly one sided. People moving between eg. UK: France, UK:Spain, UK: Germany tends to be more equal in numbers.

[AgeLikeWine]

YANBU

I live and work in the East Midlands, a strong Leave area and in my experience, most people who voted leave did so because they were angry about uncontrolled immigration and its effects on wages, housing, pressures on public services etc etc.

Obviously, there were other factors such as the decline in manufacturing which has seen well-paid jobs replaced by crappy service and distribution work.

I voted Remain.

[ACautionaryTale]

I cannot understand why we are importing unskilled labour whilst we have ANY (other than transient/churn related) unemployment in this country.

We are importing people whilst paying taxes to support people to not work.

you hear it so often....

If I take this job I will be no better off than on UC after child care. No, YOU won't be but the country will as it means you UC doesnt have to be paid for. The fact that we even allow people to have this choice baffles me.

I don't want to take this job because it means I don't get to see my partner/family enough. Not a choice that should be allowed if the alternative is tax payers money being used.

We've spent a long time trying to encourage people into work but I think we are getting to the point where we have to MAKE them.

Removing unskilled immigrants means there will be the unskilled jobs around so they can't claim there are no jobs. There might just be no jobs they choose to do - which is different - and I hope it no longer becomes a choice.

[Moomin8]

We are importing people whilst paying taxes to support people to not work.

Where is your evidence that there are loads of U.K. citizens who don't want to work? I certainly don't know anyone. Most people are better off in work whether on UC or not.

[Nowayorhighway]

YANBU, it’s the only reason for voting leave I have personally heard anyone stating. It’s always ‘we wanted to take back control of our borders and laws’ .

[buttermilkwaffles]

There is evidence that most people are in favour of freedom of movement, especially when it's explained that it's reciprocal.

The UK could also have chosen to require that EU citizens register for residence if intending to stay longer than 90 days and are able to support themselves financially if doing so, many (most?) other EU countries do this. Some even require every night of tourists stays to be registered by the accommodation provider, this is why you are asked to hand over your passport when on holiday in Portugal, Spain, Croatia etc.

[buttermilkwaffles]

Support for freedom of movement by country: blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/files/2018/11/figure1vtnov2018.png

[TheGreatWave]

YANBU

I live and work in the East Midlands, a strong Leave area and in my experience, most people who voted leave did so because they were angry about uncontrolled immigration and its effects on wages, housing, pressures on public services etc etc.

Obviously, there were other factors such as the decline in manufacturing which has seen well-paid jobs replaced by crappy service and distribution work.

"I voted Remain.*

Replace East Mids with North East and my answer is the same. The breaking point poster and the big bus influenced a lot of people.

[Growingboys]

I didn't vote leave for that . I voted leave because I hate the bureaucracy of the EU as an institution. The waste and bloatedness of it.

I love Europe and speak French and Spanish. I hate the EU.

Movement of people wasn't a factor for me.

[LittleBoyJuly2020]

Immigration has brought this country to its knees. The level of immigration here is absolutely insane. It has not worked and this country is f**d.

[MummyJasmin]

Agreed.

[BronwenFrideswide]

The UK could also have chosen to require that EU citizens register for residence if intending to stay longer than 90 days and are able to support themselves financially if doing so, many (most?) other EU countries do this. Some even require every night of tourists stays to be registered by the accommodation provider, this is why you are asked to hand over your passport when on holiday in Portugal, Spain, Croatia etc.

Unfortunately, buttermilkwaffles there is a very vocal section of the population who would have exploded if the Government had applied the rules available to them and that you rightly point out are applied within other EU countries without problems or backlash. This section of the populace would have screamed blue murder about 'othering' and hyperbole comparing the UK to 1930's Germany. Successive Governments have been too craven and run scared in the face of this vocal group, if they had applied these rules it is likely the EU referendum vote would have gone in favour of Remain - even if it was marginal - foot and shooting springs to mind.

[cologne4711]

I voted to remain and I am upset we've left the EU. But I have said all along that uncontrolled immigration (and a higher than average birth rate among white British too, lets not forget that, have a look at a Premier Inn in August and see how many families with quite a few children there are) is problematic when it comes to access to services and concreting over the countryside for the houses we allegedly need. When people raised concerns they were shouted down as racists and the Brexit vote was a direct result of the woke lefty liberals telling them to pipe down and not be bigots.

I think there is a very nasty undercurrent to the message Priti Patel is giving about giving jobs to British people instead of immigrants, and it's not about racism, it's about forcing people into work who eg are carers or disabled. How can you work if you are eg on kidney dialysis? In her world, you'd have to, to replace an EU immigrant.

I don't think immigration has brought the country to its needs, anything but. I don't think a points based system is necessarily a bad thing, and I dislike it when people are in customer-facing roles and cant speak English properly, but whether Pointless Patel likes it or not, we do need labour for certain sectors, and the current proposals will not provide it.

[Xenia]

I do not think people want social cleansing - I suppose the changes mean you are more lkely to have one of the 1m unemployed or 1m ilelgal immigrants doing your lower paid jobs and that high tech jobs will be well educated Indians and Chinese.

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

higher than average birth rate among white British too isnt the British birth rate quite low?

[MulticolourMophead]

I live and work in the East Midlands, a strong Leave area and in my experience, most people who voted leave did so because they were angry about uncontrolled immigration and its effects on wages, housing, pressures on public services etc etc.

I also live in the East Midlands. Most people in my town voted leave because they are racist, and didn't want any immigration. They also thought that leaving would mean all that lovely money going to the NHS. They know better now.

I voted Remain. My ex voted for the first time in his life, to leave, and the whole referendum/brexit stuff brought his racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc, etc, to the fore and I realised just what a nasty man he is.

[MethodToThisMadness]

YABU- there were so many reasons people voted leave (and remain). I say that as a remain voter. For instance, my cousin in Scotland voted to leave to try to trigger a second indy ref. I don't know what his logic was, mind you, but it was nothing to do with Europe, just Scottish independence.
For a lot of people, the vote wasn't even about Europe. It was about saying fuck you to Cameron.

[MulticolourMophead]

Immigration has brought this country to its knees. The level of immigration here is absolutely insane. It has not worked and this country is fd.

The latest immigration figures I've seen show that immigration is higher from Non-EU countries. How does leaving the EU solve that?