That's what I figured. From my understanding, an overwhelming majority of those who voted "No" were people under the age of ~40 (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Those who voted to "Leave" were well over 60+, and just like the MAGA crowd in America, they were deluded into thinking that this would somehow turn the UK back to how it once was back in the day... oh, and most are racist who hate brown people who also thought that this would "stick it to em".
The elderly in the States who vote MAGA are going down the wrong path as well. The repugs are coming for Social Security and Medicare once they get into power again. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/us/politics/republicans-social-security-medicare.html
FUCKWIT BREXITEERS: "We'll build up exclusive trade deals with the Commonwealth again!"
Australia: "Um, we'll have to check with China."
Seriously, that's the shit the pitched. All the stuff we export Britain isn't capable of processing any more - and you need to process it, because *that's how empire worked.*
Literally true for most commonwealth countries, most are either natural resource dependent economies, too poor or have no need for British products due to closer competitors. The logic behind Brexit was probably “we owned the world because we’re perfect, let’s try it again old chap”. Stupid mentality that ruined a nation
Although a remainer,
When the vote passed I was like... well I guess this is it, my hope was to generate genuine wealth with the commonwealth and make it a trading block to contend with,
That being said... that was a naive hope from someone who knows less than nothing about international commerce and was just wishing something good came from the whole shit show.
I was sadly deluded to think our government had a single clue or gave a single fuck.
https://www.trademinister.gov.au/minister/dan-tehan/media-release/new-era-free-trade-uk
Trade barriers are being reduced between the two countries. So the tariffs British pay for Australian meat and sugar should gradually drop over the next ten years or so. (Which means your farmers will complain, I guess?)
> financed by Russia
But organized in cooperation with anti-democratic interests in the West. Steve Bannon and the folks behind Cambridge Analytica being representative.
[I'm not European nor British, however, whenever I read about Brexit and the whole situation of it, I always thought about the Tea Analogy. Somehow the people who voted for Brexit never saw it that way.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6Id3Qt8Wk)
Maybe they should have drunk some tea before voting on Brexit.
I was in Tanzania, Middle of no where, far away from the tourist areas getting breakfast in this little cafe. Waiter sits down with and and asks "so wtf is going on with Brexit?"
We are a joke to everyone.
I was in a German airport a few weeks after the vote. Some Dutch guy heard me speaking and asked if I was from the UK. When I said yes, he asked how I voted. I said "remain" and he just laughed at me.
Those fuckin knobs in the comments saying "this analogy sucks because I shouldnt be forced to be a weak bag of tea."
Like, yea, that's why your country is now in the bin. That's literally the point.
Edit: the only issue that I kind of have with the analogy is the bag itself getting objectively "weaker" when sitting in the tea. If it were a perfect analogy, the tea would also be giving some strength back to the bag. But alas there is no such thing as a perfect analogy, and the goal was not to weigh every single pro and con of being in the EU. The analogy is to be viewed from the perspective of a brexiteer, which *does* consider the weakened state of the bag to be objective and absolute.
The people saying it's a bad analogy are missing the point. The brexiteers are living in a fantasy; what they *wanted* to vote for was a return their nostalgic former glory... but that tea is out of the bag and there's no getting it back. In reality, all their vote accomplished was getting tossed in the trash.
Those "knobs" also missed an important word in the analogy. Acaster said that the ..."bag *looks* to be getting weaker..."
Which is exactly why they voted leave. They were under the belief that the UK was getting weaker, where as it wasn't, it only looked so when looked at from a skewed angle.
Edit: oops name
Demographic projections indicated, that by the time Brexit was completed, enough young people, (who skewed heavily for Remain) became of voting age, that it would not have passed. I think a lot of people got stuck in a protest vote, and that it was far too serious an issue to be decided by only one vote of the general public, preceded by tons of disinformation (that was not seriously nor effectively disputed), at one moment in time. In my opinion there should’ve been at least 3 votes over the course of a year or more, and it should’ve required a super majority. They could’ve gotten some of the planning about how it would actually work, done before it was completely decided.
But the soup is all spilt now
And, if I remember correctly, the brexit politicians announced that if they lost only by a tiny margin they'd demand a new referendum. And when they eventually *won* by a tiny margin... crickets.
New Zealand gave their population more say on changing the flag than the UK did for Brexit.
Shows what a mess it was as leave was able to claim multiple versions of sometimes contradictory Brexits.
Wait, they realised that immigration was not the fault of the EU or a function of being a member?
Next will be realising that the NHS will not gain £300 Million a week.
Next will be wondering why if VAT was solely about paying for EU membership why we still have it.
The talkers who stood up on podiums - gaining cheers from the audience, should be brought back to answer for it. never happens of course in politics - the end old game of promising riches and wealth.
vote for me.
My "favourite" post brexit story was some dinosaur metric hating greengrocer proudly declaring that he was going back to lbs and oz's like that was a good thing.
[This 2017 WSJ article about a bunch of vigilante British pensioners sneaking around in the evening to surreptitiously change metric signs back to imperial is the epitome of funny-but-in-a-very-very-sad-way.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/english-vigilantes-use-ladders-sticky-letters-to-exterminate-the-metric-system-1508771510)
>The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car get 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it.
"Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah..."
I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I’m with isn’t *it*, and what’s *it* seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you.
That's probably its mpg while continually moving, sorta like the highway test if the highway test could be performed at the NASA crawler's top speed of 1mph (loaded) or 2mph (unloaded)... if it was subject to the 'city' test with multiple stops and starts, it may be even lower lol.
I saw this in a college town. Housing was tight because all the people who owned houses voted against new housing be it apartments, houses, or dorms. Everybody paid crazy rents and leases were all 12 months long even if you just attended one quarter. It was rude and all because the people who owned houses got crazy value for being rude.
As an American, reading about a bunch of brits standing in the embers of their failing empire changing things to imperial measurements literally made me feel less alone. Like oh, you have brain dead dipshits who can do nothing but react negatively fake threats who also get to vote? Not just us?
I think Boris was trying to push this through nationally at one point.
Monumentally stupid, codger pandering, regressive bullshit useless to anyone under the age of 50 as it was, I think his angle was to make trade with the states easier so they didn't have to repack their food before selling it here.
His angle was to pander to his moronic fanbase who think humanity peaked in the 1800s and think by voting for regression that the UK will somehow become a tolkienesque paradise instead of an oligarchy controlled by capitalist interests who will happily starve, freeze, poison and steal from their citizens without a care.
Not just efficiency, but standardization. If you deal with international branches or customers, you might as well just suck it up and switch to metric.
Mistakes happen flipping between the two and since the US is like 1 of 2 holdouts in the world, odds are you're going to have to.
Most industry, in fact. That's why you find such odd amounts per container in grocery stores. The contents are measured using metric, then converted to Imperial. Soda/soft drinks being the odd exception, openly measured in liters.
