Question for Remainers

[7salmonswimming]

Can you please tell me why you want to Remain?

Discourse is charged right now, there’s a lot of fact and non-fact swirling around. So apart from the single market and trade benefits (which I think are massive but probably misunderstood by most, because there’s so much detail), why do you want to Remain? Thinking back to when you cast your vote: fear of change? Feel European? Ease of travel? Married to an EU citizen?

We hear a lot of questioning of Brexiters’ motives, not much about

Full disclosure: I don’t live in the UK. I think what’s happening in the EU augers well for what is happening elsewhere in the world.

[DarlingNikita]

What Mardy said, basically.

And while the EU is far from perfect, it is always better to have a place at the table than to complain from the sidelines.

[gamerwidow]

I want to remain because:
-Brexit will put a lot of people out of work as multinational companies move away and we export less due to unfavourable trading rules

• Free movement is vital to a) get the right staff in the UK and b) offer excellent work opportunities to UK citizens
  
• Scientific and medical research is heavily reliant on EU organisations and funding
  
• I like the protection EU laws give from a race to the bottom in terms employment rights and food and safety standards etc.
  

Fwiw I voted Remain but I was prepared to get on board with Brexit and give it a chance. If there was even the vaguest suggestion that people actually knew what they wanted and were aiming for I would support it but it feels like we’re just scrabbling around looking for the least terrible deal instead of having the amazing future that was promise.

[1tisILeClerc]

Fairly simple logic suggests remain is 'better' because 'cheap' stuff comes from China, Bangladesh etc so we are unlikely to be able to compete at that level. At the other end, Hi Tech stuff and pharmaceuticals tend to be from Northern Europe, where we have/had joint operations or the USA. Chances of making serious into the USA with their protectionist agenda and even more so with the 'less than reliable Trump.Although we used to have good relations with Australia/New Zealand, they look more towards the east and are a long way away. The plan to pull up the drawbridge and leave Europe is a wonderful idea (not).

[1tisILeClerc]

The comparatively small amount of money in Africa is rapidly going to China and is nothing like the trade we do with Europe.

[OlennasWimple]

I wanted the vote to come out in favour of remain but with enough leave votes that we could credibly go to Brussels to renegotiate certain aspects of how the EU operates (and I think we would have been pushing at an open door on certain areas, and with the support of other countries to do so)

The fact that two years down the road and we still don't have a credible strategy for what the UK outside of the EU should look like highlights just how complex the task is and that it isn't one that should be rushed along on slogans like "taking back control" and "Brexit means Brexit"

[Mookatron]

I voted remain because I prefer to live collaboratively, and because I feel European.

There are lots of practical/social/financial reasons to be a part of the EU but those are two that won't change even if the government comes up with an acceptable plan of how we're going to function after we've left, but I'd shut up about it if they could.

[SlippedMyIdiom]

The same reasons as FairyLights and Daddybe... Additional feelings were: firstly, we'd already voted IN and it was for good reason. Why split our strength?
Secondly, I'd never seen propaganda on British TV (NHS would get more money, my foot! Gosh, how it that angered me. I thought "Brits aren't stupid enough to fall for this") and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't still travelling North America - not a good sign. The USA quickly came in and relieved us of being #1 laughing stock on the world stage but given the reason, that didn't make me feel better.
Thirdly, I could feel the racist undertone in the country (another reminder of N.A.) and it doesn't make me feel proud to be potentially dragged along with it and perhaps be viewed as racist by nationality. Indeed, when I did travel N.A. it was soon after the outcome and I was often asked if I was remain or leave as a barometer of if I was rightwing (I'm not). I'm proud to live in a melting pot of a country who acknowledge the terrible things we did, and took part of, as an Empire. Our past informs our present but I don't want it affecting our future negatively. I want us to be progressive; we are old enough and ugly enough to achieve it. I just felt we were brainwashed into Empire style thinking again but many had forgotten the key factor that we are no longer so. It's been a couple of years and I still have no idea what the result will be. I hope the UK can learn to stay united (I'm looking at you, Westminster) and I believe that we will find a way through either way because we have a history of surviving and at times of thriving.
Oh, and I also have a European (I ironically don't consider myself European) in my distant family and I have many foreign friends so it felt like it would be a slap in the face to them all to vote to leave.
Those were and are my feelings, having had the facts covered by PPs.

