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Yes that’s really funny. Im not sure how you can write an article like this and never even mention it once. Brexit was the most stupid thing a country ever di

• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• ethbr1 2y ago
  > Brexit was the most stupid thing a country ever did to itself America: Hold my beer...
• marliechiller 2y ago
  > Brexit was the most stupid thing a country ever did to itself From an economic standpoint, brexit was indeed a big L, but I dont think brexiteers were largely voting on economic grounds - a point which is lost on most remainers.
  • riffraff 2y ago
    from a non-economic standpoint it was just as stupid, the idea of "taking back control" is predicated on the concept that the UK was forced to accept rules imposed by others and would be free to stop doing that. But the UK had substantial influence on those, and it no longer does, while still having to follow them to be able to do business with the EU. And indeed, the UK has not really diverged from the EU in the last 8 years and voted a new government that wants to tighten the relationship. It was a generic protest vote "I don't like how things are going and I was happier when I was young". I can empathize, but it was still self-inflicted harm.
    • willvarfar 2y ago
      It always amused me that people were voting for the clowns in Westminister to have more say. Even before Brexit they were showing how inept they all were so it was crazy to have confidence in them
      • mantas 2y ago
        As if EU parliament is not full of clowns too. At least local parliament has some windows to break close by. - citizen of EU member, not happy with either national or eu parliaments :D
        • Symbiote 2y ago
          The EU parliament is elected with a much fairer system than the British one, half of which isn't even elected but nominated in return for bribes or being a bishop.
          • EmptyCoffeeCup 2y ago
            Hardly, it's full of people that each individual member state had no say on whether they were there or not. Why should someone elected by the Polish electorate, or the Romanian one, have any say over what the British or Germans do? Especially when it's British & German money funding the project? The EU is clearly going in a direction the British people do not like, and therefore they did the only thing they could after concessions were refused -leave. If the EU were only interested in co-operation and trade, this would not be a problem. As it is, apparently it _is_ a problem. Why would that be, except to punish the British for daring to say "this isn't working - we don't want tighter integration" Meanwhile, the EU continue to fiddle whilst Rome burns. British politics may be boned, but the people now have the ability to sack the lot of them as they did last summer. That is worth far more than a few % of GDP (which the British govt. have no interest in, or they'd be pushing policies that help growth - lower taxes, higher speed-limits, cheaper trains, reduction in gas prices etcetc) : as it is, all the stories we read are about slower roads, more expensive trains and higher taxes.
          • mantas 2y ago
            Common theme in EU parliament seems to be that people send politicians who shit the bed on national level for an expensive vacation to do next to nothing. Or being a celebrity in an unrelated field.
            • 2y ago
    • mjevans 2y ago
      It no longer amazes me that people will blindly vote for 'anything different', particularly when whatever that difference might be is so vaguely defined. Indeed, it is even more effective for that 'difference' to remain vague or general winks without anything of substance to evaluate or hold someone to account on.
  • darth_avocado 2y ago
    Brexit was absolutely about Economic conditions. Anti immigration sentiment was one big factor that everyone talks about, but in reality the sentiment itself was a symptom on display for the underlying condition of people having their living standards drop. The second big factor people kept bringing up was that EU was making decisions for UK, which people thought needed to be reversed. Austerity measures, which EU adopted, were the single biggest reason why people felt they needed more control. They also slowed down the post 2008 recovery, which meant people weren’t doing as well anymore. Anti immigration sentiment also rose once people were unhappy and needed someone to take the blame.
    • TheSunSet 2y ago
      [dead]
    • TheFuzzball 2y ago
      Absolutely agree. When my boomer dad complains about the Pakistani family he went to sell something to having 2 BMWs it's definitely racist. But the racism is inflamed by poor economic conditions, and the rationale is "how come these people that aren't even from here have a better life than me?" Sadly, people seeking power know this and use the racism to get power and don't fix the underlying cause, which was never immigration — it was wealth inequality.
      • booleandilemma 2y ago
        If they were of the same race as your dad, the question "how come these people that aren't even from here have a better life than me?" would still be valid.
        • aprilthird2021 2y ago
          If he can tell they're not from there, then he'll be mad. If he thinks they are fellow Englishmen he'll be less mad. That's the point, how prejudice often has a ground in economic conditions
  • rich_sasha 2y ago
    It was sold as a win on all fronts. Who wouldn't want a new hospital every year? I'm not sure people would vote for it if they knew it comes with an economic meltdown. Maybe still they would do, though.
    • randunel 2y ago
      "We won, you lost, get over it!" As my taxi driver neighbour in Dagenham like saying.
  • devnullbrain 2y ago
    I attribute much of our malaise to it being a long time since anything was done on 'economic grounds'. I'd love for us to have a fraction of the desire for capitalist principles that former communist countries have.
  • jodrellblank 2y ago
    > "I dont think brexiteers were largely voting on economic grounds - a point which is lost on most remainers." You think remainers missed all the racism from the leave side and thought it was only about economics? Even when Boris Johnson's Vote Leave, Michael Gove and George Osbourne, Labour representatives, Green Party representatives, Nichola Sturgeon, and Unison reps were publicly condeming Nigel Farage and UKIP for their "blatant attempt to incite racial hatred" poster? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Point_(UKIP_poster) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Point_(UKIP_poster)
• nmca 2y ago
  Whilst brexit was a bad idea —- look forward not backward! Planning reform is a viable opportunity and making it as good as possible is a much better use of energy than moaning about mistakes past.
  • crowselect 2y ago
    It’s an article looking back at the last 16 years - hard to do that when you’re looking forward, no?
• hans_castorp 2y ago
  > Brexit was the most stupid thing a country ever did to itself, Trump tries very hard to make Brexit the second most stupid thing a country did to itself.
  • twixfel 2y ago
    Already achieved, easily.
• twixfel 2y ago
  Electing Trump twice makes Brexit look relatively wise.
• BeFlatXIII 2y ago
  The US seems determined to beat that record.