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Original poster

To want Brexit be reversed

812 replies

BeKookySheep · 05/05/2025 10:59

I don’t normally post about politics, but this has been playing on my mind for a while. I wasn’t super political before the referendum — just a mum trying to do her best for her family. But now, years later, I really feel like Brexit hasn’t delivered what we were promised. And I think we should seriously start talking about reversing it.

My eldest is 16, really bright, and had dreams of studying languages and maybe doing a year abroad. We looked into Erasmus a while ago, but that’s gone now. And the cost and hassle of studying or working in Europe is so much higher now. She asked me, “Why is it so much harder for us than it was for you, Mum?” And honestly, I didn’t know what to say. It hit me hard.

Everything’s more expensive — our food shop has gone up loads, and don’t even get me started on getting certain things for school packed lunches! Little things, but they add up. My brother runs a small business and he's drowning in paperwork just to send stuff to Ireland. And a friend of mine left the NHS because she felt so overstretched — they can’t recruit enough staff anymore, especially from Europe.

Brexit hasn’t made anything better. It’s just made life harder in so many small but important ways. And if something clearly isn’t working — and is limiting our children’s futures — why shouldn’t we talk about changing it?

We tell our kids it’s okay to admit when something’s not right and make it better. Maybe it’s time we took our own advice.

Would love to hear if others are feeling the same. Has Brexit made life harder for your family too?

OP posts:
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TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 21:43

Wasn't that labeled Project Fear?

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 21:39

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 21:32

@zoemum2006

Did you vote leave?

Hansard - House of Commons Wednesday 15 June 2016
[David Cameron] The Prime Minister
I am very happy to agree with my hon. Friend. “In” means we remain in a reformed EU; “out” means we come out. As the leave campaigners and others have said, “out” means out of the EU, out of the European single market, out of the Council of Ministers - out of all those things -

BatchCookBabe · 05/05/2025 21:35

TooBigForMyBoots · 05/05/2025 21:29

Brexit totally happened. It happened on the stroke of midnight 1st of January 2020. I get it didn't deliver the Brexit that you were hoping for, but you didn't vote for a different one, you simply voted to Leave. And that's what actually happened.

To deny the reality of it is ridiculous, more than a bit silly.

Edited
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Exactly this! Also, what many people forget is that as soon as we left the EU (January 2020,) the covid pandemic and lockdown started, which completely threw the country's economy (and the rest of the world's) into a tailspin. So we never saw the real, true impact of Brexit, because the results were skewed/messed up by the pandemic. The pandemic couldn't have come at a worse time really! It was several WEEKS after we left the EU!

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 21:32

@zoemum2006

Did you vote leave?

TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 21:31

The referendum asked the electorate whether the country should continue to remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU).

That was the choice.

TooBigForMyBoots · 05/05/2025 21:29

Skippydoodle · 05/05/2025 19:22

Brexit didn’t deliver because Brexit didn’t really happen. We resigned about 10% of what was originally signed up for. It was only Brexit in name.

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Brexit totally happened. It happened on the stroke of midnight 1st of January 2020. I get it didn't deliver the Brexit that you were hoping for, but you didn't vote for a different one, you simply voted to Leave. And that's what actually happened.

To deny the reality of it is ridiculous, more than a bit silly.

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 21:27

zoemum2006 · 05/05/2025 20:51

But that was never official; that was not the question on the ballot and even more people stated we would be like Norway.

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even more people stated we would be like Norway

Not in 2016 -
February 2016
Leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage has said that he doesn't want the United Kingdom to be a part of the the European Single Market, but instead wants the UK to "stand on its own two feet".

"I don't want to be part of the European Single Market, I want Britain to leave the European Union, be an independent country and trade with the world," Farage said on the BBC, arguing you can have a free trade deal without being part of a political union.

Farage also said earlier in a debate with [Anna] Soubry on Channel 4 News that he wants the UK to be "independent, self-governing, making our own laws", and not a part of the European Single Market and political union which forbids "us from making our own trade deals".

https://www.cityam.com/eu-referendum-ukip-leader-nigel-farage-says-he-doesnt-want-to-be-part-of-the-european-single-market/

Walkaround · 05/05/2025 21:19

Winter2020 · 05/05/2025 20:57

Asylum seekers are a small portion of the people that have come into the UK in the last couple of years. The vast majority of the people that have come it would have been very easy for successive governments to decline them aand they chose not to.

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Easy to decline them? Clearly not. Besides, what people are clamouring for the Government to decline are the people arriving illegally and being put up in hotels, not the people coming into the country legally, despite the latter being the vast majority. Asylum seekers may not be a majority of immigrants, but they are the ones being demonised and picked on and accused of not being genuine. It’s incredibly inconvenient that it’s expensive and time consuming working out what to do with people who claim to be fleeing persecution. And their numbers will only grow. The legal migrants, meanwhile, clearly come with benefits, or it wouldn’t be so difficult keeping those numbers down.

