I will ask the same question that I’ve asked other leave voters.
Please tell me the advantages of Britain leaving the EU. Even now so far down the path to Brexit not one leave voter has been willing to answer this simple question. It really is a real mystery why they refuse to do so. The advantages of remaining are easy to find and many are concerned with Britain’s economic well being and her inhabitants human rights, your turn.
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It’s not even hard guys, c’mon
- We will be completely in control of our legislature
- We will be completely in control of borders/immigration
- We will not have to contribute to the EU budget
- We will be in control of our trading arrangements
- We will be in control of our own financial market
There you go, a Remainer doing the Leaver’s work for you as usual. Now I’ve started things off a leave supporter could, perhaps, expand on a point to show how it will bring benefits to the UK post Brexit.
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I wouldn’t hold your breath Paul but the first one is easy. The UK government have proved themselves to be so efficient, trustworthy and competent over the years that they can make better rules for the common good than the EU ever could. Simples.
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Old style Blue passports - can’t wait
(hmmmmm that in itself is worth the 12% drop in £/Euro!)
Maybe not.
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Oops…….maybe I was wrong. It seems the EU may have been more efficient and prepared for Brexit all along. Rather inspiring compared with our useless lot don’t you think?
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It’s quite astonishing, and thanks Damian for supplying this. The contrast in approach really makes me ashamed of our Government’s incompetence and disregard of people’s well-being and welfare, but at the same time I knew they don’t care, and are just in it for themselves.
Both major parties are still arguing the toss.
No one wants to hear that the majority of people are now totally fed up with Brexit now that they are beginning to understand how it will affect their everyday lives to such a degree that was never explained before the referendum.
I think the government are on their 3rd release on information regarding the effects post Brexit.
Mat’s link does work… this is what it gives you
If only I could do that! (still can’t!)
I only copy and paste what I see on the top-line…(whatever it’s called)
Why on earth would Nellie do that? They were her colleagues and hopefully she respected their views no matter whether she agreed with them.
I fixed it Mat, just paste the url, nothing else and it will get ‘one boxed’. No need to use the hyperlink button 
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No problem for me as I live here permanently and haven’t set foot in the UK for 19 years. However this could be an issue in the future for some, who knows, another wait and see …
I now have a real dilemma…
For all of my voting life I have voted Conservative because I grew up in the 1970’s and lived through, and saw, the effects of Union power and the fawning of the Labour Governments thereto. Even in the last GE before the referendum.
Never again! Never! This current lot, in my humble view, are treasonous. Unfortunately, we also do not have an effective Opposition - from whatever side. Regardless of the initial vote, it is plainly obvious now what Brexit will really mean and, for the good of the UK - AS A WHOLE - those in Authority should step in and stop it.
I was even beginning to pin my hopes on Labour (shudder!!) to finally come up with a STRONG and COHESIVE policy to call a halt and look again - PROPERLY - at the whole idea. Formulate and publish truthful pros and cons and then put it back to the ‘people’ - who should be the sole arbiters - as they were in the first vote. However, today’s announcements from their Conference has completely changed my view - in that my view was a hope that they could sort it. They cant. They cant even get their story straight between themselves! The Union boss says we can have a vote but staying in cannot be an option. The Shadow Brexit wallah says we can have a vote and that an option for staying in SHOULD be on the ballot. The other swine with their noses in the trough just waffle and wibble and will not commit to ANYTHING!
And Corbyn??? NOTHING. NADA. NICHTS. If that bloke had to make a decision he would implode! Such a spineless waste of air.
To top it all off, I read that our saviours of Brexit want to ‘tax’ companies with more than 200 staff equivalent to 10% of their earnings by making sure that the employees have shares in those companies. Sounds good doesnt it? Well, not really. Take my firm. 550 employees or thereabouts. Yes, we make a fair bit - but all through our own hard work and industry. It is a family owned business - all the shares are held by the family. Do we - the employees - do so badly that we need Corbyn’s Republic to tax our employer just to give us 500 extra quid a year - and trouser the rest for themselves? No we bloody dont!!! Our Family bosses give us a bonus each year equivalent to at least five times that, plus we are ALL on a decent wage. Our working conditions are excellent and we have a very low staff turnover. NOW, I am not saying that all companies are like ours, but I do get the impression that Corbyn and his cronies think we are all living and working in the victorian workhouses! Back when I started in the construction industry, in 1980, I saw posters and stickers all over our offices decrying the earlier attempt to nationalise the construction industry. Deep in Labour’s manifesto ideas, this old chestnut is back on the cards!!!
