James O’Brien is just a Remain Shock Jock, if he is an example of listening Remainer then it is hardly a surprise there is division.
I actually got one leaver friend of mine to change her mind after going James O'Brien on her and just using evidence to undermine every single point she made. She actually realised that reading only the Torygraph and shit on Facebook probably means your information was wrong, even managed to get her to stop listening to vaccine denialists as well and get a very basic layman's understanding of the scientific method.
She now reads the FT, The Times and the Guardian and has a subscription to New Scientist (she loves nature and the outdoors so managed to convince her why she would find this interesting).
Some people, who you are close friends to, sometimes just need a bollocking for being idiots to shock them into sense. I think you can only really do this with people who actually respect your opinion though, you'll offend people who aren't that close to you. They have be reasonably intelligent as well otherwise they're often just a lost cause - not educated necessarily, just bright enough not to totally believe their own bullshit.
A lot of people simply don’t like the idea of the EU, so actual evidence, facts and figures are an absolute irrelevance to them.
Spot on. The EU is/was a convenient bogeyman, the root of all evil, and without the EU, everything will be unicorns, rainbows and magic money trees of happiness.
Spot on. The EU is/was a convenient bogeyman, the root of all evil, and without the EU, everything will be unicorns, rainbows and magic money trees of happiness.
Yes the biggest game of blame somebody else could be entering the final phases, next up blame them for screwing the exit and then who???
and then who?
I would guess those muslims
Yep, blame the MPs for getting Brexit wrong, then blame the EU for not playing nicely with us any more, then probably some other places for, er, being there, then probably those remainers, they definitely look like they could be definitely be blamed for something being wrong.
then probably those remainers, they definitely look like they could be definitely be blamed for something being wrong.
Not getting behind them and supporting them. Because obviously that would've made all the difference.
This is no different from a Brexit echo chamber. Just with a different chant.
You are all shouting the same things, "Stupid Racists" being the main one and agreeing with each other. Then patting each other on the back and telling yourselves how clever you all are.
Pity all this great intellect couldn't get their shit together to prevent this mess. Especially when the "other side" are so stupid.
Makes you think.
Makes you think.
Not something you could be accused of before writing that lot.
I come from a very poor background, have a limited education and voted remain. I seem to have done this wrong though according to some. No idea what any of my family voted, but I’d hazard a guess at leave. I already have a terrible relationship with them so I might ask just to see how much worse I can make it.
This is no different from a Brexit echo chamber
Really? Like, really?
The family members I mentioned above are leavers on "sovereignty" grounds. The main issue with this is that they spent time living in spain using EU freedom of movement and reciprocal healthcare arrangements. Ironing?
You are all shouting the same things, “Stupid Racists” being the main one and agreeing with each other. Then patting each other on the back and telling yourselves how clever you all are.
It's as if he didn't even read any of it....
Pity all this great intellect couldn’t get their shit together to prevent this mess. Especially when the “other side” are so stupid.
So which bit of this did you not read?
Remain was a campaign to the head, Leave a campaign to the heart. Which was probably instrumental in why we lost. A lot of people simply don’t like the idea of the EU, so actual evidence, facts and figures are an absolute irrelevance to them. We can refute memes full of lies until the cows come home and we’re pissing into the wind because ultimately they simply don’t care, they still don’t like it.
Must be flipping awful having working class relatives from council estates.
Part of the Brexit issue is that as an organisation the EU is distant to most people and is a well paid gravy train for those capable of hopping on. The only reason more isn't being made of Farage's MEP pension of £73k p.a. is that they are all getting it. The Kinnocks probably even more.
UK politicians have paid heavily for sins of the past on expenses and pay, yet the EU is tone deaf to this. You vote directly for for MP or councillors but MEP s are chosen in some arcane system which makes it impossible to get rid of Dan Hannan, Farage etc
The great aspects of EU membership are lost to people who see a "unsteady" Juncker and wonder who put that Muppet in charge of anything, and when did I vote for him, wonder why the EU wants its own army when NATO seems to be fine and frankly don't fancy a closer political union with countries with rather dubious leaders like Hungary and corruption issues like Romania and some are far more openly racist than UK if football is anything to go by
Finally a small but important part of British doesn't look to Europe it looks to the Commonwealth and wonders why any EU citizen can just walk in without question but their families have to jump through considerable hoops to get relatives into UK.
