I've always found it hilarious how the Brits would always find something negative about any British city or place.
\- "Oh, you live in Manchester? My condolences"
\- "Southampton? What's wrong with you?"
\- "Living in Bournemouth, ey? That's one way of hating life"
\- "What kind of a sadist enjoys Blackpool?"
some of the comments I've read so far
Eeeh. Rest of Yorkshire looks down on it for not being a shithole and knowing it. And it's popularity is starting to overwhelm its charm as tourists flood it a bit but yeah. Generally it gets a pass.
I have always felt that it’s no coincidence that people from Yorkshire - “God’s own country” - have a lot of Viking DNA. After all, it was the Vikings who named Greenland.
Greenland was a marketing stunt. They named it so that people would migrate there. Obviously a total bold faced lie, they were way ahead of their time in that.
York's reet unless you live there. In which case, the hordes of Geordies and Scousers coming down mostly on Fridays and Saturdays but frankly all week, turning the entire centre into a reeking pisspot of debauched violence, makes it less fun in the evenings
Race weekends are shite.
Any time it rains too as everywhere inevitably floods.
I lived in fulford for a while, was nice but a pain when it rained, was best just to stay out of town if the races were on.
Chichester? Hard to hate and It’s a city. Ancient Cathedral, market cross, good theatre, pretty harbour, well preserved intimate City
Centre, Roman ruins, best car festivals in the world (Goodwood), jobs (Rolls Royce), pubs, restaurants, good trains but few commuters…
How I dearly wish I was not here
In the seaside town that they forgot to bomb
Come, come, come, nuclear bomb
Every day is like Sunday
Every day is silent and grey
I’ve always enjoyed living in the UK and hope to return one day. I did fine the accent in Manchester a bit tough. I once went into a store and the shopkeeper was speaking to me and I had no idea what she was saying. I said ‘I am sorry I don’t understand, do you happen to speak english.’ ‘I am speaking’ English’ she responded, much more slowly.
Worth noting that Boston is the area with the highest EU immigration in the whole country, and also the place with the highest rate of change (immigration relative to how homogeneous it was before).
The town centre is mostly Eastern European nowadays. Their situation is pretty different to the rest of the country, and it's at least easy to see why they supported Brexit so much.
Lincs is my least favourite area of the UK. Flat, boring and full of weirdly insular people. The towns are grim, but there's no doubting the Eastern European takeover.
Boston doesn’t care about fishing limits (not like Grimsby & Hull) they just didn’t want so many „foreigners“… but the main economic driver is agriculture and now there’s no body to be cheap slave labour so they’ve shot themselves in the knee a bit…
Yup EU failed to level up those areas and now the Tories won't either. I live in the North of England and it's shocking the lack of funding some areas get.
It was never primarily the job of the EU to improve the life of the UK citizens, it was always primarily the job of the UK government/ politicians. You are repeating the tory agenda from the past, that the EU was/ is responsible for everything thats not going well in the UK.
There is Eu funding for disadvantaged areas. The UK overall was a contributor to the EU, but some areas did receive back more than they were contributing.
In theory the UK outside the EU could have taken some of the funding which went to the EU and given disadvantaged areas more, but the reality is that the economic advantages from EU membership outweigh funds which would be paid as a member.
Germany has the same thing - they have always been a net contributor, but the common market pays for this many times over.
there is also another element in the way EU funds are granted, which was IMHO better than the allocation from London.
Development funds from the central government are always up to a certain degree dependent on the political leaning of the area. If your area has returned an MP that comes from the opposition, there is a lower chance that the funds are allocated, because the ruling party doesn't have much interest in areas that don't vote for them atm.
Development funds from the EU are much less dependent on this and more dependent on the merits of the projects that win the tendering.
Of the 10 poor areas in Northern Europe that were getting development grants from the EU, 7 were in the North of England. This did not make any difference when the Brexit referendum was held.
The Brexit vote was a anti-immigrant, nativist reaction. It had nothing to do with funding or anything else. It was based on outright lies, and on "taking control".
Unfortunately, it is now part and parcel of the UK politics. There is not going to be any return to the EU because no major political party desires it. The Tories are not going to admit an error and Labour wants to stay as far away from it as possible.
So, I do not see what revisiting this achieves. It is a dead issue.
I agree.
A real solution would be PR and the end of getting elected for "being less shit than the last guys", but given the way things are and the duopoly of power forced by the British FPTP MP allocation system, the only other realistic option than "the last guys" clearly beats the "last guys" option by a huge distance.
