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?

The rich gettin. Richer and poor getting poorer has already been happening and has been for years

I'm not going to deny that a lot of xenophobes will have voted leave thinking that all those pesky foreigner are going to disappear overnight. They are going to be sadly disappointed when that fails to materialise.

I'm not going to deny that a lot of people from both sides made their choices without fully researching it. I would imagine there are a fair number of people who voted remain because they couldn't be arsed to do any research so went with what they already know. After the dreadful murder of Jo Cox I saw plenty of posts on MN and social media about how they were undecided/planning to abstain but will now vote remain "for Jo". Why aren't they being vilified for making uninformed decisions based on laziness or an emotional response?

I'm not going to deny that there are people who regret their vote. A lot of people (myself included) swung from one side to the other and had no strong leanings either way. Some of them will have arrived at the polling booth and ticked a box just so that they'd made a choice. There was a huge responsibility put on people to use their vote - seen plenty of comments on MN about people abstaining being irresponsible/disgusting/whatever.

I'm not going to deny that the polls clearly indicated what the younger generation wanted. Whether those people then actually went and voted remain is yet to be seen.

I'm not going to deny there were lots of 'oldies' who voted based on what they saw on the tv and the side of Farage's campaign bus. Not everyone over the age of 70 is a computer-savvy silver surfer who can google information to get a more balanced view.

It's no good blaming the electorate for exercising their right to vote, whether that is with or without proper research. This is a democracy and we don't do IQ tests and quizzes about their knowledge before allowing them into the polling station. Maybe we should but hey there you go. I'm fairly sure that most general elections are won or lost on the basis of "I've always voted Tory/Labour" rather than their in-depth knowledge of the relevant manifestos.

If you're looking for someone to blame then Cameron is your prime target. He promised a referendum in order to be elected and it worked. Then he abandoned ship within hours of the result causing even more chaos and uncertainty.

You can also blame the Govt for allowing this to be played out like a general election with the Remain/Leave campaigns. The rhetoric and bullshit shouldn't have been allowed airtime and instead should have focused on independent reports of the pros and cons. Those reports should have been made widely available, particularly to the older generation.

Ultimately though, what is the point of a blame game? What is it going to change and how is it going to help? The campaign was highly divisive but now the division in the country is getting worse when we should be making all effort to pull together and move forwards.

ghosto You know all this do you? Or are you the prophet of doom?

Britain is leaving the biggest trading block in the world. There will be years of uncertainty. The markets have already taken this badly.

The rich gettin. Richer and poor getting poorer has already been happening and has been for years

yes and Brexiters thought by sticking their fingers up to the "establishment" they will get a fairer deal on jobs, housing etc. They won't.

Yes and it has the slowest growth rate other than the antarctica! Cool.

all those deprived areas that received EU funding - who is going to help them now - the Tories?

The rich gettin. Richer and poor getting poorer has already been happening and has been for years

So why would this get situation improve if we aren't in the EU? Do you actually believe that it can't get any worse?

"Yes and it has the slowest growth rate other than the antarctica! Cool."

The fastest growing economies are those that are still developing, only comparing growth rates is poor economics.

For example lets discuss GDP per capita, or GNI per capita, the gini coefficent? All of these things together would give you a better idea of which economies are good to be trading with.

I think the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer can get far worse outside of the EU Mary.

My 22 year old (Masters degree in Business) voted to remain but, whilst he is disappointed with the result, he isn't accusing anyone of ruining his future. He doesn't feel that the sky is falling in as he knows that we can survive outside the EU even though it's going to be tough

With respect KissMyArse he's 22 years old and he hasn't got a clue.

Studying business and having long experience of the international working world are two completely different things.

With respect KissMyArse he's 22 years old and hasn't got a clue

Not much respect in that sentence

No one has a clue what the right decision was for the long term. Experience of the past is no more help.

In the short term it will be painful but in many ways the EU prevents free trade rather than encouraging it. Whether it is a mistake will remain to be seen.

Dissing the views of any age group is just revolting imo

...in many ways the EU prevents free trade rather than encouraging it...

I am wondering what you mean by that.

Of the people I know who voted to leave:
A. Told me 'they're all coming in' and believes DM immigration. Especially about Muslims and Romanians.

B. Wanted to stick 2 fingers up at politicians and 'get Britain back'. Has never voted before in other elections but hates the Tories.

Thankfully most people I know are fellow remainers

Math I mean it is very difficult to negotiate free trade agreements with non EU countries. Its fabulous for free trade with the EU but for trading with China/ USA/ India etc less so.

The only remainers I know are my parents, and two incredibly wealthy earners who deal with and in Europe.
The rest are mostly self employed trades people. They voted in for this reason

www.wsj.com/articles/brexit-a-very-british-revolution-1466800383

Why did I vote out? Largely because of TTIP. Partly because of the 10,000 people employed by the EU who earn more than the PM. Partly because of the emotional blackmail of the remain campaign trying to smear everyone who's pro-Brexit as an ignorant racist. Partly because I'm fed up of having to buy stuff from German companies because we don't make anything any more.

The EU will fall apart within 20 years anyway so, messy as it may be to leave now, it would be significantly more messy to wait for the inevitable.

I think many people who voted leave are not going to come on here to tell you why because they have all been classed as racist or xenophobic and 17 million people have been tarred with the same brush because of a few idiots interviewed on the news and some idiots on facebook (who in their right mind considers that an intelligent place for debate).