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 21:15

DoRayMeMeMe · 05/05/2025 20:35

It isn’t that simple though is it?

How much additional value do you think is created by customs officers that have to be paid for, (answer is zero) and the European Banking Authority that was moved from London to Paris (UK had only to pay a fraction of the cost, now it has to replicate at full cost).
Same with the Europe Medicines Agency previously the costs were shared with all other member states, now the UK has to pay full price to replicate the same work, and because it’s a smaller market it’s lower priority for new drugs approval.

Several of those “layers” were actually massively cost saving.

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The MHRA did actually introduce new regulatory recognition routes for medicines;

Medicines approved by regulators in Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore and the United States will be added to those given marketing authority in Europe by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), making them eligible for the faster MHRA approval route.

https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/united-states-japan-and-australia-added-to-uk-fast-track-medicines-approvals-list
https://www.dlrcgroup.com/ready-for-january-2024-a-first-look-at-mhras-new-international-recognition-procedure-irp/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhras-new-international-recognition-procedure-irp-goes-live-from-1-january-2024

Perplexed20 · 05/05/2025 21:13

OonaStubbs · 05/05/2025 20:18

At the end of the day, there is no price too great to pay for freedom.

Freedom - I think it depends on the eye of the beholder. I have not felt that I didn't have Freedom. After all, I've not been locked up.

Would you be willing to ask every citizen to pay £10,000 every year... or even £20,000, or 30,000 or even £1m.. After all no price is too great.

And for the correct use of irony, many of us would regard Brexit as a reduction of freedoms.

Winter2020 · 05/05/2025 20:57

Walkaround · 05/05/2025 14:22

What you are basically saying is, we don’t need asylum seekers. They arrive regardless even of whether there are any job vacancies. Climate change, a growing number of countries to the extreme right, and global instability will continue to swell the numbers of genuine asylum seekers. Maybe it’s time for some honesty from those who do not want immigration - they don’t want to help genuine asylum seekers, because there are too many of them. Nor do they want to take any responsibility for the causes of mass migration. Obviously, they still want all the advantages of contact with the outside world, but want none of the disadvantages - they want to be globalist when it comes to access to useful resources, and isolationist when it comes to the downsides. They want to be like Trump - fantasising about gaining control off all the resources they need and spitting out the inconvenient humanity getting in the way of the prize.

Show quote history

Asylum seekers are a small portion of the people that have come into the UK in the last couple of years. The vast majority of the people that have come it would have been very easy for successive governments to decline them aand they chose not to.

Rummly · 05/05/2025 20:53

Walkaround · 05/05/2025 20:48

Absurd, she says, immediately after the local elections. 🤣

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Yes, absurd. We didn’t elect councillors from Orban’s lot, or Le Pen’s or Wilders’ or the AfD.

🙄

zoemum2006 · 05/05/2025 20:51

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 17:54

David Cameron confirmed that he will pull Britain out of the single market if there is a vote to leave the European Union at the upcoming referendum.
https://www.politico.eu/article/david-cameron-bbc-andrew-marr-ill-pull-uk-out-of-the-single-market-after-brexit-eu-referendum-vote-june-23-consequences-news/
April 2016
Thanks to Michael Gove we know that Britain's future outside the EU would also be outside the single market.
https://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-19/michael-gove-says-britains-future-outside-the-eu-would-also-be-outside-the-single-market-but-what-does-that-mean

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But that was never official; that was not the question on the ballot and even more people stated we would be like Norway.

Walkaround · 05/05/2025 20:48

Rummly · 05/05/2025 19:43

This is absurd.

The most extreme politics is emerging in EU countries, not here.

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Absurd, she says, immediately after the local elections. 🤣

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 20:48

TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 20:18

Brexit did really happen

Britain left the EU.

Nobody had a vote on what kind of Brexit it would be, it was a simple Yes or No for leaving the EU and that is exactly what happened.

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To be fair, you should have been listening to the debates and interviews in the weeks leading up to the referendum;

The prime minister said: “What the British public will be voting for is to leave the EU and leave the single market.”

Although if you knew we would be leaving the single market would you have voted differently?

TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 20:45

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 20:42

Hardly worth it then.

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Brexit has failed

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 20:42

TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 20:27

Let's give it 50 years

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Hardly worth it then.

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 20:41

LlynTegid · 05/05/2025 20:17

Brexit is the great mistake probably of over 50 years. Led to the worst Prime Minister in our history, Boris Johnson, whose inaction led to over 20,000 avoidable deaths and net migration increasing not reducing.

Admitting it, and at least start with a customs union, supported by a yes vote in a referendum, should be the minimum to aim for.