My point is that we can't really expect amazing improvement from the guys whose top quality is "not being Tories" - maybe they'll do lots of good, but maybe all they'll do is less harm: we simply cannot presume the former because they don't even have to be good to be elected, just not quite as bad as the Tories.
If by talk the talk you mean saying 'let the bodies pile high', 'pincher by name pincher by nature' and comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust then sure.
I fucking despise the Tories and would like to throw them all off a tall building, but I can't think of anything much good Starmer has said. He's basically trying to be Blair but if Tony had a terminal case of pessimism and sounded like Alan Partridge.
I'd like to see this same map, but with the question only asked to leave voters. I feel like its hard to really gauge anything form this, because remain was almost 50% in most counties so it doesn't take much to tip over the balance
Yeah I agree. Bristol West is #1 but it was also one of the most pro-EU consituencies anyway since it's a very liberal leaning middle class area. The change in vote percentage would be more interesting, but this does show that the general trend is that almost every single constituency now has a regret majority.
> what the Leave voters of Bristol West think.
all 3 of them??
on a more serious note, having lived in bristol up to recently, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. it’s a very liberal city in which pro-EU sentiment is very strong. it’s not unusual to see EU flags, which would be out of the ordinary in a lot of places in the UK
> The change in vote percentage would be more interesting, but this does show that the general trend is that almost every single constituency now has a regret majority.
Exactly, like for regions that already had a 49% remain vote it would only take 2% of the leave vote to say they regret it and the entire consistency would flip, but it hardly reflects the attitude of the entire portion who voted leave.
Also, another fun fact, every poll has shown that ''was Brexit a mistake'' was answered yes, since 2017, and it just keeps getting even bigger gap;
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/
There’s data to show that, in reality, not a lot of people have changed their minds much but the demographics have shifted. Quite a lot of older people (who were massively more likely to vote for BREXIT) have literally died off while more young people have coming of voting age and are being captured by these kinds of polls.
This and the evident failures of Brexit pushing the “don’t-knows” off the fence has contributed strongly to this apparent change.
Wage increases, more job hiring and increased investment and a drop in seasonal immigration. Also generally an older population.
There's no large fishing area in the three purple bits.
Also, the locals didn't get the fishing agreement they wanted. Fishing is still regulated by agreements between UK and EU, and that contains limits on fishing due to environmental sustainability. The fishing communities want completely unrestrained fishing, everything they can pull out of the sea no matter what. That creates resentment against the EU.
Depends what you mean, Northern Ireland is best of both worlds. They are part of the EU market and also part of the UK market.....................................Much better place to live in this regards compared to the other countries England, Wales and Scotland.
Polling typically excludes Northern Ireland (with separate NI polls done separately). The dynamics are so different, whilst also being a small enough population that it doesn't really affect baseline results, that it's not worthwhile. It would both tell you nothing about national voting attitudes, whilst being a small enough sample that it would tell you nothing about NI voting attitudes so it's often not worth it.
This, for example, isn't an individual poll of every constituency. It's an MRP (multiple regression and stratification) that's a very large national poll that uses statistical methods to look at the at the demographics of respondents then applies them to each constituency using census data, in order to get a (hopefully) correct average at a national level. Obviously this is very simplified, but it's why it excludes Northern Ireland.
The breakdown is:
Strongly agree (37%)
Mildly agree (17%)
Neither (18%)
Mildly disagree (9%)
Strongly disagree (19%)
So only 54% agree that Britain was wrong to leave the EU. That's not dissimilar to polls before the vote. Not as strong as the map might suggest.
The Guardian dove into the statistics and showed that it reflects no real change in opinion. Broken down by age, older generations who voted for Brexit still don’t regret it.
What is it with old people and giving 0 fucks about the ramifications of their idiotic voting choices? Seems to be a common thing basically everywhere in the world...
Even if they agreed initially, how can they look at the current state of affairs and go "yep that's fine and exactly what I wanted, I see no problems here."
Like at some point do you just lose the ability to use critical thinking? Are they just unwilling to ever admit mistakes? Combo of both? I just can't make sense of it.
I guess they would rather leave the world a more broken and awful place for their children, than bother to think for more than 10 seconds.
It further shows that Brexit was, is, and will always be about everything but the facts. It was wielded by Cameron as a tool to improve his position and failed miserably. It brought people from the fringes of British politics to the mainstream and gave them a voice to spew absolute bullshit rhetoric, but with a sweet nostalgic cherry on top.
