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Brexit
Original poster

Have your frienships and family relationships suffered as a result of Brexit?

721 replies

Wormzy · 26/08/2018 10:03

Just that, really. If friends and/ or family members have clearly voted differently to you, has it changed the way you see them or interact with them? Have friendships broken down?

I haven't been able to vote, but the outcome of the vote affects me disproportionately. Family members have voted Leave. There have been arguments, also between friends, some ended in loss of contact.

I wonder how the Brexit vote has affected others on here?

OP posts:
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14
Bearbehind · 01/09/2018 12:06

I’m gobsmacked at the amount of people on here that have fallen out with people over politics!?

I voted leave

Doesn’t that just typify the Leave argument- I’m alright Jack 🤔

karyatide · 01/09/2018 12:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DGRossetti · 01/09/2018 14:03

At least when do leave the government can no longer use the EU as the excuse for everything that is wrong in this country.

Well, you'd think.

Before we joined, it was all the "EECs fault".

Bear in mind the number of morons who - in 2007 - were still blaming the Tories for all the countries woes. Now balanced by the cretins who still blame Labour for the mess we're in. Both ignoring the fact that "their" side has been in power for 10 years since ....

DGRossetti · 01/09/2018 14:07

Leavers have voted to remove fundamental rights from the entire UK population.

And not actually realised it. Still. If it walks like a duck, etc ....

SharpLily · 02/09/2018 08:04

We voted differently and have different views, with our own views and reasoning, but that doesn't mean we can't accept the others' different pov.

Why on Earth should I accept the view of someone who claims he voted to leave because he thinks there are too many Indians in Britain? There is no reasoning in it. It's not a 'different view'. It's sheer stupidity and racism. If I accepted that I'd be just as stupid as him.

Helmetbymidnight · 02/09/2018 08:21

I ’m gobsmacked at the amount of people on here that have fallen out with people over politics!?
I voted leave

Doesn’t that just typify the Leave argument- I’m alright Jack

I think it typifies an attitude that many have -not just leavers- that politics is just marking a box every now and then you forget about it. For those who don’t think like that it’s a shock.

Why wouldn’t we fall out with people who proudly and deliberately voted for us to lose jobs because they thought there are ‘too many muslims’?

bellinisurge · 02/09/2018 08:25

Rather than fall out with people, I have reduced contact.
I have one family member who I have known and cared for since they were a baby - I just avoid talking politics with them and privately vow to give them shelter if they need it.
Although we have stopped using a particular local business because you get Leaver crap the moment you walk in the door.

MeganBacon · 02/09/2018 14:45

I'm pretty sure everyone realised that they would lose the right to live in other EU countries (if that is the "fundamental right" Two fingers is referring to), but Leavers just didn't attribute that much value to it. As is their right. I personally did not think it was important either, for me the health of the economy was the most important thing.

Helmetbymidnight · 02/09/2018 14:56

I know people who voted leave who are expats in Spain and Portugal. I’m not sure what was going on in their heads.

DGRossetti · 02/09/2018 15:05

I know people who voted leave who are expats in Spain and Portugal. I’m not sure what was going on in their heads.

Very little ?

MeganBacon · 02/09/2018 15:09

Some people I know with close EU connections are more informed by EU media than ours. Some even wanted the EU to break up and felt a protest vote by the UK would lead to that. Obviously it depends what media they were reading and what their political views were anyway. None of this had anything to do with being in a trading bloc though, people's motives were very confusing.

MeganBacon · 02/09/2018 15:21

I also heard it argued that if UK voted out, Juncker would have to resign. Much as I agree that would be a fabulous outcome for everyone, I didn't think it would happen.

harrietm87 · 02/09/2018 15:40

One of my colleagues voted leave "as a protest vote", never thinking that would be the outcome. She's very intelligent and lovely (usually) but that made me so angry and I definitely think less of her. She told me by text on the day of the referendum and we've never spoken about it, though I do wonder how she feels now.

PILs voted leave because they don't like immigration, failing to remember that their son, my DH, is self employed and does a lot of work in Europe, so could be totally screwed in the future. The stupidity is infuriating but again, we've never discussed it as they definitely regretted it once DH pointed this out to them.

DGRossetti · 02/09/2018 16:00

One of my colleagues voted leave "as a protest vote", never thinking that would be the outcome

The Stewart Lee canard about shitting your bed as a protest about bad service and then realising you have to sleep in a shitted bed deals with that one. (Although, to be fair, it's not a precise analogy, and so has been updated.)

EthelThePiratesDaughter · 02/09/2018 17:22

I am lucky in that none of my immediate family or friends (to my knowledge) voted leave.