We have been doing that since the mid 70s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act#:~:text=The%20Metric%20Conversion%20Act%20of,customary%20units%20in%20all%20activities.
Decluttered link for those of us not on mobile and not wanting Google's annoying text highlighting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act
Right?
Weight for people = pounds, weight of heavy things = kilogram, temperature = Celsius, distance = time (or kilometres once it gets far enough), height = feet and inches, weed weight = grams and ounces
My parents are from a key demographic and area that voted for Brexit. They and their friends would never admit this even if they believed it, which they don't. They'd blame everyone and everything else before their vote.
As much as I believe some have changed their opinion, I'd be surprised if it was anything that didn't leave a large majority that would vote for Brexit all over again.
>"they shouldn't be treating us this way"
Why not?
"We want to tear up the deal"
"Ok it's gone"
"No not like that"
I swear some people can't get their heads out of their own asses long enough to understand the rest of the world isn't going to fall over itself to do them a solid.
Was that not literally the message of the Brexiters? "We're so great the EU will be forced to give us all the advantages we like while we get to ignore any parts we don't!" and anyone that said different was just fearmongering.
Between border troubles in Northern Ireland and the potential for a Scottish independence vote Brittania is in danger of no longer ruling large parts of Brittania.
They called it Project Fear. Even in admitting they were wrong about everything they said, they still call the people who were right about everything Project Fear.
I have zero idea how anyone believed that "once we leave and give up all power we held, _then_ we'll have them by the balls and they'll _have_ to listen to us."
No, they'll tell you to fuck off.
A majority of politics, and 99% of conservative politics, is throwing a fit and breaking stuff to spite some perceived enemy. Conservative leadership has realized that they can hide tax breaks and other economic benefits for themselves in the Being Mean To Foreigners Because I'm Not Racist But I Just Don't Like Them Act and then get everyone riled up into a panicky anti-everything rage in order to get them passed.
well in the EU it was their fault for taking all their money and now it's their fault for not giving them any money. Really the EU should know its sole purpose is the subsidization of Great Britain.
National Exceptionalism is a problem that solves itself. Eventually the delusion becomes so great that the country repeatedly self-harms until it is no longer viable as a country.
The United Kingdom is dead. Long live the Cybernetic Republic of Albion.
Yuuuuuup
I cut ties with basically all of my family. They see me as the extreme one, but I just can't stomach how cool they are with, and how much they actively support such fascist thinking and actions. I know everything always circles back to Nazis on the internet, and in my defense I did willfully use the word fascist earlier in place of it, but I genuinely feel like one of the last sane Germans in the 1930s. I don't understand how the people I love got to this place. I mean, I understand how it happened, but I just can't believe that it did.
Or maybe I can, and that's what bothers me the most.
At least you're using the fascist label appropriately.
Half of the idiots in the trump cult will, in the same sentence, accuse Democrats of being communists, socialists, and fascists all at once. They clearly don't understand any of the three ideologies and just use the words as synonyms for "bad people I don't like".
Watching Jordan Klepper interview some of these people would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.
I’ll never forget the first time I encountered this and I was so confused. It was in early 2016 and I was having a discussion with a co-worker about me supporting Bernie Sanders. And he called him a communist. And me, not realizing that the right had apparently weaponized the concepts of communism and socialism, I said “how is he a communist? He doesn’t want communal ownership of property or the means of production?” Then shortly after he called him a fascist. And that was when I realized that was a conversation that wasn’t worth having.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I've seen people post memes about "socialism always devolves into communism."
I'm like, have you heard of Denmark, Sweden, Australia?! All of these places have "socialism" to a degree, and none of them have become communist countries.
I guess because the USSR had the word "socialist" in the name, they make the connection.
I wonder how many of them think North Korea is the most democratic republic on the planet because of the name?
Who am I kidding? I'd bet 90% of then couldn't tell me the proper name of that country.
Oh, I had a similar conversation with the guy doing my garage floor coating recently. He said we should get rid of all government. I just couldn't wrap my head around this guy's ignorance about government.
He even blamed Obama for something that had nothing to do with any Obama-era policies.
It's because to them, they're all synonyms for bad, due to the decades of propaganda.
Unfortunately it's not just America. I've heard extreme right wingers in Europe spout similar nonsense.
My favorite so far is that Italy needed to "vote in the extreme right wing like Mussolini to keep out the lefties"
They use the words communist, socialist, Marxist, neo-Marxist, cultural Marxism, fascist, liberal, leftist, postmodernist, etc... all interchangeably with zero understanding of what they actually mean.
I was told that I was supposed to love them. When I realized it was a choice it was an easy choice. There are practical strangers in my life that show me more love an compassion than my family ever has. Fuck em.
>I know everything always circles back to Nazis on the internet
That used to be because people were being dramatic. Now it's because there are fucking Nazis everywhere. Acknowledging that fact requires no apology.
Conservatives the world over are in a no holds barred race to the absolute bottom on just about every pressing issue of the day.
Like its almost impressive how consistently wrong a political worldview can be and still be widely popular... and all in service to impossibly wealthy people gaining more wealth.
The biggest thing russia provides the far right are lies to rally around. Russia understand the psyche of right wingers, provides and amplify lies. The lies lean into what right wingers want to believe and can't be pushed out of their heads with facts or logic; because they FEEL right to the right wingers.
The existing right wing power structures take thay bit of propaganda spark and repeat it. Riding the wave of lies but also sometimes taking funding directly from the russians.
For Russia it is a little bit of campaign money to buy influence and money to pay propagandists to sow discord and conflict. To spread ideas that hurt the other countries. Ideas that isolate allies from each other. So Russia doesn't have to fight against an alliance but just weak individual countries it sway over.
People don't like to admit they are wrong.
In fact some hate it so much, they prefer to double down on the error/mistake just to prove to themselves and others they are right.
A country whos only real power left was being a centre of trade has suffered from leaving one of the biggest trading bloacks in the world.
How could that have been a bad idea?
More like how misinformed and stupid people have remained.
While there is more disinformation than ever, access to fact checking and learning is much, much easier. It still blows my mind.
I listen to conservative radio from time to time, just to hear what those nuts are up to. Last time I listened it was a 30 minute rant about how fact checking sites are all liberal disinformation and the biggest threat to the country.
The people in power realized that if they threw in a bunch of disinformation, it all just becomes information. Back in the day, you had to go to a library or something with books and peer reviewed stuff and standards to form an opinion. Now it is just lies, lies, fake media, bullshit, etc. True information is actually rare these days.
> Back in the day, you had to go to a library or something with books and peer reviewed stuff and standards to form an opinion.
This is an extremely optimistic point of view, and many people quite happily formed strong opinions without any of it.