To pick up on a couple of quick things, the £350 million extra money argument, MOST leave voters know that this is not the true amount and that it is more like £160 million after rebate and grants coming back (although technically we do pay the 350 out first before getting some back) we also know that it is not all going to be spent on the NHS, why do you think all leave voters believe everything the politicians? Of course we don't!

The £160 million can be spent on, education, NHS and various other things, with hopefully the majority of it going to the NHS. Leave voters aren't stupid, they realise this will depend on which government is in charge, a lot of leave voters really detest Farage and Tories like IDS, Johnson and Gove but they look at future governments to do the fairer thing.

The Daniel Hannan interview came as no surprise to most leave voters, for a start a lot of leave voters aren't as interested in immigration as you may think. Those that are and are sensible and intelligent realise this doesn't mean no immigration or even an end to EU immigration and nor do they want it to be. They simply want the ability to choose who can come in to the country to live and work from countries all over the world, in a fair manner and by looking at the numbers closely.

Most leave voters also know EU immigration is better for the economy and has been good for the UK, however it isn't all about money. There is a housing shortage in this country even when you discount all of the people who come here each year, we aren't building enough house to cope with the UK population growth, let alone the immigration population, it's simply a case of numbers.

I personally think we can cope with 100's of thousands of immigrants and wouldn't mind it, but it has to be phased in at a slower rate, houses need to be built first, schools, transport and the NHS funded and expanded more. There also has to be more work done on why some councils lump some of the poorer, sometimes trouble making immigrant families in the same areas of the UK, most often the poorest areas of the UK. This causes big problems in whole communites and yes in some of these poorer parts of the UK there is a MINORITY group of British residents who are racist, that's a fact, so why provoke people by putting immigrants next to racists?

Like I said, lumping all leave voters in the same category is not fair and is counterproductive.

If you want to have a look at a reason why there was a big leave vote, look for Sir Digby Jones been interviewed on the BBC news this morning.

The camp Calais jungle will soon be the camp Dover jungle. Thanks Brexiters. When the migrants disappear into our country before being processed by immigration I hope you'll welcome them with open arms in your local community. Don't complain. Leaving the EU won't solve the problem of migrants instead France (and other countries) will now usher them through to the UK.

Strange anyone seen ftse100 is UP higher that before the vote

That's true, but its been one day and the fall was massive, it was only once the BOE said that they'd make £250 billion available to banks if they needed it that it would rally.

The pound is still low in value, many organisations stopped currency trading in pounds yesterday to protect themselves so the limited supply available let the price rise.

Moody's have today forecast a recession for the UK, I really hope it doesn't come but I think it is likely.

For the record, my sister has a masters degree in pure maths, my brother has a masters degree in health and social care (and a bachelors in POLITICS). I have no degree and I am married to a mixed race British man (the son of a migrant). My brother, sister, parents, husband and I all voted leave. We all voted leave for the same reason; the once in a lifetime opportunity to gain the right to be a self-governing country. For our country to make it's own policies. We believe we can do this and it doesn't have to be scary. The condescension from the remain campaign didn't help either in all honesty. The mud slinging and the condescension that is still continuing, is still not helping now.

I voted Remain but now that I see some of the concerns of the Leave side, I can understand why they voted the way they did. While a lot of the remainers are accusing the leave side of not having any solid reasons for leaving, I'm seeing the same in the opposite direction, house prices going down and more expensive European holidays or luxury goods are not relevant to someone who will never be on the housing ladder or be able to afford a trip to Europe. The same with free movement for work/study (I would be curious to see percentages of Brits who actually take advantage of this rather than seeing it as a 'nice to have'). If you are just trying to survive day to day the idea of your children going to university in France (or going to university at all) isn't on your radar.

While I am in a British citizen now, I am also an American, so I would like to ease a few of your concerns from someone who has lived many years outside the EU:
-Americans are not part of the Schengen area but don't need a visa to visit Europe. I promise you the non-EU line isn't that long. You should be more worried about the line when you visit America.
-Other countries have trade agreements with the EU without free movement of people so it is possible to have one without the other. You're right, you may be negotiating from a different position. But the German car manufacturers have already started lobbying for a swift trade agreement. Others will follow.
-There are many countries both inside and outside the EU who are wary of Brussels. The United States quite enjoys being a world power. We have no interest in seeing a United States of Europe, which seems to be where things are heading. You are one of our oldest allies. We share a language, a culture, a history. If Brussels tries to exert its power and bully you, it will raise red flags for a lot of nations. Obama may have said you'd be in the back of queue for trade agreements to deter a leave vote but he has already taken a few steps back on that. And everyone knows American politics are heavily influenced by business interests. You may not be part of the EU but you're still a valuable market and we still want your business. I've read in numerous American financial and business publications how Great Britain "will be a very attractive place to do business" after the initial period of uncertainty passes. That the reason Europe does not have its own Google, MIcrosoft, etc is because EU regulation is restrictive.

You are not irrelevant to the world without Brussels.

Grassgreen....when the rise in the FTSE100 over a week timescale was pointed out to the BBC, they switched to reporting the FTSE250, which fitted their story better. Plenty of UK listed businesses will benefit from or be unaffected by Brexit. Many more will fare less well and need to adapt their business. The markdowns on Friday were largely indiscriminate though (apart from gold miners, who did quite well)

Great post Anna275....refreshingly different from Obama's posturing. The great thing about future US/UK trade agreements is that they'll be voted through parliament democratically rather than being forced through behind our backs - TTIP was a narrow escape.