To think the referendum results would have been different if the costs had been known?

[TammySwansonTwo]

I mean, almost £60bn. Really? Who would actually have supported this? Apparently we have no money, the cupboards are bare, there's no magic money tree... oh, except the money for the DUP, and this.

And who's going to pay the price for this? Not the richest, that's for sure. More economy-crushing cuts coming our way!

But we'd get the benefits which outweighed the costs.

Really? Both sides lied... no one bothered to tell us anything concrete or real.

NOBODY who voted did so with any real information to back up their decision.

Having said that it is pretty obvious that a lot of details would emerge that absolutely NOBODY could have foreseen. This has never happened before and, as lawyers across the EU said at the time, the law of the process is probably flawed in very many places.

The big pity is that egos on all sides are buggering up any and every chance anyone had to make any kind of good come out of this! Too much politicking and not enough long sighted common sense. Juncker is not the only BureauTwat who seems to think being an immovable force is a good thing!

Surely no one, remainer or brexiteer, can still hold to precisely the same viewpoint now?

I'd love to know what david Cameron really thinks about what he set in motion. If only the chinless pig shagger had ever bothered to set foot outside his privileged little bubble in London to see how people in other parts of the country felt, he may well never have called the referendum in the first place...

As I understand it, we won't actually need to find extra money to pay for this than we do already as it's basically a continuation of us paying (some of) the EU dues that we'd already committed to paying for. It's very hard to say from the total lack of detail coming out, what the 40 or 50 billion actually compares to.

The ONS have a nice breakdown of recent UK contributions to the EU and the contribution in 2016 was 14 billion gross. But you can't compare that directly with the 40 or 50 billion. That estimate will be covering existing commitments that might range from one-off payments to e.g. payment of pensions for EU staff, that will go on for years and years. Also, the 14 billion was gross of payments from the EU back to the UK public and private sector - it's actually 9.4bn net of public sector contributions back to the UK, which I guess would be things like grants to the regions. Don't know if e.g. the wages of the Eurpean Medicines Agency and things like that would be included in that.

I think it's hard to say right now whether 40 or 50 billion is a large divorce settlement or not, because we just don't know what it covers. I suppose you can say it's the equivalent to staying in the EU for another 4 or 5 years, and then you're free and clear. That's not that bad, is it?

The weekend after the referendum I was sitting next to a friend's father at a do talking about this. He'd voted leave and was delighted. He did admit that he hadn't really considered how much it would really cost, but as a retired senior civil servant was confident that whatever was quoted by the remainers would be exaggerated. The whole 'project Fear' thing was a classic of manipulation: prevent people even considering the costs by implying that if you believe you're an idiot or a scaredy cat.

This payment is no more or less than a bribe. Article 50 makes no mention of a departing country having to pay anything; legally, we owe the EU no more than our normal contributions until 29th March 2019. May is offering this money because she is weak and the EU have frightened her.

Let's remind ourselves that (i) the EU is run by corrupt weasels who hate us and only want our money, and (ii) Brexit was never about money but about this country becoming a self-governing democracy again rather than ending up as a gaggle of offshore provinces of an undemocratic Greater Germany.

The EEC was sold to us as purely a trade organisation in 1973. Let's not make that mistake again.

The Leave campaign was accused of fear-mongering whenever it tried to raise the issue of cost (or any other negative impact)

If people were stupid enough to believe the likes of Boris Johnson then they deserve everything they’re getting, i just wish the rest of us didn’t have to suffer along with them

Fucking hell you're unpleasant @Rebecca 'pig shagger'

This is not one persons fault, it's the fault of everyone who voted leave. If DC didn't give the ref someone else would have eventually.

It's people like you @Rebecca who would now vote leave because we don't want pay our fair share who fuck me off the most.

Ignorant and spineless come to mind.

Project fear' wasn't it?

Indeed!

Don't worry - the German car manufacturers will be our saviours.

Won't they? 😬

I'd still vote leave.

We cannot afford brexit. That was obvious from the start (to some people). I'm less worried about this payment than I am about the ongoing detrimental effects to our economy.

I've never been a great lover of the EU. It has its benefits. It has its problems. After much mulling over, I voted Remain as it was a devil I knew and the consequences of Leave were too open and vague.