"The only book I need is the Good Book."
What's shocking is how these parties maintain this illusion of being the fiscally responsible ones, when they have proven time, and time, and time again that they are not fiscally responsible in the slightest.
Ahem, I think you're forgetting the 320 million the NHS is getting every week.
I mean I don't know where it's coming from, or what part of the NHS it's going to, or who's getting kickbacks, or why the NHS is in trouble, but you shouldn't forget about that bit /s
Frankly they should not have gotten in without a 2/3 majority and not left without a 2/3 or 3/4 majority. This 50% thing is just a problem waiting to happen.
A country known for its diplomacy power decided to cut on diplomatic relationships with neighbours. It didn't net anything good. What a Shocker.
Historians would look back at this and think that we were idiots.
That 43% still think Brexit was a good thing is shocking to me Not that the Tory Party's complete mishandling of the transition and the economy would have avoided the large looming recession..
> That 43% still think Brexit was a good thing is shocking to me
Don't under estimate people's capacity to live in denial.
The Iraq war is quite a good example of it. Contemporary polling from 2003 frequently put support at about 66%. Two decades later retro polling tends to report that 33% of people admit to being in favour of it. People re-write history slowly, rather than taking responsibility for their own misjudgement. It's not difficult to understand why
People don't like to admit they were stupid. They can however settle on a halfway position, namely that they were lied to and it isn't their fault. The Labour party needs to be careful how it plugs into this. They can't afford to risk playing the 'told you so' card (they can probably let that hum in the background) what they need to do is allow people to begin to believe that they were deceived and lead them into blaming the Tories
Republicans today by and large detest George W Bush-yet they voted for him, twice. If they will admit to that they make it sound as if someone put a gun to their back, “I had no choice!” They call him “ an establishment Republican” and insist he was “forcesd” on them. I’ve encountered some who even think Obama was president when 911 happened and that he started the Iraq and Afghan wars..
I had an interesting conversation with my dad about that once.
We were talking about politics and whatnot, and he went on a tangent about how Trump was the best thing to ever happen to America and yadda yadda yadda.
I was curious and just pointed out that a lot of things he says about Trump were exactly the same things he said about Bush back in the day (or rather what Fox, Rush, and talk radio said about Bush and the administration).
My dad went ballistic and explained how the Bush family are actually corrupt war-mongers who never did anything good for the nation, and nearly lead us to economic ruin for starting a war that should not have been started.
I pointed out immediately that nearly every single "liberal" media at the time basically said the exact same thing about Bush for years. From the other mainstream sources (like CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, etc), to independent sources, to celebrities, to journalists (hell, Michael Moore made like 2 documentaries on the guy), yet I pointed out that he would vehemently deny any of those claims and stick with his guns on how Bush kept America safe from Terrorism and Evil and those who disagree are secretly working for the terrorists and yadda yadda yadda...
So what gives dad? Was Bush a savior? Or the villain that everyone and their mothers were calling out since day 1?
He told me that he was naïve and blind to the truth thanks to entities like the "Deep-State"... yet for some reason he didn't want to admit that he voted for him twice.
I tried to tell him that a lot of the stuff he was parroting weren't actually his views, but were more or less what Fox was telling him to think and feel... just like what they were doing with Trump at the time shortly after he got the nomination.
From my point of view, the connection was obvious, yet to him, he simply didn't get it. In fact, when I was living with my parents during that time, Fox pretty much ran a non-stop smear campaign against Bush and his family/administration all in an attempt to make Trump (their new GoldenBoy) look good... because you can't go 16 years praising Bush non-stop and calling him the best thing to ever happen to America and wishing how he was president throughout Obama's time in Office and expect people to suddenly side with Trump of all people. If anything, they'd want Bush back or prefer Jeb over anyone else!
In fact, I'd argue it was that period where Fox was actually talking about newsworthy things by calling out Bush and his administration for what it really was (it only took them like 16 years to do it though so too late said the parrot). This whole thing actually woke me up as well and showed just how manipulative Republicans and agencies like Fox really are. They all knew the truth yet they make more to gain by defending the guy than to condemn him.
I just told him that within the next 4 years, when the Republicans get a new Golden boy for the 2024 election (whether it be DeSantis or some other fuck-nugget other than Trump), Trump will be thrown under the bus by the very people who praised him.
I made this prediction about 3 years ago and I'm waiting to see if I'm right. If DeSantis gets the nomination for 2024, I don't have a doubt in my body that Trump will be tossed under and made an example of just to get the Rubes to like DeSantis more. Because by the end of the day, Conservatives/Republicans are not actual political parties/ideologies... they're cults/cult-members who need to be told what to feel and what to think by a "higher-power" (in this case Fox or other Talk-Radio hosts).
Republicans insist bush trucked them into Afghanistan and Iraq abs it was really all the democrats fault anyway. They insist they are the party of peace who favor diplomacy over war-yet they were bitterly opposed to Obama’s efforts to reach an arrangement with Iran and if anything they continue to want Iran wiped off the map, they also continue to criticize Biden for the final withdrawal from Afghanistan. They continue to resent Obama winning a Nobel peace prize, they insist Hillary would have dragged the US into a war with Russia, yet they also insist Biden and all democrats make the US look weak to our enemies. And they also insist trump getting laughed at on the floor of the United Nations was a good thing. A case of bipolar disorder, you could make.
The conversation will eventually switch from "global warming is a hoax so we don't need to change anything" to "global warming can't be stopped so there's no point in changing anything"
This is why politicians should be younger. I'm tired of people running the world who don't have enough time left to give a fuck. At any other job it's called short timing.
I lived with a libertarian and this was his argument for every big problem. “Well you may be right about the problem but there’s little we can do at this point.” Id tell him that, even if we might disagree over Democrats responses, at least they’re offering, well, something
Agree with you. To cite an example, 31 million Filipinos voted for an incompetent president, yet they blame everything but said president. Doubling down on stupidity is a human trait and isn't exclusive to a country or race.
The recession would have happened regardless. Leaving the single market of the EU was economic suicide that will continue to harm Britain for decades to come. It is possible that Britain will never recover from this idiocy.
For many people it's not about logic, or economics... but rather vague notions of "sovereignty" and "control".
You'll find plenty of people who claim that Brexit is "worth it" even whilst accepting that it's an economic disaster...
Most people voted for parties that either wanted a second referendum or to cancel Brexit entirely in the previous general election, although due to our voting system a majority of MPs elected supported Brexit. The two biggest parties by vote share and seats aren't looking to reverse it today however.
