Can we have a Brexit thread for posterity? No arguing ?

[Mookatron]

I'm thinking about when GCSE students or whatever it is by then are studying history. Can we do a thread that would be like a primary source for how normal people felt about Brexit? Not really the facts and not bitching at each other (though I often do that, I'm not being sanctimonious), just a record of how we ordinary mostly parents felt about living in what will surely become historical times.

I'll start. I'm 42 and I live in London but grew up in the North.
I feel that I don't want to leave the EU for many practical reasons but actually the main reason is my identity. I feel European and I want to be European. I see the EU as an imperfect organisation of countries who didn't want to go to war again.

I currently feel like all the decisions being made in parliament have absolutely nothing to do with me as a British Citizen and everything to do with a bunch of people who have lost sight of what it is just to be someone living in their home country. They keep saying things like, 'the people want' this or that - when the problem is actually that a consensus has not been reached.

Theresa May seems determined to push on to ensure a group of ex public schoolboys stay in charge. Jeremy Corbyn seems to want to push on because he's living in the past and is not listening to his party or the many young people who want to stay in Europe. It feels like a feud between two old rivals who are not seeing the destruction the feud they're having is wreaking on everyone else's real lives.

I'm finding myself watching the news through my fingers.

What are your feelings about our country at the moment?

Every day's events make your heart sink a little more at the moment. Why is May refusing to budge on anything? Somebody's got to budge somehow to resolve this bloody thing!

Your description is brilliant wherearemychickens

I'd like to put something related but slightly different on record: Brexit has shown that it's fine to lie. Now, politicians haven't ever been famed for telling the truth, but Brexit has ramped up the falsehoods to a level I don't believe we've ever seen before, and certainly not this consistently.

There are Brexiter MPs who are coming forward and saying things about the Brexit situation and especially about "no deal" on a daily basis that are provably incorrect. They have been called on this dozens, maybe hundreds of times. Yet they persist.

Why? Because it seems there's no comeback, no consequences. They're free to approach a pliant media, accept the soapbox, and spout whatever lies they need to try and shape Brexit towards their desired outcome. And the next day, they get a slew of invites to come and do the same thing all over again.

Some US news channels, e.g. CNN, have started fact checking Trump in real time. CNN have even resorted to putting a "He is lying to you now" banner across the bottom of the screen on occasion. We could do with more, much more, of that sort of thing here in the UK.

It shouldn't be acceptable for someone who's been elected to represent the best interests of the British people, and those of their constituents, to have free rein to lie, obfuscate and misrepresent the facts of Brexit day after day after day. We're over two years after the referendum, and it's still going on all the time. On Twitter, in the newspapers, on the TV, on radio shows. All. The. Time.

How can that be healthy for the nation? And how can this trend be reversed? (I don't have the answers, but these are the sorts of questions we desperately need to be asking ourselves.)

At this point we cannot be sure of the outcome, but either way if we were to send a message to the future, it should be an apology. Even if we can avoid the nightmare of brexit actually happening, our country has already been irrevocably damaged.

We have gone from being a once great, proud, successful member of the EU, co-operating with 27 other European countries for the benefit of all, to becoming a nasty ridiculous isolated island, the laughing stock of the world and blighted our children's future.

I have realized recently that Brexit has completely changed my attitude towards democracy and politics. I have always voted, always been quite active politically (canvassing for political parties etc) The referendum has changed all that. I didn't get a vote (UK citizen living abroad) and my rights have been taken away anyway. I never thought that would happen. Secondly, the way the government has behaved is appalling. I really thought on the morning of the referendum "well, this is shit but at least it was so close that they will have to take into consideration both sides." Nope, May has ignored almost everyone. There has been no cross-party discussion - there has barely been even a vague attempt to get everyone in her own party on side. Thirdly, we KNOW there have been gross irregularities in electoral law and we strongly suspect there was interference in the campaign from abroad. Are we just going to ignore that? What is the actual point of having electoral regulations if we can just ignore them? Lastly, and I know this won't be popular - so many people voted without having an idea of what the EU stands for, what is does, what it has done. It is clear from reading posts here that there is huge confusion from voters on this and some people still don't realise this. As a result of all this, I no longer have any faith in democracy at all! It makes me laugh when May says that people will lose faith in democracy if they don't get Brexit - what about those of us who believed in democracy but the way that the referendum was conducted has destroyed that? I strongly doubt I will vote again - moot point actually as when Brexit takes place I will be officially disenfranchised from all elections.

Brexit has shown that it's fine to lie.

THIS^

Surely once upon a time, this would have been a cause for dismissal from public service. Now, nobody even bats an eyelid or shrugs.

Even if the bloody golden unicorns come cantering over the horizon post-Brexit, the population's bovine acceptance of the utter destruction in political/business ethics is going to cast some very long shadows on this country.