I want people to tell me why they voted #leave

[AliceScarlett]

I'm feeling pretty shocked and scared right now.

Why did you vote for brexit?

Just wondering if anyone voted Leave because they got dangerously distracted by a huge 8ft car bumper sticker obstructing the highway??
(It may have been near a small man with a beard!)

Leicester's largest population group is White British as is Birmingham's which only narrowly voted to leave.

ghost I am totally with you that it is the Tories' fault completely. I don't know how they sleep at night.

However to make a change, Labour need to get elected. I believed I was doing the right thing in electing JC as leader - based on his beliefs and principles I could not see a better candidate.

Unfortunately I don't think he plays well with the electorate and next time I would hold my nose and elect a polished political media star like Chuka to get the message over.

ConcreteUnderpants that made me laugh

Smallfox. Boston has highest number of Eastern European immigrants than anywhere else in the country. 45% of Leicester city are white British. 58% of Birmingham are white British.

We need immigration as our birth rate is very low. However immigration needs to be managed. We need the right economic immigrants. We should give priority to those who can speak English and have a skill. Not taking unskilled people from Europe will make it easier for unskilled Syrians to get work.

We also need to have a little bit more compassion towards non EU migrants. I know a lady who 78 years old from Macedonia who has lived with her family for 5 years who has been sent back. She is a frail lady and most of her friends have died. I would like immigrantion law to allow immigrants to bring over elderly parents provided the adult children can pay all living expenses and private health care.

Giving priority towards immigrants from the EU is xenophobic to the rest of the world.

I was going to remain up until about 2 weeks ago.

Then the remain campaign kicked in, branding anyone voting leave to be uneducated and racist. I found this appalling tbh, and it switched my vote. It made me realise that everyone 'in' was self interested and arrogant. It made me realise that in this country, the divide between rich and poor was growing, with the rich arrogantly lording it over the uneducated.

So, I wanted to stick up for them.

I'm white, not remotely racist, highly educated, 40 year old.

But very little of the immigration in these areas is EU.

Boston, has 13% of the population from the EU.

are your vote was a mere protest vote, then. You don't even care about the actual issue.

The country will still be divided between the rich and poor post Brexit, just this time the rich will really get to stick the boot in.

I'm unable to comprehend how people can't see that.

I don't feel like he was visible or decisive or convincing at all and that meant the whole in/out was left so that it seemed to be a choice between one or the other bunch of Tory cunts.

I agree. I think DC will go down in history as the man who truly, deep down in his heart, thinks national politics is a little game played among people who all know each other from school, with no sense of responsibility whatsoever to anyone else, anywhere.

Right from the start, the referendum was a massive failure to lead by DC. If he had convictions about remaining, then I am baffled as to how strong they might be. If you call a referendum on an issue of such momentous importance you had better be bloody sure your side wins.

Then after dropping the ball big time, you resign while your currency is in freefall and world financial markets are in a state of panic, and the job of steering the country through the crisis you created must be delayed while your little bunch of friends casts around for a new Top Boy. Astronomical irresponsibility.

Gutted for Northern Ireland and wondering where the good Friday agreement stands, and wondering also about repercussions for Ireland's economy.

The rich put the jackboot on a few years back when the Liberals let the tories in through the back door. We're all still paying for it.

I don't think it necessarily is a protest vote.

The 'outwards' looking mentality of being in the EU, being on the world stage etc contributes to seeing many British people as the left behinds, not part of 'us.'

people perceive themselves as part of an international community of like minded intelligent people and those struggling as some sort of inconvenience that should be ignored or mocked.

Makes no difference how large or small an EU immigrant population is. What makes a difference is the perception of that population. Sometimes it's easier to believe the scaremongering if you don't know many of the 'bogeymen' personally.

Allowing perceptions to go unchallenged or insufficiently unchallenged was a complete failure of leadership on the part of DC and all the Remain campaign (including Labour pols).

Just out of interest, I wonder if in basic terms, people know the simple facts about immigration.

Like for example that they pay more in taxes than they take out?

That there is no evidence that we are impacted negatively by their existence?

or that there is no evidence whatsoever that leaving the EU changes our immigration policy in any way at all!!!!

If you are / were unhappy with immigration as an issue - I am unsure over how leaving the EU resolves that problem for you. And more worried that your belief that it did caused you to vote to leave.

Political manipulation of the masses at it's best.

What;s next? California leaving the united States because Trump tells the it gets rid of the Mexicans?

Sad state of affairs when we actually allow the likes of Farage to manipulate the very future of the human race - the peace and stability of our region.

I was intending to vote Remain up until 7pm yesterday, but the vitriol and accusations of Leavers only being racist, uneducated, stupid and having no valid arguments (inc. comments on here) incensed me so much that I went straight out and voted for Leave.

I am surprised that Leave won though and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I do think ppl should stop being nasty to others that have different opinions though, and I'm equally sure that although some ppls reasons for voting leave may have been coloured by having narrow minded views; I still believe most ppls views/vote were based on research/discussions and an informed decision.