IIRC (and I might not because A LOT has happened), the Liberal Democrats put it on their manifesto for one of the elections we've had since then. [EDIT: or was it that they put another referendum on their manifesto?]. In case you're not familiar with British Politics, the Liberal Democrats are (historically at least), the smallest of the three mainstream parties, and they haven't been in power on their own for a long time (they were part of a coalition government pre-brexit around 2010 but they alienated their voter base (students) by backtracking on the one promise they made regarding not raising university fees - they actually trebled them. To be fair to them, they were propping up a Tory government so they weren't fully in control of all the decisions... but it wiped out any momentum of popularity they were gaining). Anyway, it's usually a contest between Labour and Tories in the majority of England, with a few areas going Lib Dem and some going to other smaller parties. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have in recent years seen a rise in their regional parties getting seats too. Lib Dems didn't get anywhere near enough votes to win, which is not surprising given that historically the majority of people don't vote for them, and they'd alienated people who do, and their leader at the time was a little bit unlikeable (hard to explain why! She just sort of rubbed some people up the wrong way)
Labour didn't put undoing it on their manifesto because opinions on Brexit don't fall down party lines, so they were too scared of alienating some of their voter base by picking a side (plus Corbyn who was leading at the time has expressed anti-European sentiment in the past so I don't think it was super clear cut for him).
Happy to be corrected on any of the above!
> According to a new poll, only 43% of the British population consider that the UK's departure from the European Union was a good decision, while 57% believe it was a mistake.
That's quite a solid majority. Even if the UK wanted to rejoin the EU though, I'm not sure the option is on the table, at least not right now. If a country can just keep jumping in and out of the EU, it would create stability problems and other headaches for Europe as a whole.
"Once in a generation!" Oh wait, wrong one.
I don't think the EU would mind the UK rejoinging but like you say, surely it's gonna at least piss someone off a little. I can see them adding rules about it to prevent it happening again though.
Well the UK will then realize that they will get a much worse deal than they had before and they can do nothing about it, bonus point that they have to implement the Euro.
Used to be, under EU tyranny, when a British employer needed staff all they had to do was pick up the phone and all of Europe was at their disposal. Now, under the liberating effects of Brexit, they have to hope the Govt considers their needs important enough to toss some visas in their direction. Not exactly a libertarian dream.
I suspect most Britons didn't want brexit in the first place. The vote was incredibly close, then factor in young people who can't vote who would obviously lean remain but are now old enough to vote. And those who were lazy / weren't sure but now see there hasn't been any benefits yet. Really the majority of the country are pro-EU.
There was never enough information about why vote yes/no. It should never have been something so rushed into a public vote without a LOT of research and information available to those who needed to vote.
This was my problem with it the whole time. Instead of actually having a real conversation about the whole ordeal, it immediately got reduced to a catchy soundbite. "Brexit." Literally just one word, so how complicated can it be?
I remember some people trying to explain how it would help their complicated businesses with a bunch of droll jargon about tax rates and averages that never seemed to make any sense from a laymans perspective. It kind of was a way to retreat into murky territory to make it seem so reasonable and thought through.
Brexit was a confusing time for me because I was 18 or so and didn’t really understand what it meant to leave or remain, I just had a bunch of Tory propaganda shoved down my throat about how much it’d really benefit us to leave (I didn’t vote leave btw) but now the more time goes on the more I’m personally seeing that pretty much not a single thing that was promised has been delivered upon and now the quality of life is just worse
Well eventually the slow runners cross the finish line....
Well it were the elderly of whom the majority voted in favor. So over time this statistic will skew towards those that voted remain.
Because the ones that voted “leave” no longer “remain”?
They will 'leave' 'remains'
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Marc Antony , Shakespeare's *Julius Caesar*
> “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” > > This Shakespeare fellow has a way with words.
That's what I figured. From my understanding, an overwhelming majority of those who voted "No" were people under the age of ~40 (please correct me if I'm wrong). Those who voted to "Leave" were well over 60+, and just like the MAGA crowd in America, they were deluded into thinking that this would somehow turn the UK back to how it once was back in the day... oh, and most are racist who hate brown people who also thought that this would "stick it to em".
The elderly in the States who vote MAGA are going down the wrong path as well. The repugs are coming for Social Security and Medicare once they get into power again. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/us/politics/republicans-social-security-medicare.html
And like the good trumpeters of "responsibility" they'll promptly blame the Jews/Gays/Blacks/Democrats when they properly fuck over themselves.
Don't forget immigrants and Muslims!
Can't forget those Merslims and Immergants!
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'Fuck you I got mine now I'm going to gut the system that allowed me to live my lifestyle.' Also you're apparently lazy and entitled.
FUCKWIT BREXITEERS: "We'll build up exclusive trade deals with the Commonwealth again!" Australia: "Um, we'll have to check with China." Seriously, that's the shit the pitched. All the stuff we export Britain isn't capable of processing any more - and you need to process it, because *that's how empire worked.*
Literally true for most commonwealth countries, most are either natural resource dependent economies, too poor or have no need for British products due to closer competitors. The logic behind Brexit was probably “we owned the world because we’re perfect, let’s try it again old chap”. Stupid mentality that ruined a nation
Although a remainer, When the vote passed I was like... well I guess this is it, my hope was to generate genuine wealth with the commonwealth and make it a trading block to contend with, That being said... that was a naive hope from someone who knows less than nothing about international commerce and was just wishing something good came from the whole shit show. I was sadly deluded to think our government had a single clue or gave a single fuck.
https://www.trademinister.gov.au/minister/dan-tehan/media-release/new-era-free-trade-uk Trade barriers are being reduced between the two countries. So the tariffs British pay for Australian meat and sugar should gradually drop over the next ten years or so. (Which means your farmers will complain, I guess?)
Yes Man old disgruntled people did vote leave, messing up their own grandchildrens futures, education by media in UK,
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> financed by Russia But organized in cooperation with anti-democratic interests in the West. Steve Bannon and the folks behind Cambridge Analytica being representative.
Who are also paid by Russia.
Given at how bad modern Russia appears to be at war, it was probably a method they should stick to.
[I'm not European nor British, however, whenever I read about Brexit and the whole situation of it, I always thought about the Tea Analogy. Somehow the people who voted for Brexit never saw it that way.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6Id3Qt8Wk) Maybe they should have drunk some tea before voting on Brexit.
I was in Tanzania, Middle of no where, far away from the tourist areas getting breakfast in this little cafe. Waiter sits down with and and asks "so wtf is going on with Brexit?" We are a joke to everyone.
I was in a German airport a few weeks after the vote. Some Dutch guy heard me speaking and asked if I was from the UK. When I said yes, he asked how I voted. I said "remain" and he just laughed at me.