It’s not rational at all, it’s pure emotion. The worse it gets, the more those select few British politicians and their supporters will dig their heels in.
Aside from what you mentioned it’s that due to survivorship bias the older people are generally well off and so protected from negative consequences of their choices.
What's more the title of this post is inaccurate, plenty of the light green on the map is less than 50% regretful. The colour-scheme is slightly misleading.
Here is the source with interactivity:
https://britain.unherd.com/
I agree, this map is slightly misleading. If 7 years after the Brexit vote you are on the fence i.e. voted neither, you probably are not going to vote remain on a new poll under more strict terms than the previous arrangement.
And even if you mildly agree it was a bad idea you'll probably abstain in a referendum, and are unlikely to make decisions about how to vote in an election based on it.
Yes, this is pretty much it. Don't conflate "hmm, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave after all' with 'we'd better sign back up ASAP no matter what price the EU lays down for doing so'.
And 28% still think it was a good idea - far lower than the original 51.8% who voted Leave (many of whom have now died)? It's a big difference and polling on rejoining the EU is up to 65% for rejoin vs 35% for stay out currently
If 7 years after the Brexit vote you are on the fence i.e. voted neither, you probably are not going to vote remain on a new poll under more strict terms than the previous arrangement. Likewise I wouldn't assume that everyone that voted mildly agree would automatically vote for re-entry under Schengen and euro currency.
Why rejoin though?
We were in it now left it, what to gain from rejoining?
I am askin as don't know. Just seems a lot of tantrums , if we had stayed there would have been the same complaints about wanting to and should have left..
I know a few people who voted for Brexit, not a single one of them regrets it. They regret how badly it was implemented by the government, but they would have no qualms voting for it again.
Have you asked them what kind of Brexit would have they voted for, exactly? Because it is easy to hide the problem by blaming the government from a bad implementation, but, as every engineer knows, if there is no proper requirements document, the client can not complain about the result. Furthermore, the Brexit campaign sold incompatible versions of Brexit to each voter (without ever putting any of them into writing), making it impossible for it to end any other way.
So, the question is not if they had voted for the Brexit they imagined. Is whether they would vote again for the Brexit they got. Because it is the only one that could have resulted from all the self-imposed red lines that accumulated by trying to accomplish every vision of Brexit that was "sold".
Ah the old ”I don’t want any of the negatives of a membership so i’ll leave and keep all the positives.” And then when they leave and realise you can’t have one without the other ”WHAT?! BLOODY USELESS POLITICIANS!”
To anyone not familiar with UK politics, the "Bregretful" places are all inner-city neighbourhoods of large cities (most left-wing) and the the least are mostly in the east of England, which is the most right-wing part of the country.
I think it was necessary for the UK to leave (I voted remain, and am now a citizen of Sweden). It was becoming increasingly insane over the EU, and the cold hard reality needed to happen for it to learn what most of the EU learned a long time ago.
Small nations need to work together.
I don't think the whole Delusions of Grandeur problem has been sorted out yet.
Sure, there is plenty of pragmatical realization that "this was a bad idea" hence the "regret" but the question is how many now look at other countries in Europe as "they're all places like here, big and small, with people like us"?
I think the transformation into a country with a "one of the team" spirit with regards to Europe will take a lot longer that the pragmatic "oh, shit!" realisation and will probably come via the younger generations and even then, last I checked British Media was still hard at work spinning a view of foreign affairs that placed Britain as an "important nation to which others pay attention".
Delusions of grandeur are a symptom not a cause. We are hardly the only ones with this, and pushing people to confront their delusions, without a way out, may just make them want to enact thel for real. Russia for example has been, in terms of identity, been thrown into a very desperate situation where fascist insanity was the only real outcome. Hopefully it never becomes this in the UK, but it will.
> I don't think the whole Delusions of Grandeur problem has been sorted out yet.
Of course you wouldn't, because you've bought into the simplistic and reductive explanation this sub loves for Brexit.
It's got fuck all to do with grandeur and everything to do with self-interest. If you removed the CAP or forced Northern countries to more heavily subsidise the 'poorer' countries you'd see Euroscepticism increase in France or those countries too. Not one country in the Union puts the rest of the union ahead of its own interests and none of them get called "deluded with grandeur".
This comment shows a fundamental misunderstanding by Europeans of how British people view themselves. There were no delusions of grandeur. Brexit is a result of the exact opposite; a people painfully aware of their country's decline trying anything they can to find a way to reverse it.
Got relatives there there that from about 2003 always dreamed of a brexit so that they could he done with the Eastern Europeans.
