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.

[Talkinpeece]

My daughter is living in a European Capital city and all Business and University research conversations are in English
as its the one language everybody has in common

Brexit will not change that

[Mistigri]

Post brexit English will not be an official language of the EU.

English is one of the three "working languages" of the EU and this is unlikely to change.

The idea that English won't be used any more seems to be based on a statement by a single MEP.

[1tisILeClerc]

I went to a 'Cheese and wine event' a short while back. There were 14 there, mostly they worked for the same organisation. There were representatives of 9 EU countries, plus USA and Canada, therefore only a couple of 'duplicates'. Damn fine cheese if you ask me. All spoke English.

[CardinalSin]

My instinct was always to remain. Cooperation between countries, ease of trade and travel etc. (not to mention NI and Gibraltar) made it pretty self evident.

So, a few weeks before the referendum, I actively went looking for the arguments in favour of leaving, in order to evaluate and make sure I was voting the right way. It became obvious that it was all smoke and mirrors, not to mention downright lies, so it confirmed quite strongly that remain was the only sensible option.

I'm still somewhat flummoxed, not to mention extremely disappointed, that so many of my fellow countrymen and women are either gullible, stupid, or racist.

[BakedBeans47]

I’ve always been pro EU and would actually support greater integration, not less.

[Tanith]

If they don’t keep English as an official language, they’ll find it difficult to communicate with the US and its President.

He’s incoherent in English; think of the misunderstandings if he had to talk in French, German or Spanish:
“Escalaré una pared para ti!”

[Emilyontmoor]

“ I don’t see what that is amongst the 27 EU nations: different religions, different languages, different politics, different races, different histories.... I’m not convinced it could ever work as a harmonious union, a union with a single army, no borders, a single currency, single market, single tax regime etc. I don’t know”

Clearly OP has never travelled in Europe or studied European history! Ever heard of the age of enlightenment, when philosophers and thinkers from all over Europe from Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, England Scotland, Ireland generated the ideas that underpin our modern culture and politics and set us apart from other world cultures. For sure there are difference in culture that set us apart, arguably, especially as manifested in the last two years, as much between English and Scottish and Irish as France but there is a lot more in common than sets us apart. Having lived in the US and Asia there is certainly more in common that we share with those cultures. One of the reasons I voted Remain was precisely because I could see that it was a total fallacy to say that we could ever develop the close cultural ties that underpin economic and political ones with the cultures in the rest of the world, especially America where some of the most extreme right wing and frankly bonkers views can have wide unchallenged currency (flat earth, anti vacs, women should return to the home, white nationalist etc ) in whole communities.

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Because they wasn't an alternative to vote for primarily. Remaining in the EU we know how it works and what we get/don't get. The leave vote wasn't defined (and still isn't). How anyone could vote for something which has no parameters is beyond me.

I like being able to travel, have opportunities to go somewhere without lots of barriers. I don't see immigration from the EU as bad: people are coming here generally to work and most of them are young(ish) and contribute to society. Immigrants statistically return more to the economy than they take out.

[Crusoe]

Northern Ireland and the GFA. I’ve never even been to NI but if bloody Brexit destroys peace there it will be an absolute travesty.
Secondly why wouldn’t we want to work closely with our European neighbours? The EU isn’t perfect but we gain more from being in than out and could influence positive change from being in.
I also feel the UK has bigger problems than being part of the EU. Brexit is just a massive distraction from all the other issues the country faces.

[Talkinpeece]

The GFA
Last week I was in Ireland and - because I could - I drove over the border into Northern Ireland.
Until I was there on the invisible border
and it is the MOST invisible border ever, more so than any in Schengen
I did not realise how fragile that peace is.

[1tisILeClerc]

{I also feel the UK has bigger problems than being part of the EU. Brexit is just a massive distraction from all the other issues the country faces.}
Absolutely!

While some in the UK may look down on the people working in petrol stations or shops, if you work in one of these 'public facing' places in say Belgium/Holland/Germany, where they are all close to the borders, you need to have a grip of at least 4 languages.

[Cattenberg]

I voted Remain with some reservations. But since a Norway-style deal was ruled out, I wish I'd actively campaigned for Remain.

I'd like to Remain because:

The UK is stronger as part of the EU, than as a sidekick to a superpower such as US, China or Russia. They will never see us as an equal partner.

Remaining means that we have a say in EU legislation and in some instances, a veto.

Overall EU legislation has benefited the EU. It has strengthened our employment rights and forced us to clean up our beaches, to give just two examples. The thought of accepting US standards of food safety, environmental protection and employment rights makes me shudder. The idea of the US demanding NHS contracts as part of a trade deal is also deeply worrying.