Getting underneath these issues and many more and resolving them is a long game and both the EU and remain camps underestimated their impact as they see all the benefits and wonder why anyone could be so thick as not to be of the same view.
As for the media, the BBC upsets everyone, Sky is mainly sport, and if more people paid for left wing newspapers then they sell more, they are in print, yet people chose differently. Facebook ads aren't that successful, if they were all other advertising would have essentially disappeared by now
Personally I think May is probably locked into deal or revoke and general election. No deal will be a (yet another) cock up if it happens. The Conservative party has a massive issue in Who could replace her as all the household names are toxic in one way or another and they are desperate to keep Corbyn out of power (remember he wanted to trigger A50 straight away after the referendum)
Careful there big_n_daft, that sort of common sense doesn't go down well in these EU threads, best shout racist at someone or just point out that without a degree or Masters any other opinion is void. You get extra points for linking to a Guardian article.
I should add that in the spirit of the OP I have a mix of Leave and Remainers in my family, not really noticed anything on social media that would bother me and you can always unfollow, I would like to think if my Mum started posting any Tommy Robinson stuff I would have a good enough relationship with her to ask her to stop or at least not direct any of it towards me, likewise any other family member or even friend.
Of course since most of my family are what we could term working class (such terrible uneducated ioks) Leave is slightly ahead of the Remain, maybe 60/40.
Lol at big n daft and Stewart. First up if you don't understand the system used to elect mep's just look it up. For contrast how easy is it to remove a Rees mogg from a safe tory seat or one of the Lords?
It's always good to pick and choose your points though....
Getting underneath these issues and many more and resolving them is a long game and both the EU and remain camps underestimated their impact as they see all the benefits and wonder why anyone could be so thick as not to be of the same view.
But most of those negatives you mention have no bearing on a typical UK person whereas a lot of the benefits do. So any objective person looking at the benefits and negatives would always see the benefits outweigh the negatives. Take the objectivity away, add a bit of racism etc,. and you get the result we got.
It is not about how intelligent somebody is, it is about a person doing some basic fact checking and understanding of the current EU setup and then objectively looking at it. This is why those that have done that see themselves in a better position than those that haven't and then unfortunately see them as stupid.
First up if you don’t understand the system used to elect mep’s just look it up
More importantly the system of voting isnt selected by the EU but by the relevant government. NI uses a different system than the rest of the UK. Normal blame the EU for the UK political decisions.
I am curious how many of the brexiteers were really going "dont like the way Hungary might be going so lets vote out".
Very much this. A lot of people feel they told the “establishment” what they wanted and the “establishment” dragged its feet. Then for the establishment to come back and ask the question again is going to really piss them off. “We told you once” will be a simple powerful message to mobilize people behind.
Not it won't - they will simply wallow in apathy and not bother to show up. 5.5+ million for the revoke article 50, millions for the anti-brexit march vs a handful of protesters and James Goddard who turn up for pro-brexit demonstrations. The Brexit vote was simply a protest vote, it's only a shouty vocal minority who actual care about the EU.
Not it won’t – they will simply wallow in apathy and not bother to show up.
David Cameron held a referendum because he knew he would easily win it. How did that work out?
The Brexit vote was simply a protest vote,
To a large degree I'm sure it was. ...and those people won't exactly be love with the establishment over the last two years. Plus how are those people going to react if the establishment ignores what they said last time and holds a second vote. They're going to give the establishment yet another kick in the nuts.
There's only one way out of this. Parliament has to end Brexit. From that starting point any party can campaign on a Brexit ticket and if they win *they* can implement Brexit. That's how representative democracy works. Anyone can promise a unicorn [1] as long as they are willing to take responsibility for delivering it and win a majority to do so.
Yes, the papers etc will bleat, but they'll bleat about a second referendum too and a second referendum has the significant drawbacks I stated above.
[1] If you want to put it like that.
Take the objectivity away, add a bit of racism etc,. and you get the result we got.
Yeah, gobochul was clearly taking nonsense wasn't he? Maybe you lot need to read back over the thread and learn to exercise that objectivity. I can see exactly where he got that notion from.