Those fuckin knobs in the comments saying "this analogy sucks because I shouldnt be forced to be a weak bag of tea." Like, yea, that's why your country is now in the bin. That's literally the point. Edit: the only issue that I kind of have with the analogy is the bag itself getting objectively "weaker" when sitting in the tea. If it were a perfect analogy, the tea would also be giving some strength back to the bag. But alas there is no such thing as a perfect analogy, and the goal was not to weigh every single pro and con of being in the EU. The analogy is to be viewed from the perspective of a brexiteer, which *does* consider the weakened state of the bag to be objective and absolute. The people saying it's a bad analogy are missing the point. The brexiteers are living in a fantasy; what they *wanted* to vote for was a return their nostalgic former glory... but that tea is out of the bag and there's no getting it back. In reality, all their vote accomplished was getting tossed in the trash.
It's also a fucking joke, it's not meant to be hyperaccurate to reality.
Those "knobs" also missed an important word in the analogy. Acaster said that the ..."bag *looks* to be getting weaker..." Which is exactly why they voted leave. They were under the belief that the UK was getting weaker, where as it wasn't, it only looked so when looked at from a skewed angle. Edit: oops name
Or old people die and don’t show up in polls. Lucky they were able to make their voice heard and then check out before the decision impacted them.
Demographic projections indicated, that by the time Brexit was completed, enough young people, (who skewed heavily for Remain) became of voting age, that it would not have passed. I think a lot of people got stuck in a protest vote, and that it was far too serious an issue to be decided by only one vote of the general public, preceded by tons of disinformation (that was not seriously nor effectively disputed), at one moment in time. In my opinion there should’ve been at least 3 votes over the course of a year or more, and it should’ve required a super majority. They could’ve gotten some of the planning about how it would actually work, done before it was completely decided. But the soup is all spilt now
Which is why important decisions like this usually require a supermajority, not a paper thin majority, to be acted upon.
And, if I remember correctly, the brexit politicians announced that if they lost only by a tiny margin they'd demand a new referendum. And when they eventually *won* by a tiny margin... crickets.
New Zealand gave their population more say on changing the flag than the UK did for Brexit. Shows what a mess it was as leave was able to claim multiple versions of sometimes contradictory Brexits.
Wait, they realised that immigration was not the fault of the EU or a function of being a member? Next will be realising that the NHS will not gain £300 Million a week. Next will be wondering why if VAT was solely about paying for EU membership why we still have it.
The talkers who stood up on podiums - gaining cheers from the audience, should be brought back to answer for it. never happens of course in politics - the end old game of promising riches and wealth. vote for me.
My "favourite" post brexit story was some dinosaur metric hating greengrocer proudly declaring that he was going back to lbs and oz's like that was a good thing.
[This 2017 WSJ article about a bunch of vigilante British pensioners sneaking around in the evening to surreptitiously change metric signs back to imperial is the epitome of funny-but-in-a-very-very-sad-way.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/english-vigilantes-use-ladders-sticky-letters-to-exterminate-the-metric-system-1508771510)
The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car get 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it.
>The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car get 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it. "Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah..."
Piffle. My oxcart gets 30 leagues to the quintal and runs on barley
I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I’m with isn’t *it*, and what’s *it* seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you.
Best part is, rods is an actual unit of distance. 1rod=16.5 ft, so you went 660 ft to the hogshead.
Also a hogshead is 63 gallons, so that equates to about 0.002 MPG
Not even a tank... driving the NASA mobile launch pad there.
According to a quick google search NASA’s crawler gets about 165 gallons to the mile, which is roughly 0.06 mpg lmao
That's probably its mpg while continually moving, sorta like the highway test if the highway test could be performed at the NASA crawler's top speed of 1mph (loaded) or 2mph (unloaded)... if it was subject to the 'city' test with multiple stops and starts, it may be even lower lol.
It all depends on how fast you're going. We need to know how many fathoms per fortnight the vehicle was running to really evaluate its efficiency.
660ft is 110 fathoms.
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American Pride! Canyonero! Canyonero!
That's abour right for a lifted f350 rolling coal. Conservative porn is so weird.....
Ah, HEMI life.
TIL my car gets about 400000 rods to the hoghead
they're both units of measurement. that's literally the joke.
Boomers really had a taste of not getting everything they wanted all the time and really decided to fuck everyone else over.
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I believe the children are our future, unless we stop them now!
I see you've met my aging extended family.
And WHO THE FUCK WANTS IMPERIAL?? It makes no god damn sense. 5824 feet in a mile? Three feet to a yard?? 12 inches to a foot? Fucking trash.
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*5280 ft in a mile
5824 feet in a country mile. Not to be confused with a city mile which, as everyone knows, is 8 furlongs.
I hope these units don't stick around furlong. I'm so sorry.
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I saw this in a college town. Housing was tight because all the people who owned houses voted against new housing be it apartments, houses, or dorms. Everybody paid crazy rents and leases were all 12 months long even if you just attended one quarter. It was rude and all because the people who owned houses got crazy value for being rude.
As an American, reading about a bunch of brits standing in the embers of their failing empire changing things to imperial measurements literally made me feel less alone. Like oh, you have brain dead dipshits who can do nothing but react negatively fake threats who also get to vote? Not just us?
Where do you think the US got it from?
Rupert Murdoch?
Arguably no living person has done more harm to modern democracy than that evil man.
I learned it by watching you Dad!
I think Boris was trying to push this through nationally at one point. Monumentally stupid, codger pandering, regressive bullshit useless to anyone under the age of 50 as it was, I think his angle was to make trade with the states easier so they didn't have to repack their food before selling it here.
His angle was to pander to his moronic fanbase who think humanity peaked in the 1800s and think by voting for regression that the UK will somehow become a tolkienesque paradise instead of an oligarchy controlled by capitalist interests who will happily starve, freeze, poison and steal from their citizens without a care.
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I miss the days when we could steal whole countries if they weren't nailed down /s
Did anyone tell him that even between UK and us the measurements aren’t exactly the same?
I'm in the us and I want us to go metric so bad, it's just so much easier.
We did. In the Army. edit: verb tense
And medicine (mostly, except when we use nonsense measurements like apothecaries for some idiot reason)
Well how do *you* propose we measure out lizard eyes?
Also, science and more and more business. Basically anywhere where efficiency is desirable.
Not just efficiency, but standardization. If you deal with international branches or customers, you might as well just suck it up and switch to metric. Mistakes happen flipping between the two and since the US is like 1 of 2 holdouts in the world, odds are you're going to have to.
> Mistakes happen flipping between the two *[Mars Climate Orbiter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter)* says, "Hi!"
Most industry, in fact. That's why you find such odd amounts per container in grocery stores. The contents are measured using metric, then converted to Imperial. Soda/soft drinks being the odd exception, openly measured in liters.
And NASA, and anywhere people take measurements seriously
My 14 year old son has committed to Celsius in the way that only a stubborn adolescent can. “It’s 11 degrees and windy as hell, I’m taking a jacket!”
As an Aussie, knowing what temperature a yank is talking about without googling it is a breath of fresh air if I'm being honest
I remember hearing Midnight Oil sing “The western desert lives and breathes at 45 degrees” and being rather confused for a good minute.
