Has Brexit made you want to leave the UK?

[Anxious1013]

Just that really.

Or maybe you have already left and if so where have you gone?

If it were an option for me I would now leave .

This Ian McEwan article pretty much sums up the desolation that I feel.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/01/brexit-pointless-masochistic-ambition-history-done

You can still love Britain but despise Brexit. It’s shameful the way this country and it’s reputation has gone downhill since the referendum.

I’ve lived/worked in the US and had kids there. I loved it at the time but wouldn’t want to raise a family there now.

I speak Spanish and I’ve lived there before so that would be my first choice. Just need 3 dc to finish GCSE’s and we will look at it.

Britain will always be my home country but not sure I want to hang about for the slow decline.

I voted Remain, but having lived and worked abroad for many years I certainly have no plans to,leave.

If racism/xenophobia are quoted as reasons for leaving, I can’t help wondering where are these sunlit-upland countries where these things don’t exist.

I think people can sometimes be very naive in their perceptions of other countries, especially if their experience is limited to short holidays.

It works both ways. You can love Europe, its countries and its people while disliking the EU as an institution. You can love and appreciate friends and neighbours without pooling all your money and resources, living in the same house etc. The way to tolerance and understanding is not ironing out differences, it is appreciating them.

You can love Europe, its countries and its people while disliking the EU as an institution

Difficult one because leaving the EU, in the manner proposed by Johnson et al, means hurting the peoples of europe, not Tusk or Bannier.
The europeans you say you love will lose jobs and livelihoods because of his hard brexit and of course will damage UK business too, not that Johnson or Gove will care.

What Johnson appears to be doing is threatening nothing short of economic war on our european neighbours.

We would love to leave what has become such a depressing little island (Remember 2012, when we were the brightest country, welcoming to all, outward looking? What a dreadful change). But family, lack of any passport other than these soon to be blue ones, business rooted firmly in the UK, all make it extremely unlikely to be possible for the foreseeable future.

To all the effing numpties saying "well, just leave" - I don't really have the words to describe what I think of your despicable attitude coupled with your astonishing stupidity...

I read that article by Ian McEwan the other day and also really resonated with what he was saying. I don't want to leave here though, this is where we live, where my children are growing up, and we have roots here. I don't agree with Brexit but the decision was made and as long as we can reflect on how it happened, through articles like this, then we will be ok. Nowhere in the world is perfect. This is home (for now) though.

If racism/xenophobia are quoted as reasons for leaving, I can’t help wondering where are these sunlit-upland countries where these things don’t exist. Exactly. It's a ridiculously naive view of human beings.
People keep saying they would move to Scotland if it joins the EU. I'm a Scot who has lived in England for a long time and now more in Scotland.
I know a lot of people here in Scotland and it's a particular close knit community. Not that welcoming to outsiders. As for no racism then don't make me laugh. All the usual suspects live here. Add in a bit of sectarianism. Don't get me wrong most people are great but...

No, I have no desire to leave at all, even though I voted remain. I like feeling like I 'belong', I have very little desire to move elsewhere, and definitely not to a non-English speaking country.

The current conservative government (which I also did not vote for) are pushing a lot of policy that will be great for me personally, I work in a skilled job which should be relatively unaffected by Brexit, and so I feel reasonably optimistic that things will work out fine for me. That gives me little reason to leave, and puts me in a good position to try and change/influence things for the better.

Oh do stop with this narcissistic virtue signalling BS. So typical of the liberal elite to think emigration is a rational response.

Who are the liberal elite? Definition please.

Last time I looked all of the people running the leave campaign or advocating leave were members of an elite I could never aspire to join (not that I want to, but in monetary terms I mean).

Who the fuck are the 'liberal elite' and why aren't Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (educated Eton college and Oxford) or Jacob Rees Mogg (educated Eton College and Oxford) not considered in the definition? They fought for Brexit because it serves them.

I'm the daughter of a shipyard worker educated at comprehensive school and I worked almost full time while at university to be able to afford it yet I guess I'm the fucking liberal elite!

Although I voted Remain, I have to say that sneering comments like DorisDay’s above - ‘this depressing little island’ - do make me have some sympathy with Leavers.

As a pp said, nobody (or hardly anybody) objects to any show or feeling of patriotism in other countries, yet in England (alone in the U.K.) to some people, it’s a matter for scorn and derision.

And this was a fact long before Brexit was even thought of - so often among the sort of people who are so keen on extolling the advantages of X or Y country - and very often conveniently ignoring any disadvantages - while endlessly belittling their own.

And please don’t anyone tell me it’s all down to our history of empire. Other European countries had empires and they don’t endlessly beat themselves up about it.

I think people are genuinely depressed about Brexit, just as some people are happy about it. Calling the UK a depressing little island is a reflection of the former.

For me, moving to another Northern European country that is still a member of the EU and that isn’t veering towards the trajectory the UK seems to be embarking on, would make all the difference. It’s not about the new place being perfect as probably nowhere is. However there are quite a few countries that have articulate, thoughtful and progressive governments, good economies and infrastructures, as well as inclusive social policies. I don’t see that here.

And I think it will get worse, bearing in mind who we have in government and how they are behaving and have behaved.

Already left. Changed my family's life for the better. Could barely survive on UK"s low wages. The constant damp weather meant I lurched from one severe chest infection to the other. The systemic racism meant I could never progress in my career due to the old, white boy network and even if I did UK salaries are notorious for being so low compared to other Western counterparts. Now I enjoy year round sunshine, earn triple what I earned in UK and family regularly visit. I only visit on holiday now and I'm so glad I left. Don't miss UK at all.

We moved back to the UK and are happy to be here. I don't have to contend with things in two different languages (things would arrive for dh in Flemish and for me in French); I have a feel for how everything hangs together and I am in my own four walls.

I still think the UK is a great place to be, and it is a delight seeing the spring flowers beginning to emerge in the hedgerows. I missed that every spring I was abroad.

Beware the grass is greener effect.

Which countries are you thinking of that have progressive governments, good economies and infrastructures, as well as inclusive social policies ?

What country did you move to shamalidacdak?

anyold I would assume that would be Sweden, Denmark or Finland. Can't be Norway. Sky high tax though.

Scandinavia inc Norway tops the Happiness league, UK does well at 15th.
I guess high taxes that gives the population great services, seems to work?
Personally, I loved living Sweden, tax rates were higher then but services were fantastic, light years ahead of the UK.

countryeconomy.com/demography/world-happiness-index

ScaryTeacher, but didn't you live the Brussels life for years, rent paid, private school fees paid etc? Suddenly on your retirement it's all shit. God forbid anyone else should aspire to such things. Most people would never get opportunities like you have had and you have just helped to ensure no-one else does. Enjoy your spring flowers and old age as a complete hypocrite in the Farage way.

More deliberate misreading going on.

I used to be extremely proud of my country - note my comments about 2012, conveniently ignored to make a point by someone "claiming" to be a remainer.

Since the Brexit campaign, let alone the vote, this country has shown itself to be far less than I had believed it to be. The racism, the little-minded, anti-intellectual, empire-worshipping, insular, introverted, xenophobic attitudes obviously held by a far larger proportion of the populace than I had hoped and believed, have made me realise that what I had pride in was only surface deep, or at least only what I perceived and wanted my country to be.

Maybe other countries are just as bad, but my perception of them is different. And if I had the choice, I wouldn't want to stay and watch the country I still love become so much less than it was, and could have been.