If there was a referendum now, I'd probably vote Leave. It's a fucking mess, but our relationship with the EU is in such a dire state that we'd be seriously eroded coming back with our tail between our legs. I think we need to carry on through the mire and come out of the other side and build relationships with the rest of the world and hopefully create a new positive relationship with the EU in the long term.

Had the EU responded with a bit more dignity there could have been more scope for the UK to have taken a different path.

I don't think the EU is on a sustainable pathway of constantly creating a larger, more federated EU.

I’m shocked that even seemingly intelligent people didn’t see this coming. It was obvious to the rest of us.

Brexit has lost UK economy £300m per week since EU referendum result, analysis finds

The difference between the estimated Remain vote counterfactual path and the actual path of UK GDP by the third quarter of 2017 is 1.3 per cent of GDP, or around £20bn

A report by the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economics Performance earlier this month estimated that the Brexit-related spike in inflation in the UK had already cost the average UK household around £400 a year

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-uk-economy-losses-eu-referendum-result-billions-leave-european-union-a8081841.html

I voted to leave for the freedom to make my own laws, to control the numbers of people moving to this country the opportunity to liaise with the rest of the world rather than the shambles that is the EU.

No one in Europe will let us walk away as it increases the risk of other countries doing the same it was bound to be difficult.

Would still vote Leave - I'm not surprised at the stance of the EU at all, being one of their major nett contributors of course they want us to stay.

So what if we need to pay a divorce settlement, some of it will fund projects in the poorer countries that we had already agreed to part-fund.
It seems to me that after about 5 years, we'll be back in the Black on what what we were paying out.

The other side is the extra money we can 'earn' and save when we can trade with whoever we like and the money we save by not having to implement stupid EU rules.

what are these 'stupid rules'? We have always had control over our own legislature and indeed have been a country that has led the way in many of the EU-wide laws.

Let's remind ourselves that (i) the EU is run by corrupt weasels who hate us and only want our money, and (ii) Brexit was never about money but about this country becoming a self-governing democracy again rather than ending up as a gaggle of offshore provinces of an undemocratic Greater Germany.

Corrupt weasels? Greater Germany? What are you actually talking about. We were always a self-governing democracy - can you give any actual concrete evidence that we weren't.

It's no use using figures for short losses, or gains. Brexit has always been about long term gains.

Much of that loss is down to the knee jerk reactions of those who swallowed Project Fear hook line and sinker - or rather those who used it as an excuse to leave the UK anyway. I remember the threads about job losses immediately after the result was announced. No company acts that quickly!

Add in the money men who, as we all know only to well, make profit out of any and every change. That causes its own domino effect and untold extra misery!

The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says. This came from a BBC news article in 2014. I would happily pay whatever it takes to be away from this money grabbing vultures. Their gravy train from the UK has well and truly come off the rails and thank god enough of the UK public had the sense to push it off.

Whilst it was glaringly obvious we'd be landed with a huge bill, it's not actually anything we hadn't already committed to, as someone said up thread, this will be a mixture of ongoing and upfront costs, there won't just be a 60 billion pound cheque handed over.

I think, if the EU hadn't been so obstinant, hadn't dismissed the immigration concerns raised, the stress on our infrastructure that brings etc, then the EU referendum could have been avoided.

A mixture of shit remain campaigning, fear mongering press and politicians peddling half truths and downright lies, populace ignorance of the benefits the EU brought, and the fact the EU has grown into so much more than a common trade agreement/travel zone, it is an unwieldy, power hungry, red tape covered beast.

This has what has led to us leaving.

We have always had control over our own legislature and indeed have been a country that has led the way in many of the EU-wide laws. Unless it meant that we couldn't trade if we didn't go along with such silliness as the now repealed minimal length and straight cucumber and banana regs!

They sound apocryphal but were real rules that graded produce by length and straightness... restricting trade in 'natural' fruits. We went along or we lost trade... so we went along! Uniformity was once the by word for EU produce, no natural laws allowed!

Nearly £40 per month per british family it's cost since the ref.

CuriousaboutSamphire

Can you honestly not see that rules like that were put in place to protect consumers?

Do you think H&S rules are petty and all about conkers?

as there was no interest in flexibility or negotiation before the referendum it is no surprise to me that there's none now.

as mentioned, why would the EU want this to work for us? That would start a stampede for the exit.

cost a fortune to stay in
costs a fortune to leave.

it is a mess that apparently has no exit as the EU does not negotiate.