I am not British, but as an outsider looking in it was very obvious that they were shooting themselves in the foot by distancing their closest trading partners.

I am not British, but as an outsider looking in it was very obvious that they were shooting themselves in the foot by distancing their closest trading partners. At the time of the vote I remember a conversation with a friend's wife, who is British. I simply asked her opinion. The response I got was so caustic and vitriolic. She was very much supportive of the separation, but had no real reason other than "the foreigners are taking jobs from those born in the UK". She was fully convinced and pissed that I even asked because it clearly meant that I was challenging their rights and freedoms. It was then that I knew it was not only a bad decision economically, but that it was being made out of irrational thinking and not logical decision making.