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?

I voted remain most of my friends did the same,my town voted leave which was no surprise. I work in the nhs and we have low immigration here most of my work colleagues voted leave a couple didn't know how they were going to vote. Some of the reasons my colleagues voted leave "350 million for the nhs, they were worried about Isis ,the Turkish are coming,you go the supermarket and people are talking foreign " They had no idea it would take years to sort out and potentially make no difference to their immigration worries. My father voted out he said he doesnt like the immigrants,despite the fact he doesn't actually know any.There was no mention of the economic fallout.
I appreciate that many who voted leave had very different reasons than this and have enjoyed reading them on this thread. It all feels very surreal. I have seen a side to people who I know that is not very pleasant.

I do think a lot of the leave voters have done so without actually knowing what this means unfortunately.

I agree somewhat, and think it is also true for Remain voters.

I know a few racists that voted Labour in the last general election. Therefore all Labour voters are racists and are aligning themselves with racists. It maked me feel sick so I asked them all to unfriend me on social media.

Sparrowhawk, yes absolutely if we are standing for what is right. Otherwise we have no integrity. So much has changed since we joined the EEC and promises made during the last referendum were reneged on. The plan is to gather countries together into a superstate, whether it takes another 20 years or 50 years. If we had voted to remain we would have been dragged along with everyone else.

So, if a non-European country declares war on Britain (and god knows Britain has plenty of enemies) will you be happy then that we stand alone?

I think before everyone lays into the leavers everyone is allowed an opinion, a right to vote and we live in a democracy.

1. Just over half the country voted leave, this does not make us all racist and anti immigration. My vote for leave was most definitely not a vote for Farage, far from it (he has just jumped on the band wagon and we have all been now been tarred with the same brush). If we have a brexit leader to take us through to the next stage of this but without all the inflammatory and derogatory views of UKIP then maybe this might bring about the demise of UKIP, they got what they wanted and their party now serves no purpose at all.
2. Maybe the leavers, when they were voting, were actually thinking of giving back control of our country to the next generation (our children) so that they can make the decisions for their own country and retain the ability to hold politicians to account (and not be dictated to by some Brussels bureaucrat), and they will retain the power to change, via the fair election process that we have in this country.
3. With regard to £, you only have to sneeze loudly and it is devalued, we need to give it time and not panic - in fact £ has rallied slightly.
4. Let's just see what other EU countries think of Brussels in light of what we have shown them in the last 24 hours before we shout about what a disaster it is to leave (we may be the first out but we will not be the last).
5. What i am seeing in response by the remain voters is insulting to put it mildly and is the reason the polls got it wrong, the leave voters were keeping quiet on the way they were voting for fear of being called racist - that's very sad.
6. Oh and a little known fact - Brussels have not had their accounting/financial books assessed in 25 years - they are as corrupt as they come.

AFAIK we didn't vote to leave NATO.

I think that arguing about who is and isn't racist is fairly irrelevant. The main issue is that the majority of reasons given for leaving are not well considered or logical and we are all very probably going to be losers after a Brexit.

Time - what I don't understand is how, given that you feel the EU is corrupt etc, you feel that it's better to for Britain to have no say whatsoever in how its run?

We absolutely have to engage with Europe, we have no choice.

By voting to leave the EU we've basically said to Europe, 'Go ahead and do whatever you like to us, we're giving up our right to influence anything you do.'

This thread is amazing! 26 pages that largely seems to be people saying "I'm not racist but I'm totally happy to ally myself with racists to get what I want"

Who said that Ofshoes?

I actually want the country to go down the toilet now just so you all get exactly what you so richly deserve.. Wow, well we know who said that!

I think people just bring up the racist card because they can't put forward a decent argument.

The NE has the lowest immigration. Co. Durham, I think, had the highest percentage leave vote. You can hardly say that they are racist!

Sparrow - we have no say and Juncker made that perfectly clear yesterday morning. If the EU crumbles while we are in it we will be in a far worse position.

When Britain was in the EU, MEPs were involved in every discussion and every decision. We're now going to call those MEPs home and we'll have no idea what's going on in the EU. It's fucking scary.

If the EU crumbles, we're fucked anyway. We'd have a far better chance of ensuring it doesn't crumble by turning up to the discussion, wouldn't we?

I disagree if it folds and we are on the inside we will have a real say in what comes next and how to manage the fallout , now we are at the mercy of factors beyond our control, we have less than no say in that not only will Europe not pay attention to us the rest of the world won't either

Maybe the leavers, when they were voting, were actually thinking of giving back control of our country to the next generation (our children) so that they can make the decisions for their own country and retain the ability to hold politicians to account (and not be dictated to by some Brussels bureaucrat), and they will retain the power to change, via the fair election process that we have in this country

We've lost control of what happens in Europe. We've lost power and status on the world stage. We've always been a springboard to the EU for Asia and the US politically and economically, and we are now internationally irrelevant - how is that 'giving us back control'? We've actually lost everything.

yes, I said it. I really do hope it happens too! I'm taking advantage of my dual citizenship to get out.

"The NE has the lowest immigration. Co. Durham, I think, had the highest percentage leave vote. You can hardly say that they are racist!"

Its often the case that areas with low immigration will have that attitude.

I'm from Consett, County Durham and people have been rabidly anti immigration for a long time.

I agree smallfox. London has the highest level of immigration in the country and it voted to remain. Racism comes from ignorance, IMO. Once people actually live with immigrants and get to know them then they realise they're just people, rather than rabid, job-stealing zombies.

In my local area there have been smaller campaigns based around farming and fishing/sea laws set by the EU

Are these not the same communities that rely on EU subsidies?

Lots of people seem to forget that most of the money that goes to the EU comes from London, and most of what the EU gives back does not. the
London centric government will not redistribute that wealth out to the regions of its own violation.

Well Ofshoes, since you are, by your own account, a vindictive and unpleasant sort by wishing economic chaos to be wreaked on every inhabitant in the UK, I would suggest you will not be missed.

That was before a referendum was called - if we had remained today we would have been told "you had your chance and you chose to stay so now you can suck it up" and our credibility as a country would have been down the toilet - I find that more scary. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for change and I chose to take it, (I spent a long time weighing up both sides) I originally posted to give my reasons and that's what they are, I don't feel I need to justify them further.

That's fine time, you'll need to justify them though to the next generation who'll be clearing up your mess for the entirety of their lives.

wishing economic chaos

Well every economist under the sun has said that's what you're getting whether I wish it or not, my having a little gloat will hardly change things.