Why am I optimistic about the UK's prospects after leaving the EU?
Because I believe that the global trust in Anglo-Saxon law (civil, legal and contract especially) which prevails in a majority of high-trust, low-corruption jurisdictions is valuable.
Because English is the world's second language. This is both a plus and a minus. It's an easy language to speak badly, so it also attracts everyone seeking a better life because they know a few words.
The UK attracts people who aspire to better lives, and are happy to work for a generation to enable their children to fly higher. I have observed that there are posters who lament their misfortunes here, loudly and want someone else to do something about it for me, but not many are immigrants.
We are awesomely good at the arts and culture, and monetising our ideas into formats that the whole world will enjoy and consume.
We are inventive and ingenious in science (the best at genomics currently) and have more Nobel Prize winners than any country except the USA, whose population is four times larger. We are less good at creating and funding industries, some of which is the fault of...
The City of London which, nonetheless, is one of the fulcrums of world banking and finance. It's not without fault (notably a fondness for ridiculously skewed pay scales) but in investment, insurance, foreign exchange, futures, funding enterprises and most of the systems needed for drawing money from a cashpoint and reconciling the books at the end of each day, it's pretty close to world class.
Our much-derided civil service has made an immense contribution to the EU and accounts for a very large part of Health and Safety, food hygiene, animal welfare and probably more I am not aware of.
Writers like Lakeland sheep farmer James Rebanks are globally recognised for their contribution to the agricultural regeneration movement. The MAFF (whatever it's called now... DoE run by George Eustace anyway) is taking notice and reconsidering land management protocols to mitigate the impact of climate change. And before anyone pitches in to suggest it's not being taken seriously by Westminster, we're currently in the chair and writing the agenda; our stated objectives are well up with the most ambitious in the world.
I do understand that criticising is easy, and if you don't like the political tone of the elected government because it wasn't what you wanted personally, then it's tempting to nit-pick with details. Heck, I am not convinced by the competence of this government, but they were elected by a convincing majority 13 months ago, and they have had shit shovelled at them ever since. I do hope Boris can dump the obvious failures in a reshuffle soon, and I have my fingers crossed that he will ruthlessly promote competence.