[UnnecessaryFennel]

I voted to Remain because I could genuinely see no sensible, beneficial reason to Leave. And I did consider that there might be; for a good long while I was honestly open to being persuaded of the benefits of the UK withdrawing from the EU.

But there are none. And now I'm stuck on this island that has chosen to separate itself from its nearest neighbours in the most ridiculous, bombastic, embarrassing way, has chosen to venerate the xenophobic little-Englander opinions of appalling men like Farage, Johnson and Rees-Mogg, has insulted our friends and allies and has made itself a laughing stock across the world.

There is nothing right about Brexit and I am devastated that my country has inflicted this insane act of self-harm upon itself, from which we will need decades to recover.

We have diminished ourselves in every possible way. It's heartbreaking.

[stinkypoo]

There was no plan.
Nothing except propaganda and the 'remainers' voices weren't loud enough against the noises and random figures quoted on the sides of buses.
It wasn't the actual leaving of the EU that concerned me, it was always the uncertainty it would lead to in the short term, as I don't believe that anyone actually had a clue of what to do if the vet went the way it did, and also that the economy hadn't recovered sufficiently to be strong enough to sustain the uncertainty.

[MaisyPops]

For me, Remain means retaining the status quo. Brexit was too vaguely described with no substantive or compellingly qualified evidence for me to choose to actively break that status quo. Therefore, I felt Remain was the only choice I could make
This.
There were 2 choices:

1. Vote for a clear package and arrangement (albeit one needing reform in my opinion)
   
2. Vote for some abstract concept which was described by different people as different things with zero agreement of what this option would look like.
   

Option 1 was the only logical way to vote to me. I never understood why anyone would vote to leave with zero understanding of what leave would look like.

[frumpety]

I voted remain because as a 40 odd year old woman living in the north of England I couldn't think of any regulation or rule that originated in the EU that had had a negative impact on my life.


I also looked at those campaigning for Brexit, all those white privileged men and thought 'not one of you is going to be able to fulfil the promises you are making' . Most promises were speedily reneged upon post referendum.


Most important of all, there was no fucking plan, so we end up in a position with a hastily and incompetently cobbled together WA. Which leaves us all in a worse off position than if we remained. Marvellous.

[mumsastudent]

my first vote as a young woman (who was interested in current affairs, society & politics)was to vote to go into the Common Market. I noted over the years that the price & availability of food became cheaper & more variety throughout the year. We had developed inter European industry & technology - we became a gate way into the EU because we had the pound - which is why London became a major successful banking sector. The poorest & most deprived areas of the UK received funding from the EU( & mostly voted Brexit -turkey & Christmas spring to mind!!) Strangely I voted Remain -did anyone notice that many leaders of UKIP prior to Brexit wanted to privatize the NHS? (Farage!!) Then they brought out that bus -the irony!!!

[electionsareahollowritual]

Everything above on this thread really. The fact is we are stronger together and all that, we are an inconsequential little cold rock in the north sea, so much better in a big group. Makes utter sense to me as the big wide world out there is quite a hostile place. Why turn your back on your nearest neighbours? You wouldn't do it where you lived would you unless you were extremely arrogant or inward looking ... oh hang on a minute...

I feel so wretched about the whole thing, stayed up all night watching the results come in and just sat in my kitchen at dawn feeling so grim.

The damage is done now, the world view us in such a different manner, I feel ashamed to be British, whenever I go abroad I want to wear a remain sticker as I cannot bear anyone to think I might have voted leave .

