AIBU to request a positive thread on Brexit?

[mobyduck]

Everyone here (nearly) says it will be bad.
Let's hear some positives about our coming freedom from the EU!

"I work in economics, we overall think Brexit is hugely positive to our economy"

No you don't. I showed your post to my DP who does work in economics and he said "Fuckwit". He was talking about you.

I work in economics, we overall think Brexit is hugely positive to our economy

Utter bollocks. Aside from tangible factors like interest rates, debt etc, one thing that has a huge effect on the economy is uncertainty and the current situation where no-one has a fucking clue when Brexit is going to happen and indeed if it actually ever will and what it will look like deal/no-deal/hard Brexit etc is massively detrimental to the economy.

There are some positives:

1.	Dublin, Paris,Frankfurt will continue to benefit from the many financial institutions and other businesses that are relocating there. 
2.	The EU can deal with ensuring decent food standards and workers’ rights etc without difficult obstruction from the UK and without the presence of obstructive irritants like Farage.
3.	Our fall from 5 th place in the world economic rankings opens that place up for other countries like France.
4.	Some currency traders and disaster capitalists have made and will continue to make loads of profit as the pound falls. Some of this wealth may filter down.
5.	US health and medicine providers likely to profit from selling to (and acquiring parts of) the NHS. 
6.	Likelihood of Scottish independence and a United Ireland is significantly increased. 
7.	There are likely to be less flights in and out of UK so less air pollution and noise for those living under the flight path.
8.	There is likely to be an increasing exodus of some of the more ambitious native and overseas born younger workers as the economy declines so slightly less traffic etc on the roads.
9.	Some prisoners are already being planned to be released to help with certain jobs so more stimulation,freedom and less boredom for them.
10.	As part of any future trade deals visas will be made available to new migrants from African and Asian countries who otherwise may not have be entitled to visas so opportunities for different people there.
11.	More work for insolvency lawyers and accountants.
12.	We get to retain the 0.7% of GDP we paid for EU membership.
13.	I won’t have to visit Leave voting FiL as Kent will be gridlocked. 
14.	Less battles over eating fresh veg with youngest DD as less will be available.
15.	I will probably lose some weight as less cheap food available so will be more careful with what I buy and eat.
16.	The Tory party may finally split.
17.	Less Brits travelling around due to expense, low pound, visas, insurance costs etc so less pollution.
18.	Related to the above less embarrassing drunken loutish behaviour by Brits abroad.
19.	Elderly more likely to be looked after with family as care homes close as too expensive and understaffed. 
20.	Less hubristic nonsense and more humility.
21.	I can say I told you so to three of the most annoying Leavers  in my acquaintance.

Hello people...do you have any idea how the other half in this country live? Do you even care as long as you can continue living in your comfortable little bubbles?

This is such bollocks - I’m so fed up with hearing this lie that Brexit was some w/c movement. We know that age and education were the key factors for voting Brexit NOT income. We know that Brexit was voted for by the property owning over 60s.
It illustrates how you have trouble with comprehension if you can’t take this on board.
Brexit, for some, may have been a revolt against the elites but that isn’t the whole picture- and it’s unfair to smear all wc people in this way.

Preppers can be smug and lord it over those who haven't stockpiled Looking at you Dad

You should tell that to the working class people who voted Remain- is Liverpool a hot bed of middle class foppery? Is London? All of it? Seriously.
Or the minted comfy people who voted Leave.
This is not a class divide. This is not a left right divide. This is not a rich poor divide. It's a gullible/cautious divide.

It's a gullible/cautious divide.

Yes.

And for those who were for "change", "independence", "warning to the powers that be", be careful what you wish for.

It's hard to be sympathetic after this monumental demonstration of stupidity from all quarters. Voters and politicians.

Oh, and yes, stupidity on voters who voted for Brexit without even fucking knowing what it meant, with no deal whatsoever.

For all the fingers up to politicians and powers that be, they put all their faith on these same politicians sorting out the best possible Brexit. It's quite frankly laughable. In a sad way.

It's positive because it has given many of the working class people of this country a voice. A reminder to those in power that they exist and do matter.

The current government is destroying the NHS and bringing in Universal Creidit and destroying the affordable private rented sector. When we are out of the EU the same government will continue with austerity because it’s all they know and they don’t care.

I wonder what the result of the referendum would have been if the actual question was about spending more on the NHS.

The UK's own political system is screwed up far more than the EU's. First past the post disenfranchises millions of voters living in safe seats. The votes of a minority of people living in marginal seats matter, so we end up with policies to court them. Older people vote so pensions are untouchable while benefits for under 21s are attacked. The national support for parties (yes, including UKIP) isn't represented in the Commons. The European Parliament's electoral system is actually far fairer. But these are all reasons that people don't feel they have a voice. It's not the EU.