I fell out with a cousin of mine after the referendum. I knew she was planning to vote leave and we had had some fairly heated conversations about it before the referendum. I thought the result would be leave (but wanted to remain) and she thought it would be remain (but was voting leave). After the referendum I went off on one at her about how it was all going to be such a cock up and I was so worried about the future. She told me she thought I was being stupid and I needed to get over it and accept the result.

We have since managed to patch things up. I haven't changed my views in the slightest. I'm not sure it would be true to say I'm even more of an ardent remainer now than I was then, as I was already about as ardent a remainer you could get, but I am even more convinced that I was right now than I was before the referendum, because the whole thing is proving to be even more of a clusterfuck than I thought it would be. I don't know whether my cousin has changed her mind at all. We don't talk about it.

I am trying to walk that delicate line between sticking to my beliefs (I might consider changing them if there were any evidence - anything at all - that Brexit might turn out to be a positive thing, but so far there isn't) and not picking fights or getting personal with people who don't share my views.

Apart from anything else, if I've learned one thing in the last few years it's that people really don't like being told their views are stupid and wrong, and if you take that approach they will most likely become even more entrenched in their views.

I think we have to let this play out and just let people reflect on their decision in their own time.

Unfortunately time is something we don't have enough of.

firehousedog1 · 02/09/2018 23:33

Sorry, but I still think it's petty to be falling out with loved ones over politics. Move on ffs.

EthelThePiratesDaughter · 02/09/2018 23:38

Even if your loved one voted for something they either knew or ought to have known could really fuck up your life?

Many of us are in that position.

"Petty" implies that you've fallen out over something small and insignificant. Brexit is neither of those things.

firehousedog1 · 02/09/2018 23:44

Do you go on a crusade after every general election? Grin

EthelThePiratesDaughter · 02/09/2018 23:56

Well no. Partly because the Tories and Labour are equally crap and I don't vote for either of them so I don't much care who wind general elections, but mostly because you're only stuck with the result of a general election for five years and they mostly don't change much anyway.

Unlike Brexshit, which is permanent and life changing.

Hazardswan · 03/09/2018 00:59

I'm a bit over this idea that a general election and brexit are the same thing. I've never heard of a general election that involved stockpilling medicines.

notangelinajolie · 03/09/2018 01:25

OP @Wormzy why haven't you been allowed to vote?

MistressDeeCee · 03/09/2018 01:30

I no longer talk to a close relative's DP. I hadn't realised she voted Leave, wouldn't have been bothered its up to her - but I happened to see a long FB post she'd written regarding her reasons. Its time we stopped being controlled by EU outsiders, + too many immigrants now so close the gates..lots of other implied racism. I was shocked. We're a non-British family, presumably she thinks none of our family members should be allowed to come here in future. & that our family are amongst the 'too many immigrants'.

This plank hasn't had a job since she had her last child 16 years ago, always doing some course or other that she never completes. Lazy af. Yet is stridently complaining that immigrants are 'bringing down the economy'. She should try contributing to it...

I will never speak to her again.

I don't know if any other friends voted Brexit as we don't really discuss politics. I wouldn't fall out with them if they voted Leave but must admit I'd judge them as voting emotively without understanding the mechanisms of the EU and how it translates into everyday UK life. Anyone I've heard spouting Leave reasons just sounds like an automaton spewing out a DM article, using words like 'lefty' and 'libtard' because they think it sounds clever as they saw it in the paper

Let them eat Spam...

vdbfamily · 03/09/2018 02:39

My family voted differently. DH and I voted differently. I have 2 nephew's who are half French who both voted leave....one studying politics at the time. Of all the people I know who voted leave, none voted because of immigration either. The EU is in a total mess. I have a close friend who has run several businesses in mainland Europe and the corruption he describes is horrific. The EU needs to exist but not in its current form and something radical needs to happen to shake it up. It cannot go on as it is. My husband comes from a family where if you did not agree with them on politics/religion etc then they excommunicated you. Fortunately my family enjoy a healthy debate and are happy to accept differences in opinion.

MistressDeeCee · 03/09/2018 04:04

A colleague voted Leave because she lives in West area of London, and says it's full. Someone sarcastically asked 'What, full as in you can't walk down the street without shuffling, there's no room on pavement, homes are full to bursting...? She took him seriously and launched into a story about being crushed the moment she exited her front door, afraid to walk around as everything is 'so different now'. She couldn't bring herself to say 'too many non-whites in London'. Interesting watching her nearly say it but then backtrack. It's alright tho as she doesn't mean ME, she means those other immigrants...

Original poster
Wormzy · 03/09/2018 04:50

why haven't you been allowed to vote?

I'm a non-British EU national, so no voice for me, despite decades of taxes paid in this country.

Like my friend, who is on the verge of splitting with her DH over him voting Leave for the potential effects on her and her children, who are also EU nationals.

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