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AIBU?

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Original poster

Do your family, friends, work colleagues, anyone ever discuss Brexit anymore?

459 replies

StevieNicksMirage · 16/09/2017 17:11

My family don't. None of my friends are interested. Nor are my work colleagues.

Was wondering if it ever comes up in anyone else's conversations.

OP posts:
viktoria · 16/09/2017 23:24

Yes, all the time. Am European, so directly affected as I need to apply for residency and for dual nationality.

It also feels very personal: this so far wonderful country which has been my home for 30 years, has voted that it doesn't really want people like me here.

I still feel like many Leavers don't so much want to leave Europe, but rather want a time machine that takes the country back 100 years when Britain was a major player on the world stage.
I happily stand corrected, but so far, I have not heard one single argument for Brexit, that even remotely sounds reasonable to me.

SwedishEdith · 16/09/2017 23:28

Because when workers were having their jobs stripped from them no one listened.

You clearly weren't here when mn took the Cadbury dollar then.

Agustarella · 16/09/2017 23:59

Thank you, ChilliMum! Moving to France has been the fulfilment of a dream for me, especially as I'm lucky enough to have met somebody. Interesting times for us expats.Confused

yikesanotherbooboo · 17/09/2017 00:02

Yes we still talk about it and are still very upset... I work in the health sector which has already got huge recruitment problems so the last thing we need is a reduction in European immigrants ... likewise the care sector.
I tend to avoid the topic with brexit relative as it just makes me very annoyed to think that my children's economic future is going to be stuffed by this decision.

GinUser · 17/09/2017 02:55

Not with family, but with colleagues.
I live in Europe and have done for nearly 30 years. I have no right to vote anywhere, apart from in European elections. I am upset and concerned that something over which I had no control or say, is threatening the life that I have built up over time.
However, I am entitled to apply for citizenship in the country where I live and also have a "plan B" on that side of things.
What I do not understand, especially in the light of this year's rash of terror attacks, is the argument about controlling borders.
My personal opinion is that the UK will either become another US state (highly ironic) or will sink into third worlddom.

Toadinthehole · 17/09/2017 03:20

I'm in NZ.

The subject sometimes comes up. I don't mind discussing specific issues (trade, Irish border and so on) but keep my own overall preference to myself.

I'd say reaction is evenly split between admiration and disapproval. Generally traditionalist-minded acquaintances lean to the former, soft-left liberals to the latter.

The EU is not terribly popular round here, although business people have come to rely on British membership being their springboard into Europe and aren't best pleased. I suspect they'll move on though.

Trump and his latest smalldoings are of more interest.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 17/09/2017 03:36

I talk about it with friends, but more in a "God isn't this awful" way as everyone I know apart from my dad voted to remain. No real discussion of issues at the moment.

Dh and I do discuss the implications and the government negotiations.

We talk about it a lot at work as it will hugely impact us. I work in the health and social care field and and huge numbers of the workforce are from Eastern Europe. Health and social care companies near me cannot recruit locally. If they are no longer able to draw on workers from the rest of Europe then I can't see how vulnerable people are going to be supported.

TheElementsSong · 17/09/2017 04:22

I quite like having seperate countries with seperate culyures. I don't want to go to Spain, Italy, France and everything has blended into one - this isn't about people it's about culture.

This is one of the most hilarious things, in all these sorry months, I have ever read about Brexit Grin

terriblemistake · 17/09/2017 06:36

No, I find Remainers unbearably whiney, moany, negative and doom and gloom laden and refuse to discuss it with them. I don't discuss it with those who voted Leave because we won and we just want to see it happen.

Excuse me while I am ROFL.

I only talk about Brexit to one or two people . The sheer ineptitude of our current politicians is very disheartening and while I was very involved for a long time, it has now become too depressing.

Binkybix · 17/09/2017 07:08

I don't talk about it much at home now. Just too depressing. See a lot of it at work, including people at the centre of doing it saying what an absolute mess it's all in. Which is cheery.

Bloodybridget · 17/09/2017 07:11

Yes, it's discussed a lot in my circles. All Remainers, and quite a number of non-UK citizens.

streetface · 17/09/2017 07:23

God no. Talking about it won't change anything and I don't seem to be able to get away from it.

Read any article about something totally unrelated in any online paper and for some bizarre reason, there will always be a comments along the lines of, "must be a Brexitard" or "welcome to Brexit Britain" The story could be about tomato soup and those comments still appear.

