Why didn't we get facts like this in advance?

[Somewhereovertheroad]

HMRC projects additional Brexit red tape will cost UK businesses £6.5 billion/year. NHS estimates cost of satisfying new visa requirements on behalf of staff at £490 million/year.
*
That's nearly £7 billion in annual Brexit costs, or close to the £9 billion we pay as EU members!*

Why wasn't the homework done so we could have known things like this in advance?

assuming it's true

@Gaballout probably not facts but there will be a cost for these things and others which were never considered to the best of my knowledge.

It's a complicated picture. There's lots to weigh up either side. I don't think it was a clear cut answer what is better.

If it really was an easy choice I think remain would have won easily. I saw plenty of "facts" exactly like this during the run-up

Because every time somebody tried to address a Brexit unicorn fantasy, they got "la-la-la-Project Fear" and "liberal metropolitan elite expert" and and "talking Britain down" and "unpatriotic traitor" and "Just BeLeave" and some variant of "tainted by Foreignness, whether by ancestry, domicile, education or funding."

And it's still happening now.

It's still happening now, from both sides.

Neither covered themselves in glory.

Oh yes, and "facts."

Because post-modernism and relativism fucked the country.

If every expert is tainted by self-serving bias, if every perspective is equally valid, if intellectuals are using critical theory to attack the idea of objectivity itself then no data can be trusted and only feelings have value.

Boom. Brexit.

If every expert is tainted by self-serving bias, if every perspective is equally valid, if intellectuals are using critical theory to attack the idea of objectivity itself then no data can be trusted and only feelings have value.

If only we could sell feelings. Or eat them.

"We're a representative democracy we shouldn't have referenda at all."

Grammar Teacher?

It's referendums.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendum#Etymology_and_plural_form

If it really was an easy choice I think remain would have won easily

No, Leave appeals to a certain mindset of patriotism or nationalism ie Make Britain Great again or Our best days are ahead of us (T.May) even Take back control.

Facts are not very attractive, there is a reason why the vote was split along educational and wealth lines (generally speaking)

Telling people we are better off cooperating with foreigners doesn't fit with many peoples ideas of what it means to be english.

Project fear was probably the most genius slogan ever. Simultaneously dismissing any negative raised whilst making people feel clever for not falling for it and brave for voting leave in spite of it.

BTW it will cost more than that. Doesn't include money spent on extra civil servants or border staff or infrastructure or replacing all the things we paid the EU to do for us (sharing those costs with the other members).

Is the OPs post "news" to anyone ? Before the referendum, I had discussed that sort of thing with colleagues and friends. We all agreed that any form of leaving the EU would involve significant - and therefore costly - changes. So the information was out there. Including analysis that pointed out the GFA would require changing to allow the UK to exit the EU.

I think it is news to a lot of people.

Like many people who live in Northern Ireland the fact that the English and Welsh decided they could unilaterally change the Good Friday Agreement is one of the many reasons I am so angry over all this.

They weren't the people who were affected by the agreement in the first place and therefore they don't really care what the consequences of that are.

We did, but any time anyone said "this is one of the ways in which we will be neagtively affected by Brexit" there was a resounding chorus of "Project Fear!" with a bit of "we've had enough of experts" thrown in.

They did know. A decision was made not to publish the facts.

If they decided not to publish the facts what was the reason for that. What did they hope to achieve? Clearly not the current mess but what?

but there will be a cost for these things and others which were never considered

How on earth can anyone have voted in the referendum without realising there would be significant costs involved in leaving? It really beggars belief

June 2016, BMJ was saying (printing) that kind of thing OP started with.
They didn't have precise numbers, but they identified that kind of risk was likely.
Dismissed as project fear.

Remainers voted for the known

Really? What do you "know"?

I think a more fundamental question is why did a bunch of voters whose self-proclaimed vote was predicated upon a mantra of "we've been ignored by politicians" suddenly have a moment where they decided to trust a bunch of politicians to listen to them ?

People who wouldn't have given Boris Johnson the time of day for years suddenly waking up one morning and deciding to believe him. On one thing ?????

Even now, we have Brexiteers whose crie de couer is "Politicians have ignored us" insisting we need to follow ... politicians who are ignoring them.

Surely the point is, that you don't vote for any major changes until you do know. That's what many remainers did. They didn't necessarily feel 100% behind the EU, but wouldn't vote for a less clear outcome.

‘Project Fear’ was brilliant spin. The actual project fear was the decades of Tory Eurosceptics niggling and misreporting on the EU. Boris has been writing anti- EU propaganda for at least the last fifteen years.

Surely the point is, that you don't vote for any major changes until you do know. That's what many remainers did. They didn't necessarily feel 100% behind the EU, but wouldn't vote for a less clear outcome.

Pretty much it ...

I didn't listen to the politicians, on either side. I got really sick of the point scoring and insults being launched by both sides.

Just for once I would have loved to have seen a politician just deliver the facts and put their argument across. Even today at PMQs we had Theresa May saying to JC that "never mind needing a lip reader she needed a mind reader to know what his plans were". It's all just sound bites and performance. Why can't the actually be serious, debate properly ie respond to a point made with a counter argument and not just answer the question that they wish they had been asked?

I made my decision based on my thoughts about the EU and where I think it is heading. Can I be sure about it? No. But can the remainers be sure that what they see the future of the EU as is correct? No. We are all just making educated guesses.

What has happened since 2016 has shocked me though. This has just been an unmitigated disaster. Is that by accident or design though?

Surely the point is, that you don't vote for any major changes until you do know. That's what many remainers did. They didn't necessarily feel 100% behind the EU, but wouldn't vote for a less clear outcome.

But they made it very clear that this was a once in a lifetime vote. That we wouldn't be asked again. For those of us who are concerned about the future of the EU we had only this one chance to express our view.

I agree OP, the GFA is really just an annoying inconvenience for most Leavers who really just don’t understand what all the fuss is about (short memories). Some of the remarks made by Brexiter MPs about Ireland and NI has shown complete arrogance and ignorance about the situation.