Likewise, I'm not sure big'n'daft is as daft as the name suggests.
Yeah, gobochul was clearly taking nonsense wasn’t he? Maybe you lot need to read back over the thread and learn to exercise that objectivity. I can see exactly where he got that notion from.
Likewise, I’m not sure big’n’daft is as daft as the name suggests.
+1.
If you can't understand the other guy's argument you can't hope to win him round, and once the name calling starts there's zero hope of anyone changing their mind.
Likewise, I’m not sure big’n’daft is as daft as the name suggests.
No he delivered a perfect Brexit lead troll posting there, was perfect really picked out facts, offered no comparison to make then more or less resonable and then chucked some emotion at it.
Look at it from a factual point of view and get branded an expert/elite/condescending
There is a formula to all this
vote,
To a large degree I’m sure it was. …and those people won’t exactly be love with the establishment over the last two years. Plus how are those people going to react if the establishment ignores what they said last time and holds a second vote. They’re going to give the establishment yet another kick in the nuts
I've met a lot of Brexiteers who have said that if it gets cancelled they will simply never vote again as they don't see the point.
This is bad, how?
In all seriousness, I mostly agree with you but I just don't see a Brexiteer apocalypse occuring if we revoke. It'd probably be a 50/50 tossup again, with a slight edge to remain - but remain doesn't have anything to lose and everything to gain from a second ref.
It’d probably be a 50/50 tossup again ... remain doesn’t have anything to lose and everything to gain from a second ref.
Eh? 90pc of parliament are against no deal. The deal has failed to pass over and over. So the only options left with any hope of success are revoke, kick into the long grass or referendum.
You accept the referendum is a 50/50 toss up so the only option that involves a chance of leaving any time soon is your preferred option?
Says it all.
There were/are a *lot* of people who saw/see the EU as a Neo-Liberal club for rich nations. They spent a lot of time a few years back claiming that TTIP would be the death knell for the NHS. Those same people are seemingly pro-EU now. I wonder how many of them really are pro-EU, and how many of them are using false flag tactics to discredit the Remain argument.
Part of the Brexit issue is that as an organisation the EU is distant to most people and is a well paid gravy train for those capable of hopping on. The only reason more isn’t being made of Farage’s MEP pension of £73k p.a. is that they are all getting it. The Kinnocks probably even more.
UK politicians have paid heavily for sins of the past on expenses and pay, yet the EU is tone deaf to this. You vote directly for for MP or councillors but MEP s are chosen in some arcane system which makes it impossible to get rid of Dan Hannan, Farage etc
The great aspects of EU membership are lost to people who see a “unsteady” Juncker and wonder who put that Muppet in charge of anything, and when did I vote for him, wonder why the EU wants its own army when NATO seems to be fine and frankly don’t fancy a closer political union with countries with rather dubious leaders like Hungary and corruption issues like Romania and some are far more openly racist than UK if football is anything to go by
Finally a small but important part of British doesn’t look to Europe it looks to the Commonwealth and wonders why any EU citizen can just walk in without question but their families have to jump through considerable hoops to get relatives into UK.
Getting underneath these issues and many more and resolving them is a long game and both the EU and remain camps underestimated their impact as they see all the benefits and wonder why anyone could be so thick as not to be of the same view.
As for the media, the BBC upsets everyone, Sky is mainly sport, and if more people paid for left wing newspapers then they sell more, they are in print, yet people chose differently. Facebook ads aren’t that successful, if they were all other advertising would have essentially disappeared by now
Personally I think May is probably locked into deal or revoke and general election. No deal will be a (yet another) cock up if it happens. The Conservative party has a massive issue in Who could replace her as all the household names are toxic in one way or another and they are desperate to keep Corbyn out of power (remember he wanted to trigger A50 straight away after the referendum)
No idea what side of the argument B&D is on, but this is insightful (based on family members and folk I know thru surfing), this is precisely the sort of thing that got their goat enough to vote.
It's simply not fair to be calling all leavers racists. I much prefer "people with legitimate concerns."
It’s simply not fair to be calling all leavers racists. I much prefer “people with legitimate concerns.”
They don't have to be legitimate concerns:
For example you and I might welcome being in the EU because it means you and I can get workaholic tradesmen who don't charge much to work on our properties (and rental properties if we have them).