How can I ever vote for this bunch of anarchists, dreamers and activists? I would be committing suicide for my job, my colleagues, my company and my employer - let alone electing a Government that would take us back nearly 50 years and insidiously impose State control over nearly all our lives!
Even if they offered a second vote with staying in the EU as an option, I am sorry, I can NEVER vote for Labour with a manifesto that could just as easily ruin the country as much as Brexit.
Sorry for the rant…I need to rethink my future options…
C
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Rant away - your thoughts echo many of mine.
Like you I am a natural Tory voter, though very much “right of centre” rather than right wing. On the whole I believe in the European Project but do have some reservations about “ever closer union” and just how much closer the UK would be comfortable getting.
The EU made sense when it was a 9-nation club who had fairly similar economies and closer-than-you-might-think cultures but at 28 nations, some of whom have very different economies and cultures one might argue that it has overstretched itself. Add to that the pressure from those fleeing conflict in the Middle East, most of whom arrive first in the poorer southern European nations and the cracks are definitely showing.
Back home the UK did well under Blair’s “just left of centre” government but unfortunately I think much of the improvement was superficial not structural - throw in the stock market crash of 2007 and, by the time the referendum came around we’d had 8 years of belt tightening and acute lack of investment following years of chronic, mostly invisible, lack of attention to the structure of the economy.
The Leave campaign took the perfect opportunity that they were given, blamed the EU for quite a lot of things that were not its fault (as well as one or two which were), promised everyone milk and honey and swept to victory on a wave of anti-Tory sentiment.
They then rather rapidly back-pedalled on several of their core claims.
And in the middle of this no-one thought anywhere near enough about Ireland, Northern Ireland, their border and the Good Friday Agreement.
I think if it were not for that we probably would have concluded negotiations - probably given May’s early stance, Lancaster House and all that a free trade agreement rather than EEA or EFTA membership but I think we could have got it sorted.
But the NI border is an almost insoluble problem - or at least it is given the corner that May has painted herself (and the country with her) into; if she hadn’t ruled out EEA or EFTA membership that might well have provided the solution but, as it is, we are in the situation that anything we propose is unacceptable to the EU and vice versa.
It is not just that the politicians are incompetent - that they are is not helping but it is a genuinely difficult problem. In fact hats off to the team (probably Olly Robinson) that came up with the Chequers proposals because they do, at least, address the problem in a novel way - it’s a pity that they were shot down by the EU before they even got airborne but there you go.
So, I can’t vote Tory because they got us into this mess and do not have anyone with the wit to get us out, nor can I really bring myself to vote for a party that gives JRM or Boris house-room.
However, the only thing worse than the Tories is Labour - like Carl after some of the conference stuff I really could not see myself voting Labour unless it was a manifesto promise to halt Brexit (not necessarily for ever but in the short term we need to stop the process before we bow out with no deal and civil war ensues).
So, since my local constituency was 48.1 Tory, 43.2% Labour and 3.4% Lib Dem at the last election it looks like I might have to swallow my (extreme) distaste and vote Tory next election to have a stab at keeping Labour out.
But to be honest I would not hire the Tories or Labour to run the village fete, much less the country.
What we need is a dynamic centre party with a charismatic leader, what we have is the LibDems and Vince Cable - sorry Vince, you are a better leader than Tim “nice but dim” Farron but that is not enough.
I despair, I truly do.
Well perhaps it’s a good thing that you’re moving to France then! You feel so much less incensed about the stupidnesses of UK politics. Great for the blood pressure.
I did travel back to UK to vote in the referendum, but as for the other elections I’m less bothered so do a postal vote - which has a 50% chance of not getting there in time.
Wow, that’s bad news for my Ferret, seems I’ll have to revert back to hiding him down my Trousers if there’s going to be difficulties…
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I think that I have been so far removed from UK politics for so long I cannot take it particularly seriously. Even if my parents had been Tory voters I wouldn’t have been because I was in one of the wrong professions during the Thatcher years and endured too many unpleasant Secretaries of State. At that time I believed that the Labour Party were held back because they had a leader who was totally un-electable as a Prime Minister in Neil Kinnock. I believe that the party is the same position now. The big problem is that, yet again, it’s at a bad time for the country; no party that has done what the Tory party has done in the last few years should still be in government and thankfully they don’t seem to be able to take advantage of their Get out of Jail card and seem to be on course to implode. What happens then is anybody’s guess but with what Brexit is likely to result in somebody desperately needs to step up to the plate and put the interests of the country first. Watch this space.