[MedicinalGin]

I wonder where the OP has gone? Why has he/she posed this discussion and then disappeared?

[YeOldeTrout]

We are stronger together.
The costs of being stronger are puny.
Huge economic power on world state, to rival USA & China.
Free travel/right to work is fantastic.
Interchangeable state pension rights & medical care arrangements & no roaming charges on phone: terrific.
I like the model of social welfare state.
I like EU pushing all the memberstates to do better wrt things like pollution, consumer rights, civil rights.
Frictionless trade.
Frictionless import of personal goods.
Cooperation so that states work together rather than undermine each other economically.
Erasmus.
Capitals of culture.
Funding for projects that take long-term view and strive to deliver multi-national benefits.
Stability, peace & relative prosperty in Northern Ireland; I don't live there, but history shoes that the problems of Norn spread to rUk.

[frumpety]

Busy writing up their article ?

[Peregrina]

It's so good to see the wealth of positive reasons for staying in, and such a contrast to the Leavers arguments, who only come up with soundbites. When challenged Leave posters here usually run away crying that they are being bullied, or can't be bothered to explain. As to their Leaders - either also running away smartish, or moving their money to other EU Countries, or making sure they have EU passports. That says it all.

The reasons for me:
back in the 1970s I benefited from equalities legisation brought in. Having grown up in two UK countries I can't wholly identify as being English, even though I have lived here longest, so I feel British and European.
Then things like clean beaches having paddled in beaches as a child which had sewage outflows spilling onto them.
More important - scientific and medical collaboration. Or thinking about people with one EU partner/spouse who are now worried about their future in this country, some of whom who have lived her for 20 or more years. In less than a minute, I could think of ten such couples or families.
The clincher for me was to preserve peace in N Ireland and the GFA. That was a hard won peace, and I feel it's criminal to endanger it.

[1tisILeClerc]

I work across Europe and being able to stick my passport (don't actually care what colour it is although fluorescent orange would make finding it easier) in my pocket and go anywhere without visas or other paperwork at a moment's notice is vital.
And all the other stuff from PPs.

[twattymctwatterson]

I voted remain because I think voting to weaken your economy is madness. I'm a lone parent who is scraping by right now. When things get worse (even people like Farage agree they'll get worse) financially, that might tip my family into poverty we can't escape from

[iris81]

I voted remain as I didn't believe a word of the leave campaign. The media is ridiculous and peddled a load of lies all round.

[SumitosIsMyWall]

A remain vote wasn't forever there is always the option to hold future referendums. A leave vote was. There was no plan or detail on how leave would affect trade, Northern Ireland or Gibraltar.

It's not that I think the EU is amazing but in absence of a clear plan voting anything but remain was stupidity at its most basic level.

[Moussemoose]

The OP may have disappeared but this is a really positive thread with lots of ideas and arguments about making the U.K. and Europe better.

So many Brexit/ leaver threads are negative, critical and full fear.

[HappyHugs]

I voted remain because my childhood memories are of a hard, militarised, violent, destructive border in the middle of which I lived.

I never want to go back there. Yet it is closer than it has been since the GFA. Genuinely anxious.

[Talkinpeece]

Employment Protection
Environmental Protection
Free Trade
Free Travel
Social Cooperation
Peace

the usual really

[BonnieF]

The main reason I voted Remain, and would do so again, is that I work in the aviation industry which is highly dependent on the single market, open borders and freedom of movement. I strongly support all of these things, and I greatly value having the freedom to work, live and travel freely.

Also, I feel culturally European, and I always have. British society and culture has much in common with other Northern European countries, in particular. We are currently in a unique position as leading members of the EU, NATO and the UN while retaining very close ties with the United States. So why are we throwing so much of our influence away?

Britain, as one of the world’s oldest and most stable democracies, has a duty to provide leadership by example to other European countries whose democracy is much newer and less established than ours. We can best do this inside the EU.

The EU is good for Britain, and Britain is good for the EU.