My Dad said the same this weekend. You weren’t a dick to vote Leave. You may well have done so because it benefitted you as an individual or your business, or you may have been lead on by the Leave campaign. But knowing you as a poster on here you don’t come across as one of those Leave dicks that there are out there.
Me and my Father have always been critical of what the EU became. It’s a right funny entity that often serves itself to the detriment to many of its individual members, when the entity itself doesn’t really hold any real power so what’s the point of it serving itself as an entity? If it was just a trade bloc it would be perfect but it has become more than that when it shouldn’t really be… it should just be a customs union and not much else.
I’m always trying to find positives about the situation (any situation to be honest!) we found ourselves in after leaving, and in some small respects there are ways in which it’s better to be out than in, and there are a few wider scopes that can benefit us as an individual nation not being in the EU long term. However, overall, we were better off in the EU, especially in the short term. The smooth does override the rough you get with being a member and a united Europe is always better full stop.
Britain leaving the EU… and USA leaving NATO… were definitely Russian rooted plans to weaken the West.
My Dad got sucked in by the Leave campaign, and him and my Mother voted Leave. I voted Remain, for the main reasons of:
Wasn’t sure what my workers rights would be after the EU ones were scrapped
It would cause too much upheaval
It was too soon after the 2007/08 financial crash (and we were just starting to see annual GDP rises in the years before the referendum)
And I didn’t trust the Austerity Tories to take us out of it to the economic benefit of the country.
I think this situation we’re in now shows us how much better it is to be together with other countries in the West in whatever union that’s part of. How easy would it be to rejoin the EU? If it was just a customs union we could probably rejoin very easily but because the EU started branching out more widely, and they’re a fucking nightmare to work with from the outside, it might be quite difficult.
I reckon another referendum with the Rejoin campaign really looking towards strength in unity with Western/NATO allies, focusing on the anti-Russian misinformation root that fed the original Leave campaign, and some patriotism which always gets hold of the majority of voters in this (or any) country… it would easily win.
But I’m not sure it will happen. However, even more importantly than the EU, we are part of NATO so as long as we have that I’m happy and maybe the EU can come at another time.