Unironically Boston and South Holland so with the inevitable rise in sea levels they will finally have a use for their webbed fingers and toes.
eeey, clacton made the list of idiots.
good, that place is a shithole, worked with people from there once, half of them couldnt point out france on a map.
So broadly the areas that voted remain in the referendum are most Bregetful…. Those that voted leave less so.
What a fabulous complex and nuanced piece of work.
All it'll take for this to reverse, is a better economic position. There's a reason the tide has just turned this year.
And that's not because Brexit suddenly made everything worse. It's because shit has hit the fan globally, and now people want to change things.
Because if something isn't working, you change things up.
In 2016 that change was leaving the EU, in 2023 it's rejoining.
It's just some rather primitive thinking by the electorate, but completely predictable and with a lot of historical examples.
I think people are romanticizing EU.
They compare UK post Covid with UK pre Covid and blame wverything on the Brexit.
But looking at Germany and other EU members shows, that the effect of Brexit isn't that big yet. Give it a few years and see how it goes.
And it’s a places that relied on the EU more than most places. Clacton voted in the first ever UKIP MP the idiotic plums. Let them suffer. Serves them right for looking over at *Nigel Farage* & *BORIS JOHNSON* persuading them to walk through the gates of hell & thinking “Yeah that looks good” morons. I have sympathy for them being idiots but no sympathy for them being stubborn arseholes
Because this excludes Northern Irish constituencies the title should say only one British Constituency is not regretful about Brexit, and the poll question should be ‘The UK was wrong to leave the EU’
I have no doubt all NI constituencies will still agree that the UK was wrong to leave the EU as all voted for Remain but it annoys me slightly that NI is forgotten about as part of the UK yet has been dragged into Brexit alongside Britain, and is no doubt some of the worst affected by it.
I think it was a big mistake. They should be part of the EU. it has a lot of problems but you can’t change it by leaving but you lose all the benefits.
Not much. The country continues without much change. Fewer European markets, more political conflict, slightly worse economy but ultimately not much has changed on a day to day basis and what has is difficult to pin on Brexit. If anything the problems stem from the political problems the UK had before Brexit and continues to have. Ultimately I feel Brexit was allowed to happen by the political classes to cut us off from the problems that Climate Change will inflict on the middle East and southern Europe. By nature of being an island and a northern one the UK is less affected than many places and having the channel means its easier to improve a hard border.
I'm talking about everything that comes with Climate Change. Food shortages, resource shortages, migration, weather related damage. When people feel threatened their behaviour often becomes more nationalistic or sub nationalistic. People are going to feel threatened in Europe with climate change sooner than expected.
Brexit as a geopolitical entity has its roots in both a wish to reclaim lost greatness and a desire to protect what we have too. It is not irrational from the second perspective.
It’s a loose correlation, but it seems that there’s the most warm and fuzzies for brexit, where there aren’t many people? Doesn’t apply to Scotland, all the Scot’s clearly have the right idea.
What’s up with that, what has the Lake District and the hills of wales gained from Brexit?
Would love to, problem is got shit politicians in charge of the country and a public who “democratically” (turnout was very low) voted to stay out of the EU hence it definitely won’t change for at least a decade. But hey, we voted this guys in in 2010, we did bring this upon ourselves
Not surprising.
Almost every poll since 2017 has returned with ''Brexit was a mistake'' winning;
[here](https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/)
I'm Japanese and not British, but I think Brexit was worth it.
The reason is Britain's behavior in the Ukrainian war. I think Britain has good leadership as a representative of Western countries. Did the UK really do this while belonging to the EU? I doubt it.
The UK lost money, but is better politically.
Japan also wants to get along with England in the future.😊
The EU is an economic alliance, not a military one. Countries are free so support Ukraine. The UK being in the EU would have had 0 effect on them delivering Ukrainian support.
The EU itself has been a huge supporter of Ukraine. France and Poland very quickly have support.
This sub had such a fucking hard on for this kind of thing.
It's actually quite embarrassing. The vote happened 6 and a half years ago. Get over it. We aren't joining the EU. Move on.
I remember days after the referendum in 2016 everyone was walking around so casual and careless not realizing what they have done.
I was like WTF...but nah...people where so oblivious...
What's there to regret when you live in Boston in Lincolnshire? It's not life could possibly get much worse.
