“Everybody thought the EU was about people coming into the country … no-one told of us the benefits”.

I think some people are being a bit disingenuous here. EU funded stuff, some of which was quite large, had signs on it ("This highway funded by EU structural funds") with a little EU flag.

Another aspect is that while areas like Stoke, Cornwall etc are poor, they're not as poor as areas of e.g. Poland so that funding was getting harder to access after 2010 or so.

I did notice in 2016, as an Economics teacher, that a lot of people didn't actually know what a free trade area or common market was. My students were surprised to know facts about the trade arrangements that the adults in their lives didn't.

But BREXIT was never about Economics, was it?

Boris's bus said '' We send £350,000,000 to Europe every week'' .

So where is that money now - where is it going?

We even have higher taxes now.

What do they think Farage is going to do? He doesn’t give a shit about people like them!

Yeah. Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Oh come on! People have been warned time and time again. People were told that the Brexit campaign was based on barefaced lies. Almost a decade later and this has now been proven and yet we're now letting the same despicable human beings hoodwink us into more and more dangerous and extreme politics despite there being no evidence that their claims are either helpful or truthful. The truth has always been there. The fault is with the people too stupid and too ignorant to open their eyes

Not sure he could find it with two hands, a map and a compass...
Not that far from SOT. DH used to work there. It's a good example of what happens when education fails, industries close and housing stock is neglected.

Rich people exploit and manipulate poorer people for their own benefit, whilst diverting attention and blame onto ‘the others’. It is a tale as old as time unfortunately.

Everyone who wasn't covering their eyes/ears and shouting LALALALA knew perfectly well. Especially in the areas that were getting heavy EU funding.
Nobody was stupid enough to believe the Boris Bus but some people (eg boris) thought it was a good distraction and rallying point.
If the same people who want to be led by Boris or Trump want to be led by Farage, how is that surprising?
Honestly I have zero sympathy.
OK, rant over.

Seriously? Nigel is the lying reason why they lost eu funding and the tory mps who did nothing to help during the years they were in power will suddenly step up will they? Farage has done nothing for Clacton but everything for his own pocket because surprise surprise, he's more interested in making his own nest more comfortable. To do that, money has to come from somewhere and its not going come from his rich friends is it. Where do you think money will flow from?

Independent thought is allowed. If people didn't know about the huge amount of EU funding, that's on them and because they didn't listen or do research. If the same people now wants Farage to save them (again?), sympathy is hard to find.

There was a clip on the lead up to the referendum vote with a young man in front of a road, which came from EU funding, leading to a new further education college built by EU funding saying “what has the EU ever done for us round here”

I was the Monty Python Romans sketch come to reality.

People were told, they were also told that we would return to our glory Empire days and counties would be lining up to offer bigger and better trade deals and investment. Completely built on sand. And no one has been thrown in jail for this utterly false propaganda.

There was also a man, middle aged, seemed quite ok, the morning of the results totally regretting his Leave vote “because he didn’t think the UK would vote Leave and he did it as a bit of a protest vote” (facepalm)

Now we are seeing Reform councils saying they have to put up council tax because there isn’t anything to cut back on, now they are faced with Project Reality.

So they tried to lie about Brexit to get rid of brown people and let racism flourish

Reform don’t need to lie that much they are openly now saying it will all be fine once we put women and the disabled back in homes and workhouses. Which lets sexism flourish. Although sexism from brown religions is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Let’s get the Church involved, bring back conversion therapy, to sort out the poofters and let homophobia flourish again.

But some pale stale males at the top will be invited to Davos, yay!

They are so full of fucking shit that they don’t really care what they say as long as it riles up enough people to vote for them. Politics based on hate what a wonderful world some people, more people, are going to vote for.

There's no helping such stupidity. I have sympathy for the remainers.

Yes there were lies and manipulations but the information was there. Boris said EU funding would be replaced in full. He lied.

I don't think we can go back in to the EU now, definitely not on the same terms. It would be better for our growth but it would cost us dear and we prefer the flexibility. We want a trade relationship and they want ever closer union.

Well, quite.

Madness prevails.

Very true.

And yet off they run to farage again.

No sympathy from me - I would expect adults
of voting age to do their own reading instead of just listening to who’s the loudest in the room.

England's councils spending 78% of their main budgets on social care | Politics News | Sky News

This doesn't really leave much to pay for everything else Local Authorities have to pay for.

I don't see how, as a nation, we are better off post-brexit. I think it was a stupid idea.

All the talk of "choking us with rules", a lot of the time they were our suggestions - e.g. low-energy light bulbs, that other EU nations agreed to.

I do think our country has been marginalised since brexit.

I do not see how anything would improve with farage in charge.

I do think a sizeable portion of the population wants a so-called 'strong man'. It would be interesting to investigate the mass psychology that drives such decisions but if you look at history, the more a population is under economic strain the more they tend to gravitate towards simple, strong-worded lies. Doesn't matter that they're lies, people might even understand deep down that they're lies but they find the assertiveness reassuring. It's the social equivalent of curling up in the foetal position when things get on top of you. The fact that there's a big fat boot about to kick the living shit out of you doesn't factor into the equation.

In many way we were deceived. Instead of facts we had fighting and conspiracy and propaganda. That clouded any facts about any benefits.

There were facts but people refused to listen - anything said in support of Remain got dismissed as 'Project Fear'. As a Remainer, it really was like talking to a brick wall at the time.

But look at Americans bringing back Trump AFTER Jan 6th...

This is so sad. Stoke on Trent is the same. Rarely gets government funding but had lots of great projects funded by the EU. Nobody seemed to be aware of this though and everyone voted Brexit. And now people there are falling for Farage's lies again. As if Farage gives a flying fuck about the people of Stoke. Why cant people see this?

Yes they should be adequately funded to ensure social care needs are up to standard

No you were fine to mention Brexit. We have a weirdly short term memory in the UK with politics, and dont seem to grasp that political decisions will affect a country for decades. The creation of the NHS is a reason boomers have a great life expectancy today, but also why we spend more on adult social care and one reason houses are not becoming available for younger generations. Decisions to only build where there is already infrastructure has created densely packed towns and cities with a severe lack of doctors, dentists and school places for children. Brexit has led to deprived communities being even worse off, and also left the UK alone and fragile during escalating global tensions which is what it was designed to do. Voting for Reform is like mixing two unknown compounds and wondering what will happen. It may be exciting for one election period, but who knows what the domino effect will be for decades to come.

In many way we were deceived. Instead of facts we had fighting and conspiracy and propaganda. That clouded any facts about any benefits.

for example the small
boats. How many knew about the Dublin agreement. I certainly didn’t.

it might have gone an different way.

the eu were choking us with rules but like you say

we need to sort these issues out now and nige isn’t the answer imo. But who is ? Honestly? the whole of the west is in decline

China and India are the new superpowers.

all we can do is try
mitigate the consequences

add ai and we are all screwed tbh Brexit will be the
least of it.

What? You didnt realise there would be downsides, including reduced funding and human rights since leaving the EU?

2 of the main reasons we left EU was to be in control of our economy and to be able to control our borders...........😂

And as you can see, that's going fantastic

I would be happy to rejoin