A non contentious question - I think/hope!

[MyDogIsNicerThanYourDog]

I do follow all the Brexit discussions but I wanted to ask this; I don't live in the UK but I am interested to know if the latest news regarding triggering article 50 is actually something that real people, living real lives are interested in/talking about or is it a media frenzy? Not so much interested in either side of the story - just if it is affecting daily life/conversation.

Yes! I work with lots of EU citizens in a field heavily funded from EU sources.

We talk daily about the latest Brexit news. We are still not beyond the occasional drunken shedding of tears.

No, it's not come up in any conversation I've had with friends and family.

Yes, like Maid, I know a lot of EU citizens (mostly high-rate tax-payers) who are terrified about what is going on and how their livelihoods and lives may be affected. Although tabloids like to portray European migrants to the UK as a load of chancers looking to trouser a few quid, a lot of people I know came here because they actually admired the way the UK conducted itself in both political and civic terms and they are - as am I - absolutely disgusted at the way the government and a vocal minority of the population are behaving.

Yes, my family are all quite political so we discuss any political need including Brexit.

Although it is actually one of the things we talk about least as my mum was leave and my sister and I remain and usually we all have similar opinions.

We also live in Scotland so speculate what impact each chapter of the Brexit saga will have on the decision to hold another independence referendum.

Ime, remainer friends talk about it a lot.
Leaver friends don't. They think it's done and dusted and all fine.

I work for one of Britain's larger exporters so it's a very big deal where I work. After the A50 decision was handed down, I had a notification in my inbox within minutes.

Its only a topic of conversation when something happens

And i dont talk about it with all my friends as the vast majority dont give a shit

Yes it comes up. A friend text me about it the other day. It is a no go topic with some of our family though.

I agree that many people have barely given it another thought after 23rd June. Lots think the topic is 'boring', as evidenced on MN when people object to EU-related topics being in AIBU, for example.
However, it is discussed daily where I work because it has a very real impact on our livelihoods and will be potentially be very damaging to the institution.
My remain friends talk about it wheneever we meet and have deep concerns about the divisions the referendum has caused.

I talk about it every day, at home with partner and children, and at work as a few of us are Europeans and most others are British remainers. The few people I know who voted Leave are family and friends of my partner, and they think "it will all be fine after a while and we'll be free" and when we point out all the contradictions even between Leavers in government, they want to stop talking about it.

We talk about it every day at home. On Friday I met someone about an unrelated subject and we ended up talking about Brexit/Art 50 too.

I'm a Leaver and my friends and I discuss it. It's too important to be ignored and I don't think it's true that 'people have barely given it another thought since June'.

Yes, we talk about it most days, but discuss with outsiders less and usually find that they voted Remain. Leavers, we find, don't want a discussion, they just change the subject.

My dog I think the basics are remainers will talk about it freely, leavers won't because they open themselves up to a lot of verbal abuse, as I'm sure you've noticed on MN many a time.

I think I brought Article-50 up at work because I was aghast at the personal attacks on the judges.

I work in academia. My boss the professor who gets in all the money to keep our team employed has referred to Brexit as the "Big Black Cloud on the Horizon" in the context of future work for our team.. but mostly we don't talk about brexit just lately. One friend has brought Brexit up a lot, but our attention is more taken up with US presidential election right now.

Yes, it comes up about 4 hours + into a get together. It usually comes up about the same time as a discussion about how the USA managed to come up with Clinton and Trump.

I find people are generally respectful of each other's views and opinions when it is a conversation between friends or even just acquaintances. That is in sharp contrast to how the media portray it.

I have mentioned this before, but I genuinely believe a lot of Brexit voters wandered blearily, hung over, down to the polling booth that day as they were off to sign on, anyway, and thought 'Let's stir this up a bit, never voted about anything ever before but hey! Let's sock this to whoever it is in power now cos my life is shite the government

And will never consider it again, let alone vote

Ooh, there goes another of those inclusive, un-bigoted, liberal remainers . Love the hang over touch, really gets that patronising, stereotyping contempt note just spot on.

Having worked in a polling station on referendum day, I can confirm that, while none of the people in my ward appeared drunk or hungover, many of the Leave voters had never voted before: they were the ones aggressively asking me why they had to mark their ballot in pencil and wanting me to check their paper to make sure that they had marked it correctly - so much for a secret ballot . They were also the people who told me that they had no doubt that the government would make sure that their vote wouldn't count so true believers in democracy.

They were also the people who told me that they had no doubt that the government would make sure that their vote wouldn't count

Maybe they were right after all. It's a conspiracy theory isn't it? All this appointing dickheads to organise things, forgetting to have the correct legislation in place etc., couldn't it all be a cunning plan?

The government seem to be doing a pretty good impression of a body of people absolutely desperate to implement Brexit, no matter how damaging it might be so I only wish the Leavers, who seemed to think I'd be removing their votes from the ballot box the moment they left the polling station, were right .

Ashcroft Polls on who voted how: 43% of graduates voted leave as did 43% of social class AB. So you could choose quite a different sterotype of a leave voter if you wanted.

As to why many people may have never voted before, well this is a complicated issue. They may have been in a completely safe seat, they may have thought no candidate represented their views. In a referendum every vote has the same weight which quite obviously isn't the same at general elections.

And as for leavers thinking their vote would not be honoured - well correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there one ot two people trying to ensure the decision of the referendum is not carried out (call for a second referendum etc, etc)? - not the government though but plenty of others and we're not there yet. So not such an outlandish comment really.