Do you still think Brexit was a good idea?

[YouWillGetThere]

Sorry ask a really fiddly question, but I just wondered if I could ask what people think about Brexit, with hindsight?

I have no opinion, one way or the other, tbh.

I've really enjoyed reading so many calm, sensible, Mumsnet threads on politics in the last few weeks. The anonymity allows people to speak honestly about their views, and I've been so glad understand what people really think, and why they vote the way they do.

I would be so interested to hear what people think and feel about Brexit, now we've had a chance to see how the country has changed as a consequence of it.

There’s been countless threads over the years on pros/cons and reasons for voting for Brexit but they always descend into personal insults so I’ll answer your question once but won’t respond to any others.

I voted leave, I don’t regret it.

I thought it was w terrible idea then and events have proved that it was.

Oh yes ! 👏

Never thought it was a great idea.

The time around Brexit was so hostile. We came (legal) from an EU country years before Brexit. We worked jobs which no one wants today (NHS/teaching). Just to be told we ruined the country as foreigners.

We went for dual citizenship because of the children.
During covid we relocated as UK was far far from the country we were fond of.
Our ds stayed and studies at university. I expect he'll stay in UK. He had his childhood and education in UK and is happy.

Why did you vote Leave @YellowDaffodilRedTulip - and why do you still stand by your vote? What have the benefits of Brexit been as far as you can see/say?

I thought it would be a total disaster and if anything it's even worse. Whenever I think about it it still makes me very angry.

Oh, and saying you won't respond to questions @YellowDaffodilRedTulipis just silly. This is a discussion forum! If you're going to set your stall out then why not defend your views?

I didn't think it was a good idea then, and voted Remain, but I'm even more against it now, because of how it's been handled.

I'm really embarrassed to admit I voted brexit.

I was 22 and not fully clued up on politics and got sucked into the "vote brexit" mantra.

If we had a vote now I'd vote remain.

Brexit isn't featuring much in the election discourse is it?

The Tories don't seem to be trumpeting all the Brexit benefits we now enjoy on their leaflets.

I voted remain and I can't see any benefits of Brexit whatsoever.

Can I ask what you think is better now?

@YouWillGetThere

... and this is why it can't be discussed calmly. A handful of posts in & people bring out the insults.

Another remainer I’m afraid. It’s turned out exactly as so many of us predicted and exactly how the EU said it would when we decided to hold the referendum.

In the words of James O’Brien, “the only country to ever put economic sanctions on itself”.

To be fair anyone who understood that leaving the Single Market and Customs Union would amount to imposing economic sanctions on ourselves and hobbling our economy wouldn't have voted for Brexit.

So it's a statement of fact.

A worse idea was people voting for Boris to “Get Brexit Done”, winning him a majority and now look where we are.

I would vote to leave again but I won't get into a big debate about because from what I've seen on here MANY times apparently we're all stupid and didn't know what we were voting for.

@Bigbowlofpasta

There wasn't a referendum on joining the EC.

'The Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, took the UK into the EEC in January 1973 after President de Gaulle of France had blocked UK membership twice in the 1960s.'

There was a referendum in 1975 on whether we STAY in the EC.

Hell no!

It was never a good idea. They didn’t even have a plan.

But Nigel Farage wasn’t in a position to deliver anything - he wasn’t in power. It’s like me buying a bunch of telly ads and promising everyone a lifetime of free milkshakes if they hop on one leg. It would be nonsense, and anyone who believed me would be an idiot as I clearly wouldn’t be in a position to deliver what I was promising.

Folks who ‘believed’ Farage were absolute morons, the lot of them. He was just a dude with a soapbox. He wasn’t even a member of parliament. Who did they think was going to deliver this brexit they wanted when the literal government of the country, and the opposition, were against it?

So yes, I blame those voters.

What did you think you were voting for? What did you think would happen that hasn’t, or did you know it would be like this?

I’m not being goady. I am genuinely interested because the only person I know who voted to leave did it as a protest vote. He actually wasn’t thinking about voting for or against brexit at all.

If I totally promise not to insult, just to ask the question, why? Do you think on balance it’s still a good think we’re out?

I mean fair enough.

If you knew you were hobbling our economy, more or less ending growth, and inward investment as we have known it, that big business would have to be bribed to stay, and that huge amounts of immigration would be needed just to keep the country afloat then fair dos.

I don't understand why anybody would do that to their own country, but if you knew you were doing it then no one can say you didn't know what you were voting for.

I wasn't allowed to vote at the time (was on a spousal visa).

It's turned out as badly as or worse than I anticipated. The only reason the UK was relevant was because of its historical status as coloniser plus the fact that it was the English speaking gateway to the EU.

Britons are now finding out what happens when you are a tiny, irrelevant island with little to offer tgoing it alone.

Unfortunately, I am trapped here for the foreseeable due to having a child with my abusive English ex. I do view this as home now, but it's gotten so much worse than it was before.