Has anyone learnt anything?

[Namehanger]

I am a remainer and have spent about two hours a day reading threads and articles on Brexit. I started angry, got angrier but am now calming down.

I have disagreed with a huge amount of what posters who voted to leave the EU have said. So what I have learnt?

• I sort of knew but had underestimated how difficult life is in some parts of the UK
  
• that some posters had good reasons for leaving the EU.
  
• that immigration is patchy and is an issue in some areas
  
• buy to let landlords in the SE, buy cheap property in the North and turn them into HMO's filled with immigrants
  
• how totally morally bankrupt some politicians are, it is one thing fiddling your expenses but to create this shitstorm
  
• everyone has been let down, both people who voted in and out of the EU. We are a tolerant, outgoing nation.
  

I am no longer going to use the labels of remain and leave. They have now become full of bile and hatred.

[HelpfulChap]

Excellent post.

[bakeoffcake]

Fantastic post. I too voted remain.

I was so angry this time last week with the outers. I now feel anger towards the poiticians who have neglected certain areas of the UK for decades.

The wealth must be spread around the UK more.

[Thefuturecouldbebright]

Great post, well said. Am Ready to call a truce 😉😊

[thenightsky]

I've learnt that some people I know are racists

[RiverTam]

I have learnt that despite 75% of their vote going to Remain, fewer 18-24yos voted Remain than in any other age group (so more 65+ voters voted Remain than they did), due to their voter apathy. So I kind of wish they'd shut up about the oldies ruining it for them. At least the oldies know that if they want to be heard they need to vote. (And 65+ is a stupidly large age bracket anyway.)

This has annoyed me immensely!

[HelpfulChap]

I'm wearing my Hug A Remain voter T-shirt

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

I've learnt what it's like to be on the other side.

I'm a lefty liberal and a leave voter

Now I'm on the outside, I've had an epiphany and realised how we look down on people for having different views. I did the same to those who voted conservative. You assume they at homogenous horrible people, whilst actually people can vote (what you consider to be the) "wrong" way for all the right reasons- they genuinely think things will be better for all if they vote a certain way.

[caitlinohara]

I am a Leaver. I have learned:

• That other people understand economics a lot better than me (I kind of knew that anyway )
  
• That pretty much everyone on here really thought about which way they were going to vote and weighed up both sides of the argument.
  
• That fighting amongst ourselves only lets our government off the hook
  
• That there probably was no right or wrong answer. But to paraphrase Julie Burchill, sometimes you have to smash stuff to fix it.
  

Truce, ladies, please.

[Louw1988]

Great post, I've learnt why my grandparents would never discuss politics
Sometimes opinions are better left at the ballot box but I do believe we all have a right to be respected of our decisions and views

[freetrampolineforall]

I've learned that I can still be angry about the way a vote turned out. Every time I think I'm in shoulder shrugging "let's just get on with it" mode - something reminds me about how bad an outcome it was: currently the thoughtless risk to the NI peace process.

[FarAwayHills]

I agree OP. I started out feeling scared and angry but now I can see there were so many sides to all of this and there is no point being angry with one another other.

My anger is now directed at the politicians who have led us here and who have behaved appallingly during the campaign and since the result. The sad truth is we have all been pawns in their game.

[MarkRuffaloCrumble]

BurnTheBlackSuit

[caitlinohara]

Burntheblacksuit Oh yy, that's so true. As a Lefty Leaver myself, it's bloody alarming to find you're on the same side as many Tories (I am still convinced Corbyn secretly voted Leave ) but enlightening. I no longer view the political world in terms of left and right, it's far more complicated than that.

[mountaintoclimb]

[RiverTam]

free absolutely agree about Northeen Ireland. I wonder how many Leavers gave a second's thought to how utterly fucked they would be. The idea of a hard land border there fills me with horror.

[birdsdestiny]

I have learnt how many things are funded by the EU. Had never noticed it so much until now. The building which houses my son's youth club for example.

[HelpfulChap]

BurnTheBlack and Caitlin

I agree that politics has become less binary. I have always been centre-right but it was actually the far left argument for Leaving that helped reinforce my conviction. The immigration aspect was never an issue for me.

I have studiously avoided talking about the ref with my Remain friends. We skirt around the issue!

[StarOnTheTree]

I wish there was a 'like' button OP

[NameChanger22]

I'm a remainer. I have learnt that:

• Other people hate it when you tell them they might have made a mistake.
  
• A high proportion of the UK is racist and would prefer fewer immigrants.
  
• People really like to blame others, I knew they did, but not this much.
  
• Nobody can predict the future (except David Icke - according to a few leavers).

[Louw1988]

Can someone break down this whole left wing, right wing, centre right talk for me? Who's who?

[Grumpysfirstwife]

I have learnt that not everyone thinks democracy is a good thing all of the time (protest marches against Brexit).

I have also learnt that sometimes life does the unexpected despite everyone you know telling you it wont.

[Namehanger]

Moral maze on R4 right now

[Kummerspeck]

I think this is a great post and agree with so much you all have said

Sadly, one thing I have learned is that some of my friends who would claim to be left-wing, tolerant, anti-racist and whom I may not always agree with but have always admired for the strength of their convictions, have an unconscious disdain for the British poor/working class. I cannot count how many posts I have seen suggesting they are too stupid to have a vote worth the same as that of "people like us"

I really hope we can all move forward and start to heal some divisions soon

[Redactio]

I've learned that there are some really bad losers who only like democracy when it gives the result that they want.

[MangoMoon]

Brilliant thread!

I'm a leaver; I've learned a lot about how genuinely upset some remain voters were/are - straight after the vote all I could see & hear was spite & vitriol but then I started to understand whereabouts it was coming from and why.

I've learned how class snobbery appears to be the only OK trait to have amongst a group who go to great pains to be PC in every other way.

I've learned how people from NI & Ireland are genuinely fearful about what the outcome may mean for them - I am ashamed that these places didn't even occur to me in my thought processes.
I am also ashamed to have offended some of these people on a thread I posted on.

I do truly believe that we mostly want the same ideological outcome, but we differ in which route we believe to be best to get there.