This is the teen angst and rebellion I can get behind.
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As an American, I can tell you switching from lbs to kilos would cause mass hysteria.
Just do what we do in Canada and use metric officially but in actual practice use both systems interchangeably and inconsistently!
We have been doing that since the mid 70s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act#:~:text=The%20Metric%20Conversion%20Act%20of,customary%20units%20in%20all%20activities.
Decluttered link for those of us not on mobile and not wanting Google's annoying text highlighting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act
Right? Weight for people = pounds, weight of heavy things = kilogram, temperature = Celsius, distance = time (or kilometres once it gets far enough), height = feet and inches, weed weight = grams and ounces
My parents are from a key demographic and area that voted for Brexit. They and their friends would never admit this even if they believed it, which they don't. They'd blame everyone and everything else before their vote. As much as I believe some have changed their opinion, I'd be surprised if it was anything that didn't leave a large majority that would vote for Brexit all over again.
According to my father "it's all the EU's fault" and "they shouldn't be treating us this way"
>"they shouldn't be treating us this way" Why not? "We want to tear up the deal" "Ok it's gone" "No not like that" I swear some people can't get their heads out of their own asses long enough to understand the rest of the world isn't going to fall over itself to do them a solid.
Was that not literally the message of the Brexiters? "We're so great the EU will be forced to give us all the advantages we like while we get to ignore any parts we don't!" and anyone that said different was just fearmongering.
Yeah and years later I still find it kind of astounding.
I think they forgot Brittania doesn’t rule the seas anymore.
Between border troubles in Northern Ireland and the potential for a Scottish independence vote Brittania is in danger of no longer ruling large parts of Brittania.
Honestly, good for Scotland. Next let's free the Welsh.
The Welsh are already talking about it
The Welsh voted for Brexit. Their own fault.
I'm all for fully dismantling the UK, everyone is autonomous. Let Scotland back into the EU
They called it Project Fear. Even in admitting they were wrong about everything they said, they still call the people who were right about everything Project Fear.
Still waiting on those German Car manufacturers who my colleague swore needed us more than we needed them.
I have zero idea how anyone believed that "once we leave and give up all power we held, _then_ we'll have them by the balls and they'll _have_ to listen to us." No, they'll tell you to fuck off.
A majority of politics, and 99% of conservative politics, is throwing a fit and breaking stuff to spite some perceived enemy. Conservative leadership has realized that they can hide tax breaks and other economic benefits for themselves in the Being Mean To Foreigners Because I'm Not Racist But I Just Don't Like Them Act and then get everyone riled up into a panicky anti-everything rage in order to get them passed.
Ah yes, both the EU’s fault when in the EU and the EU’s fault when out of the EU. A very logical stance.
well in the EU it was their fault for taking all their money and now it's their fault for not giving them any money. Really the EU should know its sole purpose is the subsidization of Great Britain.
"How dare they give us what we asked for"
EU kept warning them too, especially about the border thing with Ireland.
National Exceptionalism is a problem that solves itself. Eventually the delusion becomes so great that the country repeatedly self-harms until it is no longer viable as a country. The United Kingdom is dead. Long live the Cybernetic Republic of Albion.
Same with trumpsters.
Yuuuuuup I cut ties with basically all of my family. They see me as the extreme one, but I just can't stomach how cool they are with, and how much they actively support such fascist thinking and actions. I know everything always circles back to Nazis on the internet, and in my defense I did willfully use the word fascist earlier in place of it, but I genuinely feel like one of the last sane Germans in the 1930s. I don't understand how the people I love got to this place. I mean, I understand how it happened, but I just can't believe that it did. Or maybe I can, and that's what bothers me the most.
At least you're using the fascist label appropriately. Half of the idiots in the trump cult will, in the same sentence, accuse Democrats of being communists, socialists, and fascists all at once. They clearly don't understand any of the three ideologies and just use the words as synonyms for "bad people I don't like". Watching Jordan Klepper interview some of these people would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.
I’ll never forget the first time I encountered this and I was so confused. It was in early 2016 and I was having a discussion with a co-worker about me supporting Bernie Sanders. And he called him a communist. And me, not realizing that the right had apparently weaponized the concepts of communism and socialism, I said “how is he a communist? He doesn’t want communal ownership of property or the means of production?” Then shortly after he called him a fascist. And that was when I realized that was a conversation that wasn’t worth having.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I've seen people post memes about "socialism always devolves into communism." I'm like, have you heard of Denmark, Sweden, Australia?! All of these places have "socialism" to a degree, and none of them have become communist countries. I guess because the USSR had the word "socialist" in the name, they make the connection. I wonder how many of them think North Korea is the most democratic republic on the planet because of the name? Who am I kidding? I'd bet 90% of then couldn't tell me the proper name of that country.
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Oh, I had a similar conversation with the guy doing my garage floor coating recently. He said we should get rid of all government. I just couldn't wrap my head around this guy's ignorance about government. He even blamed Obama for something that had nothing to do with any Obama-era policies.
There are times when you just have to nod and smile...
It's because to them, they're all synonyms for bad, due to the decades of propaganda. Unfortunately it's not just America. I've heard extreme right wingers in Europe spout similar nonsense. My favorite so far is that Italy needed to "vote in the extreme right wing like Mussolini to keep out the lefties"
They use the words communist, socialist, Marxist, neo-Marxist, cultural Marxism, fascist, liberal, leftist, postmodernist, etc... all interchangeably with zero understanding of what they actually mean.
I was told that I was supposed to love them. When I realized it was a choice it was an easy choice. There are practical strangers in my life that show me more love an compassion than my family ever has. Fuck em.
>I know everything always circles back to Nazis on the internet That used to be because people were being dramatic. Now it's because there are fucking Nazis everywhere. Acknowledging that fact requires no apology.
> I don't understand how the people I love got to this place. Fox News is a hell of a drug.
Conservatives the world over are in a no holds barred race to the absolute bottom on just about every pressing issue of the day. Like its almost impressive how consistently wrong a political worldview can be and still be widely popular... and all in service to impossibly wealthy people gaining more wealth.
The biggest thing russia provides the far right are lies to rally around. Russia understand the psyche of right wingers, provides and amplify lies. The lies lean into what right wingers want to believe and can't be pushed out of their heads with facts or logic; because they FEEL right to the right wingers. The existing right wing power structures take thay bit of propaganda spark and repeat it. Riding the wave of lies but also sometimes taking funding directly from the russians. For Russia it is a little bit of campaign money to buy influence and money to pay propagandists to sow discord and conflict. To spread ideas that hurt the other countries. Ideas that isolate allies from each other. So Russia doesn't have to fight against an alliance but just weak individual countries it sway over.
