Thanks UDS, your contributions in the various Brexit threads have been, and continue to be, invaluable to this somewhat bemused and befuddled poster.
Aye; add me to that compliment, please.
I concur.
UDS- other than racism and xenophilia, why do so many British people want to Brexit?
I blush becomingly. Thanks, guys.
In my view, a few factors. In no particular order:
Austerity: Since 2008, the UK has been a fairly depressing place for a lot of people. Not miserable; just persistently glum, real wages stagnating, low-grade employment abounding, growing inequality, public services contracting and deteriorating sense that things are getting better or are going to be. People want a change, and this looks like a change.
Rebellious gesture: Also, people want to express dissatisfaction, and this looks like an opportunity to express dissatisfaction by kicking the political and cultural establishment in the nuts. This factor probably explains why people don’t feel the need to examine too closely whether the change effected by Brexit is the kind of change that is going to address the factors that make their world joyless. (Hint: it isn’t.)
Nostalgia: Much Brexiter rhetoric is incredibly nostalgic, looking back to times when, they like to think, the UK was a much more signficant, and a much more confident, country than it is today. People would like to recapture some of that.
Widespread profound ignorance about what the EU is, what it does, why it does it and how it does it: Although the UK has been a member for going on 50 years now, popular culture and awareness has never really engaged with the reality of their participation in the Union, and perceptions of the EU are driven by a long-standing, deeply entrenched and frankly mendacious pejorative caricature of the EU in the popular media. This has had the effect not just of fostering antipathy to the EU but, rather seriously in the present context, giving people a wholly misleading idea of what leaving the EU will entail, and what it is or is not possible to acheive by leaving the EU.
It has often been noted that the UK decided to Brexit without any clear consensus on the reasons for doing so or the objects sought to be achieved by doing so, and that the disastrous progress of the project since that decision was taken is largely attributable to the fact that they sill haven’t developed any kind of consensus about this. And the reason for this is that developing a pragmatic Brexit plan requires engagement with the reality of the EU and the UK’s relationship to in it, and doing that requires letting go of the illusions and delusions they currently have about that, and it is psychologically very difficult to let go of illusions and delusions that you have already acted on, to your great cost and detriment. To be blunt, once you’ve sacrificed your children to Moloch, it’s a very hard to admit to yourself that the whole Moloch thing is bogus.
Hmm, in other words, why America elected trump. Makes sense.
I’d like to dissent a little from this.
I live in Bristol (Bristol West voted 80-20 to remain) and I almost never encounter leavers in my neighbourhood but most of my family live in the Kent countryside which is very strongly pro-leave.
If you’d asked me a little while ago, why leavers want to leave, I would’ve said “Austerity. Rebellious gesture. Nostalgia” exactly as UDS has, but my Leaver relatives all fiercely deny that any of those had any impact on their thinking at all.
Now, maybe it’s false consciousness or maybe they are lying and maybe those really are
the true reasons why they voted leave. But it’s not useful to think that. It’s a rhetorical own goal.
However, this…
…is dead right.
My family believe every conspiracy theory about how the EU is undemocratic and they are out to screw us over and we don’t get anything for our contributions and it’s all a secret plot by the Germans to achieve through soft power what they failed to achieve in two world wars.
It’s really hard to even talk to them about it because we have no common understanding of the facts. It’s like they have been living in an alternative timeline which, in many ways, they have.
Have a look, for example, at yesterday’s headlines.
The Times — PM Blocks Key Memos on Shutting Parliament
i — Queen Dragged into Unlawful Shutdown of Commons.
Daily Mirror — Boris Lied to the Queen
The Guardian — No Deal Chaos as Secret Brexit Papers Published
Independent — Johnson Acted Illegally in Proroguing Parliament.
Metro — Another Fine Mess (Johnson broke the law)
Daily Mail: Megan Back at Work!
The Sun: Meghan Markle launches high street clothing line in first public engagement since baby Archie’s birth
Telegraph — Tories offered Olive Branch
Daily Express: Boris: I Won’t Deal With Farage
Worst constitutional crisis since 1936 and they didn’t think to put it on their front pages. This has been going on for the last 30 years.
My family believe that there is an overwhelming majority in the UK that supports leaving and the only reason we haven’t left yet is the conspiracy between the fifth column traitors in Parliament and the dictators in Brussels because that’s what their newspapers tell them every day.
For a proper newspaper, follow The New European.
Or, better still, take out a subscription.
It’s not all remain propaganda (although that’s there). It has lots of European news, comment, history, arts and literature.
And not just Brexit.
And good (if campaigning) journalism from a surprising bevy of star names.
I woke to find this headline from the AP: Boris Johnson to hold Brexit talks with Juncker.
And this morning, David Cameron says he’s sorry:
Ah; there it is: he’s shilling for shillings.
If you have yet to figure out that we live in a world that is deeply, deeply unjust, this should fix that for you:
Come to think of it, why hasn’t Russia joined the EU?
I don’t know if “racist,” by the definition currently accepted, strictly applies – the leavers seem to have just as big a problem with Polish immigrants as nonwhites.
I love lawyers! 
After all, isn’t the Common Law the most valuable thing Britain has given to the world?
You mean, Scotland and NI secede?
The common law is English, not British. Scots law has not been nearly as influential.
I wonder if the judges will take this subtle, well-reasoned jurisprudential approach: https://me.me/i/if-its-not-scottish-its-crap-9931274b4db54c6e884064828d410cad
Neither is it drastically different, AFAIK. The only anomaly that comes to mind is the criminal-law third-option “Scots verdict” of “Not proven” – which has been translated as “Not guilty and don’t do it again.” It has the same legal effect as “Not guilty,” however; it just gives the jury the option to say he probably dunnit but there isn’t enough evidence.
There’s way more difference than that. That bastard verdict is just what has made it into the general consciousness. Scots law has strong roots in the civil law, via Dutch law. It’s been influenced by the common law, but they are different systems. That’s one of the reasons the U.K. Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to hear criminal appeals from Scotland.
Another example of the difference is that the legal vocabulary of Scots law has influenced the English terms used in Quebec civil law. In 1866, the drafters of the Quebec Civil Code, which was bilingual, wanted to avoid using common law terminology to avoid importing the common law inadvertently into the civil law. So instead they relied on vocabulary from Scots law for the English version of the Code, since those Scots terms were based in the civil law as well
What’s more, an industry expert has told CNN that in terms of travel, Yellowhammer looks “surprisingly optimistic” – and that in the event of a no-deal, people could be waiting in border queues between the UK and the EU for days on end…ellowhammer predicts “significant disruption lasting up to six months” for Channel crossings affecting food and medical supplies.
“Certain types of fresh food supply will decrease,” it warns. Veterinary supplies may be interrupted, threatening outbreaks of disease among livestock, which could also affect the food chain.
Fuel supplies in London and southeast England would be disrupted, and could domino into shortages across the country.
It also warns of a “rise in public disorder,” “protests and counter-protests,” and road blockages.