Personally, I spent months reading what I could and listening to other ppls views. I'd decided this week, after being undecided for so long, that I'd vote Remain, mainly due to the possible effects on the economy if we left, but the vitriol from others, rightly or wrongly, got my back up and changed my vote.

I've asked around and many say they voted 'Leave' due to oppressive EU red tape and annoyance at MEPs/QUANGOs who are on a lucrative gravy train which we are paying for. Also frustration at EU law taking precedence. Wanting to punch Cameron in the face for being a posh millionaire Etonian who knows nothing about ordinary people. The PM has lost touch with reality - most of them do in the end. Virtually no mention of immigration.

Things are really shit for some people, they have been for the past 10 years. In fact they are getting shitter and a good standard of life is getting further away. Which means by the time your kids leave school a decent job, university, house buying all seem further away for them, so you are leading them into a path of even more shitness.
The government are making cuts left right and central, making things shitter for some people.
The governments response "you aren't working hard enough"
"you are expecting too much"

Or the mums net response

"your spending too much on 'stuff' or costa coffee"
"move" from your friends, family, jobs, schools and support

Meanwhile the part time / lower wage job market which is perfect for a parent to try and fit round the kids etc. Is filled with eu migrants, keeping wages and flexability low (do you remember when you used to have week day supermarket workers and teenagers at the weekend) now you have zero hours contracts and expected to work shifts of weekends, evenings and early's (who looks after the kids).

The government have allowed and to a certain extent encouraged this to be the situation, not the EU.
But when you look around and this is your life, this is your situation, the job market saturated, houses (regardless of mortgage or rent) sky rocketing, government cutting services that might have paid for you to retrain. More cuts being threatened whilst we pump millions into the eu not to get it all back.
You can see how a vote to leave would look attractive

For me this referendum highlighted the widening gap between rich and poor in this country. I live in one of the safest Tory seats in the country and the vote was strongly in favour of remain in my area. It is not mainly the traditional conservative voters who are voting to leave. Neither are the metropolitan elite - I've been shocked, but perhaps not surprised, at people on Facebook today bemoaning the drop in their share portfolios. Yet so many in other parts of the country are worrying daily about keeping jobs and feeding their families.

I voted to remain and I am so disappointed that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party failed to engage with the people they are supposed to represent. It's all very well to say 'vote remain' but they totally failed to articulate why. Shameful. I'm really hoping that some good can come from this result.

Maybe it will lead to a drop in house prices which will make it possible for the young people in my family to buy homes in an area where a basic 2 bedroomed apartment now costs over £400k. That would be positive, although not for me personally from a financial perspective. I take exception to people saying that people over 50 don't care. Many do.

I was intending to vote Remain up until 7pm yesterday, but the vitriol and accusations of Leavers only being racist, uneducated, stupid and having no valid arguments (inc. comments on here) incensed me so much that I went straight out and voted for Leave.

I am surprised that Leave won though and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Jesus wept.

Maybe it will lead to a drop in house prices which will make it possible for the young people in my family to buy homes in an area where a basic 2 bedroomed apartment now costs over £400k.

So the house price crash will happen in a vacuum then? No other economic consequences at all, whatsoever?

I was intending to vote Remain up until 7pm yesterday, but the vitriol and accusations of Leavers only being racist, uneducated, stupid and having no valid arguments (inc. comments on here) incensed me so much that I went straight out and voted for Leave.

Sweet Lord.

So in 100 years when our children's children's children read about the face of the world, the borders we have, the way the world maps are drawn and written it will be because this was how you cast your vote?

The question you were being asked here was "what do you stand for?"

And this was how we answered?

Picolinate - I don't think that and I didn't mean to imply it. I was just trying to think of a possible positive from a situation I didn't want or vote for.

I started the campaign somewhat in favour of Remain, but after weeks of indecision I voted Leave, partly as a protest vote as I thought Remain would win.

But also I did so because I believe it will be better for our economy in the long term.

Europe is a low growth economy compared to many other markets. It doesn't feel right shackling ourselves to a low growth zone when there are many more trading partners out there.
Also, with a less bureaucratic market we can be more agile and take advantage of market conditions more easily.

Further, countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and others have lacklustre economies plus much higher levels of corruption that will take generations to change. I feel that the economic benefits for us of continued EU membership are hard to see when we are a net contributor that may yet be expected to make further bailout contributions to countries who don't pull their weight, and are resistant to change.

I am also not keen on overly-centralised power and a one size fits all approach, as it is difficult for all and tends to suit no-one much. Decentralised power and more local control benefits communities and businesses as policies can be designed more specifically for them.

And I do not like the unelected and unaccountable nature of the EU. Some dubious comments by Juncker haven't helped.

Lastly, I think that some of the benefits of EU membership such as shared intelligence can be achieved without the need for ever closer political integration.

Such a hard choice though. I am not convinced there is a "right" answer.

Really interesting responses.

Do think MN should have kept the first reply up, it was pretty telling.

It's so complicated. All I'm able to do right now is feel slightly pleased that a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds got a say in where they think the country should go.

I wish you could control for fear of "people not in my in-group", take out that variable of the leave vote and see what you're left with.