Did anyone know what they were voting for?

[VictoriaReal]

I voted Remain. A leave voter recently said to me how frustrating he finds it when people say Leave voters "didn't understand what they were voting for". I can empathise somewhat with his view that this statement can be generalising and patronising. However, his argument was "we [leave voters] DID know what we were voting for".... and my argument is: No you didn't- because NO-ONE knew! Not leave or remain voters.

How can anyone, leave or remain, claim to say they knew all the facts (unless of course they work in government or for the EU).

Did they really know all the associated issues and knock-on impacts of the vote?? Did anyone actually put two and two together about the Irish border? I don't even recall the Irish border being mentioned in the referendum campaign.

I thought I was voting to revoke freedom of movement, thereby reducing immigration. Couldn’t care less about the rest.

Well that worked well then sosigdog as immigration from the EU will be replaced by immigration from elsewhere in the world and, unless you are very well off, you’ll soon find you care a little more than you thought about the rest.

Leavers voted for this country not to be in the EU. Remainers wanted to stay. That's what the vote was about. It wasn't about the actual process of leaving, or any potential deals or negotiations.

immigration from the EU will be replaced by immigration from elsewhere in the world

Why? It’s not like we have a quota.

I voted to protect GFA. I voted for the imperfect status quo. I lost.

Yes we voted to keep all the benefits of belonging to a club without any of the downsides.

Why? It’s not like we have a quota.

Because it will be part of these magical trade deals we negotiate.

Oh, and to keep the NHS functioning

The question on the ballot paper was: do you want to remain in the EU or leave the EU.

ie, do you want things to remain the same or to change for some undetermined future state.

I think the argument that remainers didn't know what they were voting for is just stupid and desperate tbh.(That's not to say most remain voters really understood the full extent of why leaving without a plan was such a bad idea.)

sosigdog your attitude is disgusting.

Still, I’m much happier with importing a quota of skilled workers for essential jobs than I am with half of Poland rocking up with no skills and little or no English

Im not sure what in bears post led you to believe the new immigrants will be skilled workers

Plus the uk could always just take skilled workers...we just decided not to

Im sorry victoria

No, i dont think very many people knew exactly what we were voting for

Im sure there were some people, but not many

No, nobody knew

I voted Leave, thinking it would help save the NHS money and that we'd be freer from the bureaucracy of the EU. I'd prefer more controlled immigration too but am NOT racist, would be hard to be as my DP is mixed race! I'd have liked a more sensible immigration system for both skilled/unskilled workers as required. That was about it, I didn't think much about anything else and indeed, most of the material pushed at us was about those issues. I thought the people pushing Brexit would know what they were doing. Also I really didn't expect Leave to get the majority, was gob-smacked they did. Next think I know, Cameron's resigning and the instigators of Brexit were fading away into the background, then everything started to go wrong, basically. I now realise I made a stupid, uniformed decision and it was a huge mistake. So no, I didn't really know what I was voting for. Lame, I know.

Not really. I voted remain but I didn't really look I to the facts - it was more that it seemed like we'd be better off in and that anything Farage thought was a good idea probably wasn't. Now I'd still vote remain but with a much more informed view!

I feel a bit sorry for the Leave voters who voted with the same gut feel reasoning I did and are now being vilified.

I voted remain with a good idea of what I was voting for because I think I'm relatively politically informed and did plenty of research beforehand. I understood the huge risk to the GFA and know that EU immigrants make a largely positive contribution to the economy.

The EU is to me a flawed but hugely positive organisation to be part of and leaving is an act of self harm. Also the whole "ever closer union" thing has never bothered me. Even if we didn't have the power to veto.

I voted to keep employment rights and FOM (British citizens are the only people losing it by the way - EEA citizens can continue to live and work anywhere in the EEA as normal).

I knew what I was voting to keep.

