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

The problem is a large amount of middle/upper class have no understanding of the reality of things like this. Their view is "oh there's always been plenty of work if people want it".
Easier to blame brexit for all economic issues than to look at the effect them sitting at home getting paid during covid had too.

I can detect just one "Brexit benefit": the disintegration and dysfunction of the Tory party as it eats itself with infighting. So there is that.

@DaisyMaisyFaisy

Please could you tell us why? I would genuinely interested to know.

Have your wages gone up for instance?

Has nothing changed for you?

Cards on the table, I am a remainer, I work in retail. Getting stock over from Europe makes my job 10x harder due to brexit and it's more expensive for everyone.

Yes of course she is! inexperienced drivers don't earn 60k, try half of that.

To go from a car licence to HGV cat C E means she passed her car test over 26 years ago, everyone else has to do cat C training first.

Brexit isn't to blame for all our woes but it hasn't helped, not least in our inability to get equivalent trained HCPs to work in the UK, leading to 8m on waiting lists and job shortages as too many off sick who should be at work.

Over 60% of new starters in the NHS last year were from overseas, non EU countries & thats just wrong, we shouldn't be taking from Zimbabwe, Nepal etc leaving their health systems in tatters.

I always love these posts. Same as the general election when social media has people saying things like 'if you are going to vote tory then I hope you die'.

As if it's anyone who votes 'wrong' fault if it went wrong. I didn't agree with brexit full stop because I had no clue what information was lies and what would actually happen if we left but I can see the reasons why people voted leave and I understand the ones who voted stay. I certainly don't want bad stuff to happen to them or their families because they were mislead by the people whose job it was to do so. It could easily have gone the other way and then covid hit and we said oh maybe we should have left while we could. Noone has a crystal ball so let's all stop attacking each other.

I don't read it like that I read it as 'people who voted Brexit....are you happy? You got what you wanted so where are you on the subject now? Because frankly I can't see any upside yet'
Which is a valid conversation starter

Yes, it's great that we're losing 40 billion a year because of it. Great idea.

www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

www.itv.com/news/2022-06-09/brexit-cost-the-uk-billions-in-lost-trade-and-tax-revenues-research-finds

This ! Or Tories who say privatisation is great and is only a disaster because of government interference.

Free market solves everything. But Britain is f*cked because it's not really really really free. To mangle John Otway.

The fact is that there are certain trades that have benefitted- but they are very specific and it's only by screwing everyone else due to less competition. You tell me how it's benefitted retail workers, nurses, bin men etc.

The idea as well that it's only the middle and upper classes that voted to remain is not correct. Plenty of upper class voted for it so they could keep their assets offshore (eU bought new rules in) and plenty of working class voted to remain too .

The idea that we were full of polish people snagging council houses or filling up doctors waiting rooms is complete poppycock- every time I've been to the doctors it's full of elderly Brits and most EU people here were in shared houses or private rented

Brexit isn't the cause of all the troubles here but it sure hasn't helped- unless of course you are a brickie now charging extortionate money for relatively small jobs and nipping to Barbados every year- it's back to the 89s and loadsamoney for a few - crap for everyone else

Retail workers have had a huge wage % increase. Its much easier to get a retail job and suitible/more hours now. It's gone from around 80 applicants per job to 3-4.
Nothing that helps the rich, but it does help normal people trying to work around family life.

I think people thought Brexit was going to be great, but then it turned out they’d been lied to and the reality was nothing like what was promised. I’m still shocked that major political parties were allowed to get away with telling bare faced lies like that!

Mind you, the Remain campaign didn’t help itself at all. It presented its facts and statistics in a really bad way, and focused too much on economics despite voters saying they were more concerned about immigration.

I answered the first question. YABU to ask. Again. 🥱

We can get a pretty good idea by comparing the UK to the EU countries with a similar-sized population and GDP, such as France.

What are the gradual improvements you’re expecting?