Boris Johnson was personally blamed (at the time) for not signing up to the EU's vaccine scheme and for appointing Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist (turned out to be a good choice) - whereas Angela Merkel was blamed for signing up to the EU's vaccine scheme, throwing away the head start she had with the four-country vaccine alliance - thereby causing the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of German citizens. That is one of the things she is remembered for - not her relative success in the first lockdown.

Rummly · 05/05/2025 20:40

QuaintShaker · 05/05/2025 17:46

You're thinking of the European Court of Human Rights, which we are still subject to (as signatories to the Euopean Convention on Human Rights).

Though Reform want to pull as out of that, too.

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I suspect the pp was thinking of the ECtHR rather than the EU/CJEU. But the EU Charter is directly relevant and the Commission is active in the area of LGBTQ+ rights, including trans issues.

It’s a bit off-topic, but I’ve always thought the introduction of the Charter was a shameless land grab from the (already incorporated ECHR) and likely to promote all sorts of social measures and policy that the treaties supposedly excluded.

Edited op to pp.

Keepingthingsinteresting · 05/05/2025 20:39

FrippEnos · 05/05/2025 13:21

@Keepingthingsinteresting

kindly explain

Were you on a different forum as there was no kindly explain on here
It was all thick, stupid racists.

It still hasn't changed much, as you complain that they haven't learnt anything.

People should look in the mirror before they call others names.

I tried at the time to have lots of “nice” conversations, as I said now I’m telling the truth. I frankly don’t care what you think about that.

DoRayMeMeMe · 05/05/2025 20:35

Somethingscintilling · 05/05/2025 13:18

The eu is corrupt and billions of pounds goes missing.
I can't understand the logic of, our politicians are solely awful and corrupt let's get another layer of even more in accountable removed politicians to take our money??

It isn’t that simple though is it?

How much additional value do you think is created by customs officers that have to be paid for, (answer is zero) and the European Banking Authority that was moved from London to Paris (UK had only to pay a fraction of the cost, now it has to replicate at full cost).
Same with the Europe Medicines Agency previously the costs were shared with all other member states, now the UK has to pay full price to replicate the same work, and because it’s a smaller market it’s lower priority for new drugs approval.

Several of those “layers” were actually massively cost saving.

AdultHumanFemale · 05/05/2025 20:34

NotSayingImBatman · 05/05/2025 11:07

I don’t think anyone thinks life is better, it’s just easier to blame anyone but themselves. Farage told them their lives would improve without Europe sponging off the UK, when that proved to be demonstrably untrue, he told them it was the fault of people coming here on small boats. Presumably, when that goes nowhere, he’ll find another scapegoat and the masses will choose to believe him yet again.

It’s thoroughly depressing.

He's already started on the disabled.

Createausername1970 · 05/05/2025 20:30

TempestTost · 05/05/2025 11:12

No, I think that's a totally impractical idea, just from a completely pragmatic perspective. It likely couldn't happen and returning to the EU would be on less favourable terms than before. It would mean adopting the Euro for one thing which is a terrible idea.

And there is the deeper issue - why should it be a bad idea to adopt the Euro? Because there are serious structural economic issues with the EU, which IMO are likely to get worse. I think the UK may find they are better off out of it in the longer term, in fact I have serious doubts about the EUs survival.

A better path would be to look to forge other kinds of links, as many other countries do.

I have to say the university thing comes off as a bit whiny. I come from a Commonwealth country, in my parents generation, and especially my grandparents, it was possible for students there to study in the UK for free. It's not now, they pay as if we were outsiders. No one seems to think this is some kind of injustice or attack on our "rights". We either pay as non-residents, or what many students do is they enter exchange programs through their own domestic universities. This is very common in language programs in particular and perhaps something you could look into. As the graduate and post-graduate level many students study outside their own country, it's very common, EU or not.

Agree with this.

Also, from personal conversations, it wasn't just immigration, it was the EU itself that a lot of people didn't like.

My parents voted to join the EEC which was about improving trade. They didn't vote to join the EU, with it's own parliament, laws, currency etc. They were deeply unhappy about the way it went, with no outlet to disprove of it. None of the main parties accepted any criticism of the EU, and called people who were not happy with the status-quo "swivel eyed loons" etc.

If people feel marginalised and unheard, then they kick back.

Papyrophile · 05/05/2025 20:28

Behind India, China, the USA, Germany and I can't fill in the others, but the top two larger producers achieve that status on the basis of very much lower labour costs.

TopPocketFind · 05/05/2025 20:27

Clavinova · 05/05/2025 20:23

I was jesting about the 50 years - it's often quoted on here though.

I said 'richer' not riches.

About the big boost, claiming back the 4% drop in GDP would be good, don't you think?

I'd be happy with that but if it does not materialise within a reasonable timeframe after rejoining then can we have another referendum?

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Let's give it 50 years

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