In terms of whether I wanted to leave or stay, I knew what I was voting for. Mine was an economic decision in that I think leaving will be disastrous for the economy - especially a hard Brexit. I really don't think people realise what an impact this will have on prices and inflation, which could quite easily turn into mass unemployment and recession.

The leave campaign was too politicised and they made it all about immigration (50% of which comes from outside of the EU anyway) and, again, they threw the NHS into it - again. Once any politician does this, they've lost me because the NHS has been used as a political football since about 1948. I do understand some of the reasoning behind leaving but the campaign came with a lot of jargon, flag waving and no substance to the actual plan. Three years on, they are still ad libbing and it shows. It is such a mess.

I did study Economics a bit in the early 90s but even I felt that I didn't know enough to be saddled with such a big decision as this. I felt nervous and resentful of being asked because we vote for MPs to run our country. Now I feel as if we're being asked and none of us is qualified. I now know that the politicians aren't really either! The whole thing is completely corrupt.

I think we should revoke and actually hang fire on it until someone comes along who knows what they are doing and are genuinely doing it for the good of the country.

I think a lot of Leave voters knew what they thought they were voting for: curbs on immigration and to stop ‘sending our money to the EU’.

TBH I think if there had been a sensible discussion about immigration and FOM since the referendum, it would have been very helpful and maybe some leavers would feel different about things now. Unfortunately leavers have been called racist - and while some undoubtedly are, I don’t believe they are the majority - and people’s positions have become entrenched. It’s not unreasonable to have concerns about immigration and to want your own government to address it - unfortunately successive governments and the right wing press have blamed it all on the EU.

I think people who feel vulnerable to being undercut in their job or profession by EU workers were probably very susceptible to thinking that if we ‘controlled immigration’ they would be better off. This probably seemed like a very simple economic reality to some.

I also think people believed -in essence - the message on the bus, although I’ve seen many deny it on here. I also think on the face of it this isn’t unreasonable, but of course again it was just an easy (clever) soundbite to cause people to feel hard done by.

So yes,I think many leavers thought they knew what they were voting for - not surprisingly either, as that’s what was sold to them. They were also fed the idea of Project Fear, distrust of ‘experts’ and the ‘elite’ (fairly meaningless in this context) creating a climate in which they may really have believed that Brexit would benefit them.

It has been fascinating reading the threads on here and I have learned a lot. The worst thing though is reading posts from leavers who seem honestly to believe that Brexit is going to make life fairer, work against income inequality, give them more ‘freedom’, etc. That’s what they thInk they voted for.

EU corruption was what made me vote Leave.

I can't understand why more people aren't outraged by it. In 2016 the hit to the GDP was estimated to be 950 billion Euros. And we are the 2nd highest contributors to the overall budget. It's fucking lunacy.

Everyone who voted knew what they were voting for, but they didn’t know what the vote meant. We were all just playing a crazy game of Deal or No Deal with no idea what was going to be in the box whoever “won”.

No doubt if the result had been 52/48 remain we would still be arguing and fighting, but at least the looming sceptre wouldn’t have been so close by!

Sorry just to add, and I’ve used this analogy a few times now: people knew what “they” were voting for, it doesn’t mean it’s the same reason as someone else who voted the same way. Like voting for fish for your tea on Friday, some people just wanted prawn cocktail crisps, some wanted fish fingers, and some people realised when they got their dinner they didn’t even like fish.

I think Leave voters may have known what they wanted but unless this mess is what they wanted then they most certainly didn't know what they voted for. Leave was very cleverly undefined so it could be marketed as whatever sort of Brexit you wanted, hard, soft, Norway, whatever.

Looking back I'm very surprised that there wasn't more consideration of the Irish border situation at the time of the referendum as that is essentially now the sticking point. IMO it was stupid to hold the referendum without at least a workable proposal for that border.

I voted Remain, partly because I was aware of the problem with the GFA, partly because I want to keep FOM, but also because if Scotland voted Remain and England voted Leave it would make Scottish independence more likely and I'm a Yes voter too. I didn't really think it would happen...