Bore off.

shhhfastasleep · 17/09/2017 07:34

Often say " bet he/she voted Brexit" in a variety of situations where someone pisses me off.
I can't bear to look at it on tv. I have to fake for my dd that it'll all be fine and we will work it out, even if I didn't want it.
Getting her an Irish passport to reclaim the right to work and study in EU that she is losing.

Elendon · 17/09/2017 07:35

All continue to talk about Brexit, especially now the government seem to be making a dog's breakfast about it.

Even if this current government survive for five years, I still think we will be in the EU. There will be delays a plenty.

CaptainBrickbeard · 17/09/2017 07:41

I'm even more baffled than the 'why talk about it, it's done' attitudes than the vote for Leave in the first place. It's not done! Now is the really important bit where we find out what the consequences will be and shape the future. It's more crucial than the referendum! I will never stop being exasperated by the people who think the vote was the start and end of everything. The truth is that Brexit has begun to chip away at people's standard of living already and we have barely even got started. The tide of opinion is significantly turning away and that's why a lot of Leavers won't discuss it anymore. I take a great deal of heart from surferjet's assertion that 'there won't be a second referendum'; it reminds me of the thread she started asking what we would all do when May got her landslide victory in the election 😂 As it becomes increasingly apparent how incompetent the negotiators are, how they have got no hope of achieving anything decent and how leaving the EU really will be catastrophic for ordinary people I feel hugely encouraged and optimistic for the reversal of it all whether that is by second referendum, subsequent elections or whatever it may be. I have more and more hope that this utter nonsense will never come to pass.

shhhfastasleep · 17/09/2017 07:51

The EU side just hast to sit and watch the clock count down. Even if we don't pay as much of a divorce bill as they want, we are stuck with WTO terms. They can sell BMWs to each other. Our market is important to them but not if we are too screwed to import anything.

terriblemistake · 17/09/2017 08:07

I have more and more hope that this utter nonsense will never come to pass.

I hope you are right Captain. And it is utter nonsense.

SunSeptember · 17/09/2017 08:08

Viktoria I have a family full of immigrants who have been here From ten years to longer! A lifetime! All of them agree we cannot sustain the levels of immigration we got from 2007 on wards. None of them feels it's personal at all but agree with numbers issue. It wasn't just the over night huge increase it was the then goevrnments response. To leave us to it, no counting, no recognition of councils head counts going up, and no extra funding. It caused a crisis and we see the results now. It takes time for the effects to take place, change effected.
No one I know talks about it. As a family every thing we do is with brexit in mind... mortgages fix, house moved, work, jobs.

EveningShadows · 17/09/2017 08:13

Talk about it all the time with friends and family. Struggle go understand the tiny handful of my friends who voted Brexit - see them in a different light now and it's not a pleasant one.

Hilarious the poster who said there would be riots if we quietly cancelled the whole shitstorm - no chance! I think most people would breath a huge sigh of relief.

Cailleach666 · 17/09/2017 08:14

I wouldn't be friends with anyone who voted brexit.

SunSeptember · 17/09/2017 08:15

Captain I think what people fail to grasp , perhaps because they just don't want too is that many people in this country were hit by a sledgehammer and directly affected by the consequences of suddenly Having a huge surge of immigration too the country,the numbers of which we have never seen before. The government did not support people and infact we knows now, suppress ed and discouraged talk about it. For those people it can't get any worse. For others Ben's speach on power resonates... who has the power, how did they get it....can we take it away from them.....

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 17/09/2017 08:21

I work in central government, so spend a huge amount of my working day talking about it in one way or another. Consequently I'm not hugely keen to talk about it with friends or family, but it comes up from time to time.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 17/09/2017 08:37

Brexit was voted for in greatest numbers by the comfortable over 60s.

Are you serious trying to say life for them can't get any worse? For anyone in fact?

Can you link to any evidence that suggest the govt - which one? - tried to suppress education and discourage talk about it (brexit?)

PerfectlyPooPoo · 17/09/2017 08:47

Very rarely does it come up with friends or colleagues now. But dh and I are selling and have decided we'll be leaving the UK.

I'm not quite ready to leave but it wouldn't be smart to take on a bigger mortgage with so much uncertainty and I don't want to hang around for a 'wait and see' until 2019.

CloudNinetyNine · 17/09/2017 08:53

Don't talk about it quite so much any more. Talk about the job losses when they are announced in the news and general grocery food prices going up.
But apart from that there seems little to discuss - as in, nothing has happened yet. Lots of speculation about EU agencies having to move to EU, business CEOs implying job moves - which has been said since the referendum.
Even the talks with the EU have not resulted in any decisions being made.
So there feels like there is nothing new to talk about.