To think no one can name a single positive benefit of Brexit

[measuringmylifeincoffeespoons]

Just that really. I'm genuinely curious. There seems to be increasing coverage and evidence of the harm and cost of Brexit. Can anyone point to a positive benefit?

No-one has said Leave was evil, just that it was stupid and it was dishonest. Big difference.

I can honestly say knew about all of that and more. It’s staggering to me that anyone would have gone into that vote without having read up on all of your list (and not very difficult to do) and further - the impact on different business/industrial/academic etc sectors, and importantly on NI.

I would also say that anyone who didn’t bother to do that research had no business voting.

Reading up on it, is not the same as having an in depth knowledge though, each one of those subjects requires years of training and experience.

But my point is that very few people even did that, top of my head of reasons to vote i heard (either way)
"Grandad told me too.
EU stopped WW2 !!
Don't want an EU army.
86m Turks will come here.
I wanted see what would happen.
I can move to Portugal if we stay in.

Most bizarrely was "i want to tune my chainsaw and cant do that on the new EU ones" and then admitted the EU saws didn't actually need it - still voted out.

Most people have busy/chaotic lives and find politics & international trade boring, we ve also millions of voting age adults who can barely read and write.

@forwhatitsworth22 - are you for real? Literally not one word of your post is true.

We've done deals with Japan, New Zealand, Australia.

None of them are good deals. Ask government ministers, ask Farmers, see drop in trade.

Interesting given the brexit rhetoric of no deal is better than a bad deal.

Exports with Japan have dropped. A former member of the government who was involved with the New Zealand and Australia deals has admitted that those deals were bad for the UK. I know Brexiters want to spin everything as a positive, but thinking those deals were good is just delusional.

For most British people living in the UK, there's an apathy for the EU. What are the benefits for the average Brit? We paid billions in to get a bit back as 'EU' money to spend as the EU saw fit and made us put up blue plaques to celebrate 'EU' money being spent.

We built up poor countries in Eastern Europe, Ireland etc and some areas in the UK were left to rot. Some were the poorest areas in the EU. How could this happen?

A trading bloc only is appealing for most Brits. If Europe could strip back the red tape to a trading bloc, we'd be back at the table.

My friend's bloke is from The Netherlands and he was saying they are all up in arms over an EU decision to shut farms over there, but I'd not seen anything reported. It helps to read foreign media if you can as it's not all flowers and roses in the EU. But my point is some businesses will close whether in or out of the EU. When we joined the Common Market businesses closed down and no one cared about them.

The UK has moved on and we are steering our own ship. We've done it before dating back through history and made bold moves such as Henry VIII and the Catholic Church. No Twitterati in those times, but it would be the same. History is repeating itself all the time.

Most British people living in Britain don't really care much about the EU. If you are not British or a Brit living overseas, it is more understandable you care and you want to change how we live in the UK, but unfortunately it is our decision. And we've spoken.

We love Europe, love holidaying in Europe, but we want to go our own way.

No doubt I will be flamed for my opinion but I've given it.

I shall await the wrath...

@forwhatitsworth22 - you implied we could not do those as an EU member. The Japan agreement is a restatement of the EU deal for the UK. The EU was also capable of doing a deal with NZ (and did) and they can negotiate with Aus.

Ask yourself if the UK has gone better deals with these countries than the EU did, in economic terms.

Do you know the answer?

My friend's bloke is from The Netherlands and he was saying they are all up in arms over an EU decision to shut farms over there, but I'd not seen anything reported.

I'm Dutch and it isn't as simple as that. The issue is around very intensive farms and their excessive production of greenhouse gases, which are devastating for the environment. Reform is absolutely necessary. The problem is with the Dutch government who have been unwilling to put funding into helping farmers change their farming practices to be more environmentally acceptable. And that is a decision made by the government itself, not the EU. Because sovereignty.

We built up poor countries in Eastern Europe, Ireland etc and some areas in the UK were left to rot. Some were the poorest areas in the EU. How could this happen?

Have you looked at the data for Cornwall? Our UK government pledged to replace the funding poor areas of the UK got from the EU.
Cornwall is getting 1/30th the amount it used to get from the EU. There is a lot of anger about this. It was never about blue plaques, it was about genuine investment, which is now gone and will not be replaced.

Lastly, I used to work in health research in the NHS. Funding for projects has dried up. International research projects no longer run in the UK because it is too difficult administratively and in terms of staffing to do so.

You big up all the UK's historical achievements (and I'm not at all sure Henry VIII is such a great example here), but that is the typical Brexiter's thing of living in the past. The future is another country. And it isn't looking like a very good one.

Henry VII and what happened 500 years ago is of course relevant 🙄

*henry viii

The UK has moved on and we are steering our own ship. We've done it before dating back through history and made bold moves such as Henry VIII and the Catholic Church.

Yes, the Titanic.

It wasn’t Henry VIII who made the “bold move” - he was a lazy, conservative, psychopath. The architects of the break with Rome were Thomas Cromwell, whose aim was political power for himself, the king and the country (and the development of Parliament); and Cranmer who was interested in religious reform. Henry VIII went along with it because he had been excommunicated and needed a divorce.

It’s interesting that the most sentimental about British history seem to have as little grasp of it as they appear to have of contemporary politics.

I'm no Brexiteer but I think Henry VIII is very relevant and has some very strong parallels to Brexit. The period that followed resulted in civil war and ultimately the glories (sic) of the British Empire.

The closest historical parallel to Brexit is the 1933 German referendum to leave the League of Nations. Referendums being an easily manipulable public vote with a thin veneer of democracy - and banned in Germany after the war.

@Daftasabroom well, anyone who is daft enough to think that Brexit will bring the UK's lost empire back, or provide something equivalent, is clearly smoking something that I would like to share.

'Brexit is great because, something something, dissolution of the monasteries.'

Fucking hellfire. Just when you think you've read it all.

@Mirabai It wasn’t Henry VIII who made the “bold move” - he was a lazy, conservative, psychopath.

Henry V111 was nothing more than a bigamist thug.

I very much like getting a nice stamp in my passport each time I visit a European country. It’s a great way to remember where you’ve been. So, OP, YABVVVVVU.

My thoughts were really around H-VIII loosing Calais to the French which was the last significant English possession on mainland Europe. Brexit 1ur perhaps. Along with the reformation this shifted the perspective away from Europe towards the wider world (and the damage that did) as well as civil war and constitutional reform. Whether remainer or Brexiteer the parallels are both interesting and disturbing.

It was Bloody Mary who lost Calais, she said that it was written on her heart.

My bad.

There hasnt been any deregulation in financial services post Brexit.

Hahah.

Stamps in passports.

I am seriously scraping the barrel though, and we won't even have that soon.

There are no benefits.