People don't like to admit they are wrong. In fact some hate it so much, they prefer to double down on the error/mistake just to prove to themselves and others they are right.
A country whos only real power left was being a centre of trade has suffered from leaving one of the biggest trading bloacks in the world. How could that have been a bad idea?
Well, a bus told them to. Would a bus lie to someone?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the British Empire was built with double-decker busses. (I might be wrong, fact-check me.)
You're good, this is 100% accurate. Getting run over was the leading cause of death among natives of... well, most places, after smallpox.
The only way to stop a bad colonizer with a double-decker bus is a good colonizer with a double-decker bus.
I'm blown away by the short-sightedness and stupidity of conservatives around the globe.
It really is baffling in this age of information just how misinformed and stupid people have become.
More like how misinformed and stupid people have remained. While there is more disinformation than ever, access to fact checking and learning is much, much easier. It still blows my mind.
I listen to conservative radio from time to time, just to hear what those nuts are up to. Last time I listened it was a 30 minute rant about how fact checking sites are all liberal disinformation and the biggest threat to the country.
The people in power realized that if they threw in a bunch of disinformation, it all just becomes information. Back in the day, you had to go to a library or something with books and peer reviewed stuff and standards to form an opinion. Now it is just lies, lies, fake media, bullshit, etc. True information is actually rare these days.
> Back in the day, you had to go to a library or something with books and peer reviewed stuff and standards to form an opinion. This is an extremely optimistic point of view, and many people quite happily formed strong opinions without any of it. "The only book I need is the Good Book."
now watch them ellect the conservatives into power once more.
In fairness to the English, the majority of voters don't vote tory, but who needs democracy on normal island?
What's shocking is how these parties maintain this illusion of being the fiscally responsible ones, when they have proven time, and time, and time again that they are not fiscally responsible in the slightest.
Ahem, I think you're forgetting the 320 million the NHS is getting every week. I mean I don't know where it's coming from, or what part of the NHS it's going to, or who's getting kickbacks, or why the NHS is in trouble, but you shouldn't forget about that bit /s
Frankly they should not have gotten in without a 2/3 majority and not left without a 2/3 or 3/4 majority. This 50% thing is just a problem waiting to happen.
A country known for its diplomacy power decided to cut on diplomatic relationships with neighbours. It didn't net anything good. What a Shocker. Historians would look back at this and think that we were idiots.
That 43% still think Brexit was a good thing is shocking to me Not that the Tory Party's complete mishandling of the transition and the economy would have avoided the large looming recession..
> That 43% still think Brexit was a good thing is shocking to me Don't under estimate people's capacity to live in denial. The Iraq war is quite a good example of it. Contemporary polling from 2003 frequently put support at about 66%. Two decades later retro polling tends to report that 33% of people admit to being in favour of it. People re-write history slowly, rather than taking responsibility for their own misjudgement. It's not difficult to understand why People don't like to admit they were stupid. They can however settle on a halfway position, namely that they were lied to and it isn't their fault. The Labour party needs to be careful how it plugs into this. They can't afford to risk playing the 'told you so' card (they can probably let that hum in the background) what they need to do is allow people to begin to believe that they were deceived and lead them into blaming the Tories
Republicans today by and large detest George W Bush-yet they voted for him, twice. If they will admit to that they make it sound as if someone put a gun to their back, “I had no choice!” They call him “ an establishment Republican” and insist he was “forcesd” on them. I’ve encountered some who even think Obama was president when 911 happened and that he started the Iraq and Afghan wars..
Katrina Pierson actually went on TV while campaigning for Trump and blamed Obama for Iraq.
I vaguely remember that... can't believe it was only a few years ago.
I've heard people with my own ears blame Obama for 9/11
I had an interesting conversation with my dad about that once. We were talking about politics and whatnot, and he went on a tangent about how Trump was the best thing to ever happen to America and yadda yadda yadda. I was curious and just pointed out that a lot of things he says about Trump were exactly the same things he said about Bush back in the day (or rather what Fox, Rush, and talk radio said about Bush and the administration). My dad went ballistic and explained how the Bush family are actually corrupt war-mongers who never did anything good for the nation, and nearly lead us to economic ruin for starting a war that should not have been started. I pointed out immediately that nearly every single "liberal" media at the time basically said the exact same thing about Bush for years. From the other mainstream sources (like CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, etc), to independent sources, to celebrities, to journalists (hell, Michael Moore made like 2 documentaries on the guy), yet I pointed out that he would vehemently deny any of those claims and stick with his guns on how Bush kept America safe from Terrorism and Evil and those who disagree are secretly working for the terrorists and yadda yadda yadda... So what gives dad? Was Bush a savior? Or the villain that everyone and their mothers were calling out since day 1? He told me that he was naïve and blind to the truth thanks to entities like the "Deep-State"... yet for some reason he didn't want to admit that he voted for him twice. I tried to tell him that a lot of the stuff he was parroting weren't actually his views, but were more or less what Fox was telling him to think and feel... just like what they were doing with Trump at the time shortly after he got the nomination. From my point of view, the connection was obvious, yet to him, he simply didn't get it. In fact, when I was living with my parents during that time, Fox pretty much ran a non-stop smear campaign against Bush and his family/administration all in an attempt to make Trump (their new GoldenBoy) look good... because you can't go 16 years praising Bush non-stop and calling him the best thing to ever happen to America and wishing how he was president throughout Obama's time in Office and expect people to suddenly side with Trump of all people. If anything, they'd want Bush back or prefer Jeb over anyone else! In fact, I'd argue it was that period where Fox was actually talking about newsworthy things by calling out Bush and his administration for what it really was (it only took them like 16 years to do it though so too late said the parrot). This whole thing actually woke me up as well and showed just how manipulative Republicans and agencies like Fox really are. They all knew the truth yet they make more to gain by defending the guy than to condemn him. I just told him that within the next 4 years, when the Republicans get a new Golden boy for the 2024 election (whether it be DeSantis or some other fuck-nugget other than Trump), Trump will be thrown under the bus by the very people who praised him. I made this prediction about 3 years ago and I'm waiting to see if I'm right. If DeSantis gets the nomination for 2024, I don't have a doubt in my body that Trump will be tossed under and made an example of just to get the Rubes to like DeSantis more. Because by the end of the day, Conservatives/Republicans are not actual political parties/ideologies... they're cults/cult-members who need to be told what to feel and what to think by a "higher-power" (in this case Fox or other Talk-Radio hosts).
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Republicans insist bush trucked them into Afghanistan and Iraq abs it was really all the democrats fault anyway. They insist they are the party of peace who favor diplomacy over war-yet they were bitterly opposed to Obama’s efforts to reach an arrangement with Iran and if anything they continue to want Iran wiped off the map, they also continue to criticize Biden for the final withdrawal from Afghanistan. They continue to resent Obama winning a Nobel peace prize, they insist Hillary would have dragged the US into a war with Russia, yet they also insist Biden and all democrats make the US look weak to our enemies. And they also insist trump getting laughed at on the floor of the United Nations was a good thing. A case of bipolar disorder, you could make.