Tradesmen might think that less competition would be a good thing.
I'd agree with that you that's not a legitimate concern because as you hint the free market is always better and should not be obstructed. But legitimate or not, I bet a lot of tradesmen voted leave simply to reduce competition. (Even if they thought it would have a very limited effect on reducing competition and even if they thought it would also reduce the overall market for tradesmen.)
We can debate if that's a good example or not, but people don't have to vote for legitimate free market reasons, people can vote for protectionism if they want. That's why we have tariffs on Wine to protect our win producers from imports. You an I might not regard that as legitimate (and it means we have to pay a bit of tax on New World wine) but wine producers will vote for it every time!
It would be easier to have a discussion about all this if anyone came up with a coherent argument for what will be better if we're outside the EU.
But noone has, its all "sovereignty" from people who don't know what the word means, and "free to trade on WTO rules" from people who clearly don't know the definition of "unelected bureaucracy".
Darren Grimes (leave con artist and annoying little shit) is on twitter this morning from switzerland describing the ease of crossing the border from the EU, and how therefore the Irish Border isn't really an issue and people are having to tell him about Schengen.
It'd be easier to have a grown up argument about Europe if we could find a grown up who thought it was a good idea and had a coherent argument.
No he delivered a perfect Brexit lead troll posting there, was perfect really picked out facts, offered no comparison to make then more or less resonable and then chucked some emotion at it.
Actually mike, it came across a bit more as:
No idea what side of the argument B&D is on, but this is insightful...
...this is precisely the sort of thing that got their goat enough to vote.
Whether it is factual or not at this stage is unimportant. The question is why people voted the way they did. This is why. This is what they percieve.
Maybe instead of deriding arguments try and actually listen to the people who are attempting to get you to see things from another perspective. You talk about objectivity as if it's a one sided process. Outofbreath summed it up perfectly:
If you can’t understand the other guy’s argument you can’t hope to win him round, and once the name calling starts there’s zero hope of anyone changing their mind.
Tick, tock...
Brexit really has opened up a massive chasm in British society. Even on a thread like this where the subject is about ruined family relationships due to the vote, people can't help themselves and spit poisonous inflammatory comments with no sense of irony.
I do think that we are at peak vitriol at the moment while the government procrastinates over our exit. While Brexit will roll on for years to come I think that it will slowly slide out of the headlines and peoples level of interest and attitudes will soften. Hopefully one day it might even be like 2015 again !
James O Brian though - seriously no one has done more to stoke division than this man that I can recall in my lifetime.
It would be easier to have a discussion about all this if anyone came up with a coherent argument for what will be better if we’re outside the EU.
An overview of the case for and against here:
https://www.theweek.co.uk/brexit-0
Possibly a bit late for you to be thinking about this. Maybe three years ago would have been better!
Brexit really has opened up a massive chasm in British society.
Agree and nobody gave a toss one year before the referendum. It was eighth on voters priority list.
Pity all this great intellect couldn’t get their shit together to prevent this mess. Especially when the “other side” are so stupid.
Because it isn't our mess. Blaming those who reacted with abject horror at Brexit for it's subsequent failure misses the mark. Blame those who had no plan, no contingency and no thought for what happens once everything is torched. This failure is on them, along with everyone who still continues to support them.
Pity all this great intellect couldn’t get their shit together to prevent this mess.
We did try, but we weren't listened to. 'It'll be a huge mess' was one of the arguments IIRC.
The bottom line is that lots of people who don't really understand what the EU does voted against it without knowing how leaving could be implemented. This doesn't command respect, does it?
Of course they have legitimate grievances - most of us do about one thing or another - and these things need addressing. I am a leftie as well as a remainer, and that means wanting to provide for the disadvantaged. I just don't think leaving the EU will achieve this.
If you can’t understand the other guy’s argument you can’t hope to win him round, and once the name calling starts there’s zero hope of anyone changing their mind.
^^This. As the old saying goes "listen twice, speak once". I'm a remained but have family and friends who are leavers - there's zero value in deriding or undermining their views or then attacking them & calling them racists/stupid/gammons or whatever. That's not going to help progress things. We should be listening to and getting under the skin of their concerns, and seeing what we as a society can do to help improve the situation that drives the fear.
