AIBU to be angry at surprised Brexit voters?

[pestov]

Victoria Derbyshire has been chatting to voters all morning, and more than one admitted voting to leave, but being shocked and worried about the resulting political turmoil. What did they think was going to happen!? I just can't understand their logic.

I was surprised at the result, but pleased nonetheless.

I can and do respect those who made an informed decision and are able to stand by it. People have their reasons.

I cannot respect those who voted leave and now cannot understand what is happening or have woken up today to realise that what they thought they were voting for is nothing like what they have got.

One leave voter that I know is educated. Highly competent. But when we explained the reality of our situation to them this morning they were slack jawed and confused. There were various lines trotted out that were picked straight from the lies of the leave campaign. Once we corrected every single one, the person was clearly in a bit of shock.

That angers me. People have caused a huge change in life as we know it, and they are ignorant about fundamental aspects of the situation.

Lizkeen that is exactly why I get frustrated. Someone who voted leave is now surprised it may affect the company they work for-santander! To vote without having any thought for consequences really pisses me off

French won't have any obligation to deal with the hordes at Calais anymore, and you've just moved the border to Kent.
If the UK will be in such a mess after the exit will these hordes still want to come here?

I can only say that I consider anyone who voted leave without meaning it and is now realising how it may affect them, as rather stupid and twats.

If you voted leave and meant it and are happy about it, fair enough and I respect that.
I can understand both points of view, although I do think leaving is more likely to damage the UK. But who knows?

That angers me. People have caused a huge change in life as we know it, and they are ignorant about fundamental aspects of the situation.

Yes, this is why such referendums are best not done. Or at least they should require an actual majority (of all registered voters), or a 2/3 majority for any big change like this.
Any silly vote for government can be corrected in 4/5 years. Leaving is definitive.

Its always someone elses fault.

I saw those interviews too OP. People who thought they would make a 'protest vote' without actually considering that it may have real consequences, and are now 'worried' by the result. It made me so angry. They will have plenty of time to regret their decision I'm sure as we go into economic meltdown.

Depressingly given how close a referendum it was, I wonder that if the number of people who only voted leave as a 'protest vote' and actually wanted to stay in the EU hadn't acted so irresponsibly, we may not be in this situation today.

My first intention was to vote Leave. I changed my mind because I became worried about the economic consequences.

I still think EU changed from what started as I do think they are undemocratic and unaccountable.

The Remain campaign was all too negative though, it was Fear Overload, it became a caricature and went so far it became ridiculous. They put it on so thickly people got sick of it.
They might be right, I hope they won't be, but it was a bad campaign.

I'm not saying Leave were better, same rubbish.

There was nothing to vote for, it was all against and in a situation such as this a protest vote is very easy to consolidate.

I did vote Remain in the end.

I voted leave and am also sick of the accusations that I'm either racist or thick, I'm neither.

Regarding people saying they're surprised it's probably because so many polls were indicating we'd remain and so much of the media was biased towards remaining so it became almost normal to think an exit was highly unlikely, I too was a bit surprised at the result not because it was a protest but because I didn't think we'd win even though I really hoped we would.

Someone on our local group was saying we won't be overrun by illegal immigrants now

if anything we will be more overrun by them. France will just let them cross the sea. Why would they spend money trying to solve our problem for us?

lweji Saw an interesting interview with a couple of MEPs on the BBC news channel this morning. One was a German MEP who said it was bad for Germany financially that we had decided to leave, but she would have voted for Brexit had she been British, because the project was evidently failing, and the message wasn't getting through that ever closer union was being rejected by the people. She saw Europe as a group of sovereign nations making their own decisions but perhaps collaborating at an international level on an ad hoc basis for things too big for the individual nation states to handle. Sounded ideal to me.

If the UK will be in such a mess after the exit will these hordes still want to come here

Well hopefully we'll still be in a better state than the likes of Eritrea. But you make a good point.

OP I think I saw that man too but on BBC news. he looked down and said he was gutted. reported asked "but you voted leave". he replied: "i know but I didn't think my vote would count" idiot. just so so stupid! I reckon there's a few regrets this morning!
There's one very vocal leave supporter on my facebook and he's pleased as punch that we will no longer be letting in the middle-eastern extremists as that was his whole reason for voting leave. I just despair at the education level of these people. I know not all leave supporters are uneducated idiots, some have very good reasons for voting leave particularly in the farming and fishing communities. I feel there are good reasons to leave, just better ones for the country as a whole to remain. I'm just so angry at those who just did it on a whim.

Don't live in UK and not European either, so can see both sides of the debate. I think people in the UK are NOT stupid. It is a wonderful country, I see it as a divorce, the EU didnt seem to be working in Britains interests and it wasnt working any more, so the split has been along time coming. What will be very interesting to see is what will happen to the United Kingdom, as in Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland! I dont think it is a united any more, it is the north / south divide that is striking!

I saw someone on fb (educated and middle class if that makes any difference) explaining how she planned to vote Leave as she didn't think we'd leave anyway and it would send a clear message that reform was needed.

She's been very quiet today.

This is why we have a representative democracy. Direct democracy is crap.

Excellent post Liz. I agree with every word and have heard and seen much of the same today.

There aren't any "hordes" of people trying to get into the UK. Last year, 330,000 came in - a tiny 0.5% rise in the population. Over half came from outside the EU. And yes, the French should bloody well toss our border back across the Channel - we deserve it.

And anyway, if we want to renegotiate a trade deal with the EU, we will have to agree to free movement , pay similar amounts in that we do now, get no rebate and have no power to make decisions as a member.

We have completely shot ourselves in the foot for some vague notion of "sovereignty" which actually just means handing total power to whichever bunch of over-privileged public school boys happen to be in power here, totally un-hampered by Brussels from shafting us any which way they want.

So goodbye workers rights, maternity rights, equal pay rights, clean beaches, unpolluted waters, environment protection and HELLO massive recession, a hike in interest rates so you can't afford your mortgage anymore (unless you are a rich Tory like Boris of course), total privatisation of all our public services and the break-up of the UK.

So anyone who says "oh but I didn't really think it would happen" can FUCK RIGHT OFF.

Where I live, any change to the constitution must be voted on in a referendum. So we have quite a lot of them.
In recent years, there's been a few 'protest votes', general dissatisfaction with life and politics resulting in lot of people voting against whatever the government wants them to do. Thankfully, none of these referenda have changed people's lives in a huge way.

If Brexiters have done this, voted Leave just to piss off the establishment, they have just made the biggest fuck up in the history of fuck ups.

It baffles me how many people are suffering from this "buyers remorse". I thought I'd be able to respect the will of the people, but no one seems to have wanted this and considered the consequences

People who tick a box half hoping it won't come to pass are morons.

Fuck 'em.

It is extraordinary that after weeks and months during which economists and business people lined up to warn of the consequences of leaving, and the pound rose and fell in direct correlation with the polls, that some people are apparently genuinely surprised about what's happened this morning. FFS!

they have just made the biggest fuck up in the history of fuck ups

Yes, this will go down in our history as the biggest fuckup of all time.

And people who think leading economic experts are telling fibs just to annoy them, also morons.