To want Brexit be reversed

[BeKookySheep]

I don’t normally post about politics, but this has been playing on my mind for a while. I wasn’t super political before the referendum — just a mum trying to do her best for her family. But now, years later, I really feel like Brexit hasn’t delivered what we were promised. And I think we should seriously start talking about reversing it.

My eldest is 16, really bright, and had dreams of studying languages and maybe doing a year abroad. We looked into Erasmus a while ago, but that’s gone now. And the cost and hassle of studying or working in Europe is so much higher now. She asked me, “Why is it so much harder for us than it was for you, Mum?” And honestly, I didn’t know what to say. It hit me hard.

Everything’s more expensive — our food shop has gone up loads, and don’t even get me started on getting certain things for school packed lunches! Little things, but they add up. My brother runs a small business and he's drowning in paperwork just to send stuff to Ireland. And a friend of mine left the NHS because she felt so overstretched — they can’t recruit enough staff anymore, especially from Europe.

Brexit hasn’t made anything better. It’s just made life harder in so many small but important ways. And if something clearly isn’t working — and is limiting our children’s futures — why shouldn’t we talk about changing it?

We tell our kids it’s okay to admit when something’s not right and make it better. Maybe it’s time we took our own advice.

Would love to hear if others are feeling the same. Has Brexit made life harder for your family too?

What nonsense! The people weren't "given a voice", they were merely fed a narrative and told what to think by clever manipulators, who all the while were sniggering behind their backs at the people's gullibility.

The likely outcome (if I was generous and split the don't knows 52-48 to stay out) would be 53% for rejoin. The argument that it's not resounding is also true for the outcome of the 2016 referendum. We shouldn't have left without a super majority and given the result it shouldn't be a 'hard brexit'.

The likelihood is this is going to rumble on for decades my expectation is that we will probably eventually rejoin. I'll probably be dead by then but I entirely expect that this will be viewed as a blip in terms of the long term.

I'd like nothing better than to reverse that idiotic decision. I think it will happen eventually but not in the next decade.

But you can only give the people a voice when they are fully conversant with the truth and not bombarded with factually incorrect propoganda eg Boris’s £350 million for the NHS.

https://www.healthjobs.co.uk/health-care-uk/blog/what-happened-to-brexit-s-350m-nhs-pledge/

Didn't the UK economy shrink by about £140 billion due to Brexit?

The UK economy hasn't shrunk, it's grown - you are thinking of studies claiming that the economy would have grown even more than it has if it were not for Brexit.

My fury has always been directed at the 'bait and switch' of leaving the European Union suddenly meaning leaving the Single Market too.

We were reassured that was not going to happen and then suddenly it was what it always mean.

It enrages me because that was NOT what the vote was on.

I think we should rejoin the Single Market because that is what is causing so many financial difficulties!

You can't reverse Brexit any more than you can reverse World War 2. It's something that happened, and is in the past. We could rejoin the EU but that would be a completely new process. I would prefer us to remain as a proud independent country which has good relations with all countries in Europe but is not subservient to any of them.

Brexit was an advisory vote I've really no clue why they actually went through with it people were disenfranchised with the whole situation instead of listening and working with the people to resolve the issue they threw their toys out the pram and left

You're thinking of the European Court of Human Rights, which we are still subject to (as signatories to the Euopean Convention on Human Rights).

Though Reform want to pull as out of that, too.

Similarly there are plenty of people who think we had a veto on every EU law or that EU citizens could easily be deported if they had not found work within 3 months.

David Cameron confirmed that he will pull Britain out of the single market if there is a vote to leave the European Union at the upcoming referendum.
https://www.politico.eu/article/david-cameron-bbc-andrew-marr-ill-pull-uk-out-of-the-single-market-after-brexit-eu-referendum-vote-june-23-consequences-news/
April 2016
Thanks to Michael Gove we know that Britain's future outside the EU would also be outside the single market.
https://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-19/michael-gove-says-britains-future-outside-the-eu-would-also-be-outside-the-single-market-but-what-does-that-mean

To be fair, the NHS budget in England alone rose by £400 million a week in real terms between the referendum in 2016 and 2019/20, the year before Covid.

Not quite the sunlit uplands we were promised.

The UK would prosper outside the EU said Vote Leave, instead it knocked 4 per cent from the size of Britain’s economy.

I guess it could have been worse

NHS budget.

We also have less beds, we also have less diagnostics than comparable countries. I'm happy to discuss as this is an area of expertise...but don't want to derail this thread.

Because the whole of parliament is full of gutless wonders.

even those that claimed that they didn't want to leave didn't have the wherewithal to stand up and push for something that they claimed they believed in.

You are quoting the OBR's long term assumption and of course things might have been different if it were not for Covid or the war in Ukraine/energy crisis. Although I am more than happy in the event of another referendum for pro-EU economists to argue how much richer we will be if we rejoin. If the promises don't match up can we have another go at leaving within 10 years of rejoining?

Plus if we had a free trade agreement with the EU, our nearest trading block, it would mitigate the impact of Trump's tariffs.

We do have a free trade agreement with the EU.

Brexit cannot be reversed as it is a historic event. We can apply to rejoin, but people say we had such a great deal before and we hated it. It will be a hard sell to rejoin with worst terms than before. Germany contributes about £33 billion per year and we were second largest, so our payments will be up there near Germany's - plus take the euro, accept schengen etc - did they put that in the poll? I cannot see many accepting that.

Re: the economy - has anyone looked at Germany's? They are tanking and not in a good place. France is stagnating. If being in the EU is so marvellous why are they not flourishing? Could it be we are all reeling from Covid, Ukraine etc.

Consciously voting to damage your own country is a stupid choice. Lets face it, Brexit was a mistake for the UK🤷‍♀️.

Yes, Germany is in serious trouble which should give pause to anyone wanting to reenter the EU.

The benefits were promised to be there as soon as we left the EU, having all the cards, the easiest trade deals, no more red tape etc

Every country had to deal with Covid and the invasion of Ukraine.

How are we prospering outside the EU? Vote leave promised riches, rejoiners or whatever you want to call them are not making such claims.

Being outside of the EU has made the UK poorer, there is no denying that fact.

Brexit didn’t deliver because Brexit didn’t really happen. We resigned about 10% of what was originally signed up for. It was only Brexit in name.

One of the factors was that Germany relied heavily on Russian gas

There are 26 other countries you can look at

We were not given a vote to join first time around, so why expect one now? FFS

But why would they do that? Free movement of people has been one of the the main issues for Euroskeptics for decades, particularly the ones on the left.

No, but the UK did hold a referendum on whether to remain a member of the European Community in 1975. The UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973 but the question of membership was not then put to a popular vote (instead it was decided in Parliament). The Labour Party won the General Election in 1974 after promising in its election manifesto that it would hold a referendum on whether the UK should continue to be a member (on renegotiated terms) or leave the EU entirely. The referendum was held on 5 June 1975. Just over 67% of those who voted cast their vote in support of continued membership, and the UK remained a part of European integration until it left in 2020.