Something that nobody in the Remain camp at steering level seems to have done is look at the classic 6 motives that anyone in business knows drive decisions (my feelings are this is because we now have career politicians with no real life experience but that's another conversation altogether!):
1) Desire for financial gain
2) Fear of financial loss
3) Comfort and convenience
4) Security and protection
5) Pride of ownership
6) Satisfaction of emotion
I've actually had some really interesting conversations with pretty vocal leavers and heard some points I simply hadn't considered because they were outside my sphere of experience. Not all were correct (often perception rather than fact) but they're rooted in the daily challenges people face, and we should try to understand, respectfully challenge and then assist with these things if we're to avoid further societal division.
Getting back to the friends and family theme...
I know quite a few guys in other trades that voted for Brexit and some of them are fairly vocal about it. These were plasterers, plumbers, kitchen fitters etc whose details I'd pass to clients when asked for recommendations. I haven't said anything but nobody that voted Leave gets any business passed from me anymore. It may be that I don't get anything passed from them either of course. I don't think anybody is going under because of it, but I'm not sharing the wealth with any of them.
I'm generally in a remain bubble with my peer group. I still hear a bit of English exceptionalism from one or two of the remainers - but I think that characteristic is a bit ingrained - "we should remain but we should always get special treatment when we ask..." - and is regarded as "healthy" euroscepticism. On mrs DD's side of the family, I suspect a few of them are quiet leavers - and mostly Tories - we just try not to discuss politics with them. I saw quite a bit of Islamophobic memes around the time of Boris's post-box article going up on social media from a few of the (sadly) younger ones. It would make me a bit sad if I knew how they really felt given that mrs DD is married to an EU immigrant (albeit one with a few more rights than other EU citizens). We just let it go. I don't think we'll change any of their minds.
As far as my side of the family is concerned, well, they're all Irish so, at times, can't understand what the bloody hell is going on - although I've noticed a bit of hardening of attitudes after the ignorance spouted by many of the mainstream Brexiteers about the GFA, peace process, (Anglo-)Irish history and their rights to an Irish passport. I've had to read a lot of that here too from some of the Leavers and the quitlings. :o) I've found myself at times explaining how the referendum went the way it did i.e. trying to articulate why Leavers voted to leave - but it's difficult when despite a bit of cynicism towards the UK, most of them believed that common sense would always prevail when the Brits had a big decision to make - until June 2016. Now they just think the whole country's gone a bit mad.
Blame those who had no plan, no contingency and no thought for what happens once everything is torched.
The lack of plan/contingency/thought *was* the remainers, David Cameron was responsible for the drafting of the question which gave no detail whatsoever about what 'leave' actually meant. The remainers were certain they'd win and saw no need to provide any detail on what leaving might mean.
https://www.ft.com/content/b56b2b36-1835-37c6-8152-b175cf077ae8
nobody that voted Leave gets any business passed from me anymore.
Well obviously not, tradesmen who vote leave will most likely be British & nobody has recommended a British tradesman since about 2007... You wouldn't give work to a British agricultural worker either.
That's not politics, it's just you running an efficient business.
The lack of plan/contingency/thought *was* the remainers, David Cameron was responsible for the drafting of the question which gave no detail whatsoever about what ‘leave’ actually meant. The remainers were certain they’d win and saw no need to provide any detail on what leaving might mean.
Blimey. There's some proper contortions going on here.
Blimey. There’s some proper contortions going on here.
This, but no need for the "blimey".
Blimey. There’s some proper contortions going on here.
This
I think lack of detail of what 'Leave' actually meant was a bad thing. I'm not alone in that. We can't blame anyone in the Leave Campaign for that, they didn't draft the question.
I'm more than happy to hear an alternative viewpoint if you're able to provide one.
James O Brian though – seriously no one has done more to stoke division than this man that I can recall in my lifetime.
Really?, all he’s done is call out lies and shysters, but I figure that’s why it’s hit a nerve with you
The lack of plan/contingency/thought *was* the remainers
You seem to be confusing Cameron with "remainers" in general.
Yes he did make several mistakes but those were mostly underestimating the sheer levels of dishonesty from the leave campaigns.