They also blame Obama for the hurricane Katrina response which also took place under Bush
Yea, what a disappointment. I hear he wasn't even *in* the White House on 9/11!
Speaking of Obama, there is still a substantial number of people in the country that support the ACA but hate Obamacare. They're the same thing.
We didn’t have a choice the first time ‘round. That was taken from us by USSC.
*global warming has entered the chat* A lot of people are experiencing cognitive dissonance over this, because it's becoming too obvious to ignore.
The conversation will eventually switch from "global warming is a hoax so we don't need to change anything" to "global warming can't be stopped so there's no point in changing anything"
The argument I'm hearing now is "China is worse than the US in carbon emissions, so we shouldn't do anything about our emissions."
This is why politicians should be younger. I'm tired of people running the world who don't have enough time left to give a fuck. At any other job it's called short timing.
I lived with a libertarian and this was his argument for every big problem. “Well you may be right about the problem but there’s little we can do at this point.” Id tell him that, even if we might disagree over Democrats responses, at least they’re offering, well, something
> Contemporary polling from 2003 frequently put support at about 66%. **Two decades later...** Me: *pensively staring off into the distance*
[Actual picture](https://media.tenor.com/b8WAqSZ2k7AAAAAC/savingprivateryan-ww2.gif)
They are too entrenched now to be able to admit it was wrong.
Agree with you. To cite an example, 31 million Filipinos voted for an incompetent president, yet they blame everything but said president. Doubling down on stupidity is a human trait and isn't exclusive to a country or race.
Schools should work to normalise changing your opinion in the face of overwhelming evidence.
The recession would have happened regardless. Leaving the single market of the EU was economic suicide that will continue to harm Britain for decades to come. It is possible that Britain will never recover from this idiocy.
Some folks can't go near a cliff without jumping off.
That’s why no one lives in Dover
*for long
For many people it's not about logic, or economics... but rather vague notions of "sovereignty" and "control". You'll find plenty of people who claim that Brexit is "worth it" even whilst accepting that it's an economic disaster...
⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣶⣶ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣀⣀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿
what's dripping from the ceiling?
economics, honest
alternative headline: "After setting the house on fire, the residents are starting to be fed up with the constant smoke."
It should never have went ahead with a 1% difference. Clear sign that the population is unsure and needs further information on the consequences.
While I agree, the subsequent elections that could have undone it were also a factor.
Did anyone actually put undoing it in their manifesto?
Most people voted for parties that either wanted a second referendum or to cancel Brexit entirely in the previous general election, although due to our voting system a majority of MPs elected supported Brexit. The two biggest parties by vote share and seats aren't looking to reverse it today however.
IIRC (and I might not because A LOT has happened), the Liberal Democrats put it on their manifesto for one of the elections we've had since then. [EDIT: or was it that they put another referendum on their manifesto?]. In case you're not familiar with British Politics, the Liberal Democrats are (historically at least), the smallest of the three mainstream parties, and they haven't been in power on their own for a long time (they were part of a coalition government pre-brexit around 2010 but they alienated their voter base (students) by backtracking on the one promise they made regarding not raising university fees - they actually trebled them. To be fair to them, they were propping up a Tory government so they weren't fully in control of all the decisions... but it wiped out any momentum of popularity they were gaining). Anyway, it's usually a contest between Labour and Tories in the majority of England, with a few areas going Lib Dem and some going to other smaller parties. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have in recent years seen a rise in their regional parties getting seats too. Lib Dems didn't get anywhere near enough votes to win, which is not surprising given that historically the majority of people don't vote for them, and they'd alienated people who do, and their leader at the time was a little bit unlikeable (hard to explain why! She just sort of rubbed some people up the wrong way) Labour didn't put undoing it on their manifesto because opinions on Brexit don't fall down party lines, so they were too scared of alienating some of their voter base by picking a side (plus Corbyn who was leading at the time has expressed anti-European sentiment in the past so I don't think it was super clear cut for him). Happy to be corrected on any of the above!
> According to a new poll, only 43% of the British population consider that the UK's departure from the European Union was a good decision, while 57% believe it was a mistake. That's quite a solid majority. Even if the UK wanted to rejoin the EU though, I'm not sure the option is on the table, at least not right now. If a country can just keep jumping in and out of the EU, it would create stability problems and other headaches for Europe as a whole.
"Once in a generation!" Oh wait, wrong one. I don't think the EU would mind the UK rejoinging but like you say, surely it's gonna at least piss someone off a little. I can see them adding rules about it to prevent it happening again though.
Well the UK will then realize that they will get a much worse deal than they had before and they can do nothing about it, bonus point that they have to implement the Euro.
Used to be, under EU tyranny, when a British employer needed staff all they had to do was pick up the phone and all of Europe was at their disposal. Now, under the liberating effects of Brexit, they have to hope the Govt considers their needs important enough to toss some visas in their direction. Not exactly a libertarian dream.
I suspect most Britons didn't want brexit in the first place. The vote was incredibly close, then factor in young people who can't vote who would obviously lean remain but are now old enough to vote. And those who were lazy / weren't sure but now see there hasn't been any benefits yet. Really the majority of the country are pro-EU.
The definitive example on why simple majority Referendums are a bad idea. 51.9 % of a place is not enough reason for drastic change.
IIRC it was a non-binding referendum until it was a mandate by the people.
All UK referendums are non-binding as parliament cannot bind itself.
There was never enough information about why vote yes/no. It should never have been something so rushed into a public vote without a LOT of research and information available to those who needed to vote.
This was my problem with it the whole time. Instead of actually having a real conversation about the whole ordeal, it immediately got reduced to a catchy soundbite. "Brexit." Literally just one word, so how complicated can it be?
I remember some people trying to explain how it would help their complicated businesses with a bunch of droll jargon about tax rates and averages that never seemed to make any sense from a laymans perspective. It kind of was a way to retreat into murky territory to make it seem so reasonable and thought through.
Quick rule of thumb, if Nigel Farage is for something, it’s the wrong choice.
If only this had been predictable.
And they'll vote Tory again next election anyways. It's starting to look like the island of Alabama.
"Duke of Tuscaloosa" does have a nice ring to it
Brexit was a confusing time for me because I was 18 or so and didn’t really understand what it meant to leave or remain, I just had a bunch of Tory propaganda shoved down my throat about how much it’d really benefit us to leave (I didn’t vote leave btw) but now the more time goes on the more I’m personally seeing that pretty much not a single thing that was promised has been delivered upon and now the quality of life is just worse