To ask if anyone still thinks Brexit was a good idea?

[KimberleyClark]

Genuinely curious. I can't see how it has improved things at all.

YANBU - Brexit was a terrible idea
YABU - it was a great idea

I think a lot of Brexit fans have moved onto “Brexit could have been great but it wasn’t done properly”, a bit like Communists who tell you that real Communism has never been tried.

Apparently Brexit could have been great but the nasty Europeans are punishing the UK for our independence of spirit.

Cough.

Oh ffs you are not genuinely curious, you have made your own mind up which is fair enough, but you just want to start yet another argument about the pros and cons which has been going on for almost the last ten years. What kind of perverse satisfaction do you get from starting yet another thread.

It would be interesting if those who voted that they still think Brexit was a good idea, to tell us exactly why, and what benefits we have seen from it.

But they won't, will they? Because - beyond prejudiced nationalism and a yearning for the days of the Empire - there aren't any.

These threads are so annoying. There will always be people who will never admit they were wrong so what is even the point.

The diehard Brexit fans will be along soon to explain why it was a good idea, I'm sure.

Do you think that’s why?

Perhaps it’s more these threads go the same way every time and people vote yabu etc but avoid the snipes

No

We'll never know whether Brexit was a good idea or not, just as we'd never have known whether remaining was better if the vote had been to stay.

We weren't voting to freeze everything as it was in 2016. We were voting whether to continue down the route of ever-closer integration. I think a lot of people who voted Brexit weren't anti the status quo, it just felt like it was now or never - if we didn't vote Leave then, we'd be trapped for another generation at least.

I never expected there to be any big immediate benefits - it was always going to take a decade of things being worse before we'd start to reap the gradual improvements. I admit I didn't factor the pandemic into my expectations, neither did I expect it to take so long to actually leave after the votes were counted. So my expectation of things being better by the late 2020s has slipped to the mid 2030s.

I was a remain voter and I was deeply angry with David Cameron for putting an ill thought out referendum to the British Public but what is the actual point in this thread?

What are you proposing? No party, not even Labour is planning on rejoining the EU.

There are a lot of faults with Brexit but the economy has downturned on a Global scale and it's hard to see what's post covid, what's global issues and what is Brexit?

There is very little point in harping on about it and trying to shame those who voted differently from you.

What @TudorBeckham and @anythinginapinch said.

The die-hard Brexiteers will never admit that they made the wrong call, they will just blame Remainers and the EU for somehow sabotaging it all. Despite the fact that our exit agreement was negotiated by one of the biggest champions of Brexit with a huge majority in Parliament to back him up.

About 440 million EU citizens are probably glad to be rid of a problem sibling.

It's good for people on lower incomes and needing resources such as council housing, needing unskilled or low level skilled jobs.
Bad for middle class or upper class.

@anythinginapinch I actually think there's quite a lot in your statement. I voted against it but was disappointed in how things went from the EU.

I think it will take another 5 years or so to see how it has affected us long term. Covid has really complicated things globally.

I've always thought the problem was going into the EU without some sort of prenup/exit plan

The Ex terrorists I know who voted Leave are delighted at how it's going.

The folk who voted Leave because it was what God wanted, or for tacist/xenophobic reasons are less thrilled.

Could you explain exactly how Brexit benefits those on lower incomes needing council housing etc?

Some of the most deprived areas in the country have been deprived of European Objective One funding because of Brexit and it does not appear that central government will make up the deficit.

Well of course it wasn't a good idea.

Boris himself never believed in it, nor did his family. The lure of his own shot as PM on the back of it was the sole, cynical, calculated motivation for him going with the second of the two essays he wrote - for and against.

Cameron hates the thought of Brexit being his legacy, so he's back to turn it around and this time keep Boris out of it.

Sunak has now proved his worth to his billionaire in laws by having the top job for a bit, so come election time he can go back to his own comfort zone in finance, whether privately or in government.

Hague will then come back to HIS comfort zone at Foreign to replace Dave, who will be PM again to keep Boris out.

Starmer's crew are unelectable because no one knows what he stands for and despite all these years to organise themselves, Labour are sadly still a mess.

Perhaps Pitt the Glit in the milk man's eye can be exhumed as well to help things along.

All the supposed benefits of EU membership could be achieved without relinquishing sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, foreign body. The supposedly 'democratic' element (the Parliament) is possibly unique in being the world's only parliament without the powers to propose legislation (translation: it's a rubber-stamping talking shop).

Conversely, all the supposed disadvantages of Brexit could be eradicated at the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen. Political power games prevent that from happening. And yet people want more of that kind of thing.

The EU is unaccountable political patronage at its very worst.

Yes, you are being incredibly unreasonable to ask whether anyone still thinks it was a good idea.

Are you asking because you haven’t seen any of the millions of posts asking the same question? Or do you think you’ll get different responses? It has been done to death. If you want to tell Leave voters that Remainers told them it would be crap, then have the courage of your convictions and give your post a more honest title, like ‘AIBU to say that we told you so?’

Is it that time of the week again?

There’s a Blair /Labour one running, they’re on rotation too

It’s been that long, I forgot we were even in the EU.

Yep, still think it was a brilliant idea and I'd vote for it again.

Which in no way could have been anticipated because we rightly and fairly assumed that we could bally well tell Johnny Foreigner what we wanted and he would tug his greasy forelock and comply.

Luckily the Tories have resurrected Lord "Call Me Dave" of Hameron to remind us all.