These threads always appear when the remainers on the Brexit board get bored with each other and just want an argument.

I had no great affection for the EU, which is a trading block that grew beyond what a lot of people felt that we'd signed up for. I have sympathy with the pro-Brexit arguments about sovereignty and accountability to our electorate rather than bureaucrats in Brussels. Unfortunately, the debate got dragged down to one side being desperate to stick one to Jonny foreigner and take a much harder line on immigration and another side who have a weird distrust in the UK an over emotional and ideological attachment to an overgrown trade block with mission creep.

Ultimately, I voted remain because I felt that years of legislation and directives would be so hard to unpick and that the economic turmoil would outweigh the benefits. But I wasn't that gutted to lose as I was 55/45ish. I think I've been proven right.

How is it going? Well politicians trying to undo the result, impose their versions of Brexit by bringing down governments haven't helped a smooth transition, nor did our disastrous overreaction to the COVID pandemic. Much as I'd feared, unpicking directives, making trade deals and supercharging our economy have proven more challenging than we were promised by leave. But we do at least have more sovereign control over our own destiny, which some may say is worth it. Ultimately, we'll never know as there is no control universe where Cameron didn't hold a vote, or remain won the day.

I live in Belfast. I grew up around terrorists and I live amongst Ex terrorists now, but thanks for your post @OpenLanes.

The lack of thought process amongst Brexiteers is clearly still an issue.🙈😆

The irony is that EU members couldn't really give a damn about UK leaving anymore, and from what I observed the EU did their best to come to an agreement, but UK was having none of it. Those most affected for example Ireland have moved on and gained a lot since UK departed the fold.

The hubris of the UK is amazing!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It's a national embarrassment, but I've come to see it as a necessary one. Basically, I think we need to go through this in order to adjust to the end of empire. It's like a mid life crisis where we realise we're not hot stuff any more.

I’m still happy with the way I voted as the reason I voted yes has been proved correct. People have short memories, we had the rise of ukip and extreme right wing sentiments in the uk and I feel brexit has helped stop these sort of parties gaining political legitimacy…whereas the rise of the right wing in Europe has become meteoric, certain countries have reintroduced border controls, the anti migration sentiment in the eu has grown and grown and even previously pro immigration countries like Sweden and Germany have become very anti-immigrant. I had family members on both sides of ww2 and the whole aim of European integration was to bring countries together…but humans don’t work like this and it’s now driving countries apart. I also wanted the political parties to stop blaming everything on Europe and the eu….the uk was sunk as soon as the tories introduced their austerity policies but people continued to vote Tory so personally I blame them…if David Cameron hadn’t pushed the referendum then we wouldn’t have been in this position in the first place!

The next campaign for the Leave leaders is to pull us out of the European Court of Human Rights due to the Rwanda ruling.

Apparently the Tories plan also fell foul of the Supreme Court so I guess some of them will even demand we leave the United Nations.

You can never give an inch to these people, their craziness can’t be sated.

What pros?

2dogsandabudgie · Today 10:49

These threads always appear when the remainers on the Brexit board get bored with each other and just want an argument.

This. Op, you know there is a Brexit section? You may get more answers there as it has a lot of traffic and loads of different posters and pro and anti Brexit views are welcome.

@Southwestten

The problem with the Brexit board (I have posted there myself) is that it is generally remainers. If you want to hear genuine voices across the spectrum AIBU is probably a better place.

BTW I don't think I will ever come to terms with Brexit -
*The blatant lying with absolutely no consequences from the Leave campaign (apart from some poultry fines for breaking electoral law)
*The fact that my DC can't easily live / work in countries nearby like I did
*Such a huge strategic decision for the the country was given to an uneducated population
*A referendum was used as a protest vote as our electoral system is so shit

Of course it's a disaster

I didn't think it was a good idea then, and certainly don't now that we're dealing with the fallout from it either.

However, I also don't think the continual raking over it does anything other than divide and polarise because we are where we are.