The fact that people have no idea how they can vote for their MEPs, or that they have them, is deeply depressing but not surprising. The irony that so many of our MEPs are UKIP, who then fail to 'represent' us while shouting about how undemocratic 'Europe' is makes me furious.

To go back to the ECJ/Supreme Court issue, is a system where the Government changes the law to frustrate the SC actually a good one? In the recent examples of this I can think of, it's happened after the Court has found the Government is behaving, well, rather badly, and the new legislation hasn't been great. Yes, the ECJ upholds the Treaties, but we were part of the process of writing those treaties, a big part. We are a key part in treaty decision-making, or rather we were. We had extensive opt-outs in legislative areas. Our own governments chose to be more generous on freedom of movement than many other EU nations - just changing to a system fully allowed within the current rules would have met many of the concerns about 'unrestricted immigration'.

Sorry, it makes me so frustrated to have had so many years of misinformation about the EU. I blame our national governments, successive, for not even trying, and blaming so much wrongly on Europe to curry favour with voters.

The EU needs reform but we were brilliantly placed to be a leading voice in future talks.

Oh, and legislation that protects consumers and workers most often comes from the EU. Leave our current government to it and the voiceless will get way more so.

hahah, giving the working class a voice.

They voted against their own interests because the snake oil salesmen told them to.

If JRM and Boris had campaigned on the economic policies they now propose, which cause the death of agriculture and manufacturing in this country, do you think the working class would have voted for it?

The only positive I can see was something about joining the Pacific free trade association that Aus and NZ are in? Freedom of movement with the "dominions" would be great but given that allowing Brits to move freely to Australia would be like Britain giving freedom of movement to India in terms of numbers, it ain't going to happen. And NZ is trying to restrict immigration. I'm not sure about Canada but I know they won't want a free for all.

Those who are in favour of Scotland dissolving the Union, isn't that going to be even more of a mess than the UK leaving the EU. 40 years of intertwining is hard enough to untwine, I wouldn't want to try to untwine 300 years.

Of course if you run a business that doesn't depend on easy movement of goods/parts etc and want to exploit your workforce and pay buttons and get rid of them at will once we've got rid of those pesky employment laws, you'll be delighted.

less embarrassing drunken loutish behaviour by Brits abroad

I guess this is a positive.

Let's face it the majority of UK problems are down to successive governments not the EU and no the working class will not get a voice, can't see how that will happen when Sainsbury's have empty shelves and the £ will not get you shirt buttons

I've got one! I real actual positive.
Crash out Brexit will be the end of the Tory Party, possibly the Labour Party as well.

KenDodd.

"Always keep a-hold of Nurse
For fear of finding something worse."
Hilaire Beloc

Crash out Brexit will be the end of the Tory Party, possibly the Labour Party as well.

There is that.

I got an actual positive!

Settled status for EU citizens and families. They scrapped CSI requirement, made it very easy to apply even for people who were self sufficient for a bit (so SAHP and others can now reach it) and they made it very easy online (still available by post if needed) so no need to collect box of evidence and dig through 90 page form!

How is settled status for EU citizens a positive? Currently they get permanent residence automatically after 5 years with no need to do anything or provide anything.

@BollocksToBrexit you don't get it automatically. You need to adhere to certain rules. And after the referendum everyone found out that one of the rules for self sufficient was to have Comprehensive Sickness Insurance. That ruined chances for everyone who was economically inactive for certain time.

Now with SS, you give your NINo and if they can't find some years, you can simply send 1 document like council tax.

Lots of people who would have a problem to get PR, including myself, have already benefitted from it.

I thought you could only apply for Settled Status on android phones?

I think making people apply is disgraceful. They moved here in good faith and have had that stripped from them through no fault of their own. Years / decades making a life here and no guarantee of being allowed to stay... And talking about the stripping of rights, don't get me started on the removal of our Freedom of Movement too, without consent.

I have thought of another. Brexit supporting millionaires like Michael Caine will move back and pay tax in this country. After all brexit Britain is what they want.
🐖✈️

Hmm. Well I guess that our service industry could boom. With the predicted drop in the GBP exchange rate, all of a sudden we could discover a lot of foreign tourism/digital/design industry explosion. And a lot more call centres/low cost/investment industries (especially if the removal of human rights legislation goes through, allowing competition with Asia with similar working conditions). Not sure if it's much of an upside.

@TheWomanin12B you can send it if you can't get your hands on android or can't use technology.
I think it's especially a blessing for EU citizens with family members from outside of EU as the process was really annoying before with sending out travel documents for months, all the evidence and the form...

It is crap everyone now has to apply (before you applied for the PR card basically just when you wanted to apply for citizenship or to make some other things easier), but at least they made it much, MUCH, simpler to get. So that's one thing people don't have to worry too much about now.