57% of Britons said the decision to leave the European Union in 2016 was the wrong one, compared with 32% who thought it was correct.
More than half - 55% - said they would vote to remain in the EU, against 31% who said they would stay out, if the referendum were to be held again.
That’s still a lot of people that think it’s all great and unicorns and rainbows. How?
Because they don’t want to admit they made a mistake.
I know somebody like this. Conversations end up with him raising a few dumb points, which he claims is worth it.
We both work in the same company which used to export 40% of manufactured goods to the EU. The customers we have managed to retain now come with additional costs. If it was a smaller business it could have forced closure. It baffles me how he thinks the way he does.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens after labour wins.
If I’m not mistaken, brexit should allow them to more easily nationalise stuff like railways or public utilities (water, gas, …).
Of course, that’s exactly the kind of thing many right wing brexit voters hate, but it’ll be interesting to see if that’s now become possible.
It’s so, so annoying that people who cheered on Brexit back then are only just now saying that it was the wrong choice - it’s 7 years too late for that, we’re in the thick of it now!
These people must bump into everything with how short-sighted they were.
This debate always takes on a snarky tone but I’d like some serious consideration for what went wrong and how to avoid it in future.
First, what went wrong? Why did more than half the country vote to leave the EU? It’s far too easy to hand wave this away by blaming it on social media or Russian interference. Calling everyone who voted for brexit a lemming or idiot is clearly inaccurate and lacking any evidence. People made an informed decision and exercised their democratic right. Why? As best I can tell, people were hurting. Decades of neoliberal policies squeezed the middle and lower classes and enriched the wealthy. Part of the reason for people hurting was high migration. The UK has had sustained high migration for decades. This has placed enormous pressure on everything from healthcare services to the cost of housing, which is astronomically expensive now compared to just 20 years ago. Wages were suppressed, and working conditions made worse, while diminishing the bargaining power of locals. At the same time, all of the cheap foreign labour led to significant wealth accrual by business owners. In other words, all of the benefits of high migration were taken by the wealthy, and all of the costs were borne by the lower classes. This led to resentment, and the vote we saw.
So how to prevent this in future? Both major parties were and arguably are in favour of continued high migration, leaving few options for the population to express their dissatisfaction. The first opportunity they were given resulted in what many have described as a “protest” vote. I’m not convinced that restricting future referenda is the answer. Quite the opposite. The UK needs more democracy, not less. I believe the issue is first past the post (FPP). In most other European nations with proportional representation, they haven’t come close to a brexit vote. This is because there is always a party which appears to cater for political preferences. Don’t like high migration? Here is a party created just for you! And we see just this in many European nations. This lets off the democratic steam and gives voice to the concerns of voters. These minor parties can then use their votes to negotiate for their issues, and arrive at a compromise. This is the key issue with brexit: it was all or nothing. The party in power used their unilateral power to initiate a generation spanning action.
tl;dr: the UK desperately needs to transition to proportional representation. So too does the U.S.
Yep. FPTP led people to feel unrepresented, because, well, they are. Why they let themselves be fooled into blaming foreigners (EU+immigrants), not crap government, I don’t get, or forgive, but if we get out of FPTP, it won’t all be for nothing.
Sorry to be pedantic, but only about 37% of the voting population voted to leave the EU. 34% voted to stay and 29% didn’t vote.
It maddens me when Brexiteers scream “the majority of us voted to leave!” when it’s far from the case.
Does the mean Brexit will be replaced by Brenter?
The Breturn
People need to voice their opinion by writing to the their respective MPs. Nothing will ever happen unless there is a threat to votes.
No point with my MP. He always does what the Tory line is. He was one of the few MPs that turned up for the Boris thing and voted that it was wrong he should be suspended for 90 days.
MPs should do what the party line is TBF. MPs that get elected because they are with a particular party should follow that mandate they were elected for or stand as independent. When people complain about MP voting records, it is a bit silly if that MP is following the mandate. It is rare to see a 3 line whip that is not on the mandate, present government excluded from the norms of government OFC. The privileges committee vote was a single line whip, which means attendance is not compulsory, and guidance on how to vote may or may not be there. Voting against the committee recommendations is pretty low I have to admit. I would still write him a letter to make the bugger work a bit extra, just to piss him off.
At the recent local elections, I think Labour made two door stop visits and all we got from the Tories was a leaflet.
