I’m not either.
Brexit was 16.4 (iirc) m people telling you to stay in!
And most Brexiteers I know/knew aren’t racist either. They genuinely bought the independence rhetoric.
Also, let’s face it, the EU is an easy target,. It’s so large and inefficient and the governing body is hard to justify.
I’m pro-EU in the broadest sense of the word, i.e. thinking having economy number 3, 4 and 5 working together is a thing we ought to be a part of (we’re economy number 4 or 5, along with France, Germany is number 3) but the administration is just silly. It also doesn’t help that the UK government has consistently applied the strict letter of EU directives without considering the spirit, and then absolved itself of responsibility.
Whereas other countries have put their own rules first.
A very obvious, and pertinent to me, example is how in Spain, or the Canary Islands at least, you have to get health insurance before you can be registered as living here. That costs 600 euros (or did when I got it) and that was despite me coming here since…1987 or thereabouts.
One could argue that contravenes the right to move and work wherever you like, but the government here is doing it. They’re also charging me customs if I have anything shipped from England…
And if Spain (an autonomous, tiny region of Spain to boot) can do it, then it begs the question why the f*ck Britain couldn’t…what a simple way to “solve” the “problem” of all the Poles coming over and stealing our jobs.(for the record, I like the Poles)
Simply declare that anyone moving in needs health insurance, mandate who can provide it (the government ofcourse) and charge a cool £1000. Straight away, the ones who are serious and contributing will pay, those who are actually free loaders won’t (I suspect very few are actually free loaders) and this simple measure would have destroyed the central Brexiteer racist plank of support - namely that those horrible EU cretins were stealing all our jobs (ignoring for the moment that we could have vetoed the whole thing but didn’t…)
Then put in a citizenship/residency requirement before you can claim benefits (again, like what I am subject to here in Gran Canaria) and that other argument - that they come just for the benefits, also goes out of the window.
The clear advantages of the EU are things people take for granted now, and I fear a loss of those will be a sharp wakeup call, e.g. visa free travel.