The opportunity to live, work, study and retire in 27 other countries is amazing. I worked in the Netherlands myself several years ago. It breaks my heart that our children won't have these opportunities.

Leaving the EU will cost the UK a fortune in lost economic opportunities, bureaucracy and loss of goodwill.

Leaving threatens our peace and security, especially wrt Northern Ireland.

There are more reasons, but I have to go now.

[1tisILeClerc]

Many of the 'borders' in Europe are now only marked as they have a cafe and truckstop (handy for working time directive rules) as the acres of concrete/tarmac were already there.

[1tisILeClerc]

{ It breaks my heart that our children won't have these opportunities.}

It will be possible of course but at the moment it is a 'right' to have this possibility. In future it may well be a case of having to get visas with a possibility of rejection.

[Emilyontmoor]

I wonder if OP is going to uncloak their own perspective when they wake up? What do they think of those entitled American politicians who relish the prospect of a UK set adrift from its neighbours and ripe for exploitation, under the cover of the British delusion that we have a special relationship...........

[Talkinpeece]

LeClerc
Many of the 'borders' in Europe are now only marked as they have a cafe and truckstop (handy for working time directive rules) as the acres of concrete/tarmac were already there.
I know.
I have driven / walked / cycled across several of them.

The border between the Republic of Ireland and the UK is nothing like that.
It is utterly and completely unmarked.
There are signs about 50 yards away saying "Speeds are now in MPH" and the other way "Welcome to county Leitrim" but nothing on the border marking the change in country.
And according to the people we spoke to in several towns that invisibility is essential for peace.

[Ooogetyooo]

So much good sense spoken here .

[prettybird]

Emily - The OP did come back during the night (here - probably evening where they are) to knowingly or unknowingly reveal that angle that they were being fed: that they had read something about the increasingly open federalism the EU elite are now talking about in open and that they were not convinced it could ever work as a harmonious union because of the differences in history, languages, races and religions within the EU - in contrast to the US (and the federation that he or she is from) which both have at least one idea or value that unites them and keeps the union whole

Just as well we have disabused him or her

[Emilyontmoor]

Pretty, yes I did get that they had misunderstood the nature of the evolving EU as well as European history and culture but I wasn't sure though I have a fair idea where exactly they were coming from.

Of course amongst the other values EU countries have in common that I could have highlighted are the ones that sunk the TTIP with the UK in the lead in holing it, things like food, employment and environmental standards and our welfare and health systems. All will now be under threat from predatory American corporations if the UK has to negotiate a trade deal with the US with a weaker hand........

[Treats]

Because I didn’t think it worth sacrificing all the benefits of being in the European Union in exchange for...... whatever it was that people thought we’d gain.

Still don’t.

[RiverTam]

Because I don’t think it will solve any of the problems that Brexiteers think it will, there’s no coherent plan and never has been, there’s no workable solution to the Irish border and the worse off in our society will most likely be more worse off.

And we haven’t had a world war in over 70 years.

[Carragheen]

From the OP's near-total lack of understanding of Europe or the EU, I concluded that the 'federation' s/he was from was an extraterrestrial one, and had only briefly visited earth.

[twofingerstoEverything]

Because of the lack of a credible plan.
Because I saw leave was heavily supported by groups like BNP, EDL, NF etc.
Because of Farage.
Because I really value my EU citizenship.
Because I work with a lot of Europeans and think that's a really positive thing.
Because I remember the UK when we were the 'dirty man' of Europe and stretches of the Thames were declared biologically dead.
Because of Ireland/NI - My family comes from that neck of the woods.
Because I listed to Priti Patel lying her face off on Radio 4 and felt outraged at her dishonesty. Ditto BJ and the rest of them.
But the main reason was the first one: ie. voting for a big fat unknown quantity is just madness.

[prettybird]

To be fair, there are a number of federal countries that she could "ethnically" be from: Russia, Argentina, Malaysia, India, Pakistan. I'll discount Australia or any of the EU countries as she wouldn't have been so ignorant of the "shared history" or distancing herself ethnically from the EU ethnic (shared) heritage.

At least she is attempting to educate herself - and even more importantly, has provided a lovely platform for all these positive reasons to be shared

[user1471453601]

A couple of reasons. We haven't had a European war since the EU began. It's difficult to say that this is because of the EU, but one cannot argue that no war has occurred. Secondly, during the late 70s\80s and early 90s, the government turned its back on the north. Coal pits closed, the steel industry was on its knees etc. The only money that was coming into the north was from the EU. This makes it all the more sad that these areas voted overwhelming to leave.

Now it's clear that leave will endanger the good Friday agreement, and the future of Gibraltar is indoubt. We, in the north, are totally and utterly fucked.