Brit (half Irish actually) born in UK, greencard holder and lived in the usa since the early 90’s.
Denied a vote on Brexit because I had lived outside the UK for over 15 years and so denied any say in keeping my EU right of residency which I value very highly. I would have voted Remain not least because frankly, as an immigrant myself I take the anti immigrant rhetoric of Leave rather personally.
Never thought leaving was a good idea but had a moment of grudging “well who knows, maybe it can be good” feelings the night of the vote.
That soon collapsed back to the realization it was an unmitigated disaster and then hardened to anger as both May and Corbyn proceeded to pretend that the only solution was to implement this damn fool thing without doing the sensible thing of undoing it or consulting the nation again when it became apparent that the outcome is going to be far far worse than had been assumed at the time of the vote.
Canadian ex-pat, moved to London after 7 years in California. My mum was born in the UK in Exeter, my Maltese Grandpa having been in London during the Blitz.
I opposed Brexit in my vote because I see economic strength in unity. I think having lived in the States and acclimated myself to veiled arguments by the Right, the unsavory parrallels were obvious. That, and having grown up in Quebec where the nationalists were always threatening (and almost succeeded) a succession vote, makes me tired about knee jerk decisions that use patriotism as a reason to kneecap your quality of life.
US citizen raised aboard (mostly in Greece and Italy), worked as an adult for several years in France and the UK, now retired and living in South America. I’m mostly watching the slow motion train wreck wondering how anyone failed to see it coming.
You surely are. I’m wondering how pro-Brexit voters failed to see it coming. I understand that Brexit advocates did see it coming but lied about it because they were motivated by other things. Everyone else is a victim.
Something vaguely sensible could have been (and still could be) done - some sort of EEA option or whatever.
I don’t think a lot of people saw our government adopting the most stupid interpretation of the vote, and going about implementing it in the most bloody stupid way.
Though when I write it down, it looks rather obvious.
Portuguese, watching the situation from a fairly dispassionate stance, save for my belief that a deal that could be used as an example of having gotten the best of the EU would in the end mean the breakup of the Union.
Very much this. People who complain about how the EU is being mean to the UK by not giving them a sweet deal to leave don’t seem to grasp that such a deal would be an existential threat to the EU. They won’t sign their own death warrant, so any deal they can agree to has to be a much worse alternative than simply remaining in the Union.
Thirded, the political aspect of the deal is something the UK has failed to grasp. If this was purely an economic conversation we would be there already, but it isn’t.
I certainly knew it was going to be political, and that any deal would be clearly worse than membership (Chequers is at the bad side of what I was expecting). What I didn’t realise was the extent to which the internal dynamics of the EU side would empower those who sought an actively punitive deal, or no deal at all.
The fact that most of the UK media, let alone the EU media, doesn’t understand how the UK parliamentary process will actually work doesn’t help. I think a lot of people in the EU expect that if May can’t reach a deal or get a deal through parliament the government will somehow magically collapse and they will be able to make a deal with Corbyn. If Ed Milliband was still in charge of the Labour party I could see it, but the Tories and the DUP hate Corbyn with a passion - and won’t do anything that will put him in power. Obviously come 2022 that will be out of their hands, but until then the EU has to negotiate with May or whomever succeeds her as leader of the Tories.
It isn’t punitive. The EU isn’t seeking to punish the UK for leaving. They are seeking to not reward the UK for leaving, so that no one else will want the same reward.
Born and raised in the Midlands, in a Labour (and Leave) heartland, home to Dennis Skinner and Sports Direct’s HQ, and with a strong mining heritage on my dad’s side of the family originating in Wales. Naturally, the Tories aren’t well liked around here… but UKIP are, or, were.
I voted Remain because Leave seemed insane and unconscionable to me after all the research I did (and the lies being peddled). Critically, however, I did not trust the fucking Tories to handle something this unprecedented, complex and potentially catastrophic for the country. The fact that 52% of voters did surprises me more than anything.
Yeah, after the Leave result one of the first things I said was ‘my popcorn is ready’. It’s just been a shambolic spectacle, and it’s not even March.
I’m from Denmark, probably the country that has had the most referendums about EU treaties in Europe, so I’ve had to put myself through the ordeal of trying to figure out what most of the big treaties from the past few years would actually mean. Now live in Norway, outside the EU. For the record, the Norway deal is pretty much the worst deal available for ordinary people - all of the disadvantages of being in the EU (we’re forced to follow every bit of EU regulations) - with only some of the advantages and none of the influence. But Norway is “independent”, yay. At least on paper.
Pretty much this.
These treaties are complex, of course, so it’s pretty hard to plus and minus the exact consequences, but at the end of the day, the UK is never going to be allowed to leave with a deal that is superior to what the average member state in the EU has (and IMO, UK had a better than average deal to begin with) - so at the end of the days, this was always going to be a net loss for the UK. That’s simple political calculus. The extent to which the UK people/media seems to fail to understand this, is pretty amazing.
I’m pretty sure that most of the EU negotiators don’t care which government they’re making a deal with, except to the extent that government chaos in the UK causes problems for the negotiations. And I’m 100% sure that people in the EU don’t give a fig’s leaf whether May, Corbyn, or Boris sits in Whitehall. Except for the very politically interested, Brexit is 2016’s news.