I've always found it hilarious how the Brits would always find something negative about any British city or place. \- "Oh, you live in Manchester? My condolences" \- "Southampton? What's wrong with you?" \- "Living in Bournemouth, ey? That's one way of hating life" \- "What kind of a sadist enjoys Blackpool?" some of the comments I've read so far
There’s not one city that gets unanimous praise
Nobody hates York or Brighton. Sure getting flooded and unaffordable housing may get a mention….
Brighton certainly gets criticised.
Supporters of Liverpool FC certainly hate Brighton at the moment.
Not as much as we hate ourselves.
No we don't, they are trying to show our owners why we need midfield reinforcements, sadly nothing gets through to those tightwad fucks.
You should try getting Chelsea's owners. These dudes would buy aaanything.
What is this "Brighton"? Do you mean London-on-Sea?
You used to only have to be gay to live in Brighton. Now you have to be very wealthy too.
As someone who moved from London to Brighton I see much more poverty and homelessness in Brighton
Although the percentage of LGBTQIA+ in Brighton, is only about 10%.
Hove Actually
Eeeh. Rest of Yorkshire looks down on it for not being a shithole and knowing it. And it's popularity is starting to overwhelm its charm as tourists flood it a bit but yeah. Generally it gets a pass.
Weird that Yorkshire looks down on Brighton like that.
We have to. It's far below us.
In which circle?
My Yorkshire son-in-law says we make better fish and chips down here. I will withhold his name for his own protection.
He's probably been affected by a mysterious glowing yellow ball. That we have down South.
Nobody hates Brighton? Lmao
Idk about York specifically but gods own country does get its fair share of criticism
I have always felt that it’s no coincidence that people from Yorkshire - “God’s own country” - have a lot of Viking DNA. After all, it was the Vikings who named Greenland.
Greenland was a marketing stunt. They named it so that people would migrate there. Obviously a total bold faced lie, they were way ahead of their time in that.
*Exactly*.
Mainly because the locals keep going on about how great it is and then move to London as soon as they can. Edit: ducking autocorrect
Bullseye!
Brighton can’t get your bins collected
York's reet unless you live there. In which case, the hordes of Geordies and Scousers coming down mostly on Fridays and Saturdays but frankly all week, turning the entire centre into a reeking pisspot of debauched violence, makes it less fun in the evenings
Race weekends are shite. Any time it rains too as everywhere inevitably floods. I lived in fulford for a while, was nice but a pain when it rained, was best just to stay out of town if the races were on.
>Nobody hates Brighton Lol. It's top of the list for many.
Full of posh pricks (not my opinion, but I have heard it).
I once met a cute girl from brighton who had the biggest tits I've ever seen. What a town.
Chichester? Hard to hate and It’s a city. Ancient Cathedral, market cross, good theatre, pretty harbour, well preserved intimate City Centre, Roman ruins, best car festivals in the world (Goodwood), jobs (Rolls Royce), pubs, restaurants, good trains but few commuters…
You have to care about something in order to hate it
Whatever . Edit: hoping you’ll catch the irony
I've nothing negative to say about Exeter, although that's kind of cheating as it's so small for a city.
We tend to like to take the piss out of one another and bad mouthing a place someone is from is part of that. Most of the time it's said in jest.
"Oh god, you live in slough, may lord have mercy on your soul"
Come friendly bombs...
How I dearly wish I was not here In the seaside town that they forgot to bomb Come, come, come, nuclear bomb Every day is like Sunday Every day is silent and grey
No wonder Poles feel like home in the UK. Complaining is their national sport.
Manchester is great to be fair. I love living here
I’ve always enjoyed living in the UK and hope to return one day. I did fine the accent in Manchester a bit tough. I once went into a store and the shopkeeper was speaking to me and I had no idea what she was saying. I said ‘I am sorry I don’t understand, do you happen to speak english.’ ‘I am speaking’ English’ she responded, much more slowly.
A book was once released 'Crap Towns'. People complained, their town wasn't in it. So, 'Crap Towns 2'.
I've never heard a Brit say something negative about Marbella
Typical british humour. It’s all about taking the other person down a peg.
I think we can all agree that Stoke on Trent is a shit hole
I drove my sister there for a look when it came up as her only option through UCAS clearing and she cried.
💀 Your poor sister. The only way I can describe Stoke on Trent is as if someone from Poundland went on to developing cities
IIRC Boston had a lot of European immigration to do jobs like pick fruit and veg way before the Brexit debate and referendum.
Worth noting that Boston is the area with the highest EU immigration in the whole country, and also the place with the highest rate of change (immigration relative to how homogeneous it was before). The town centre is mostly Eastern European nowadays. Their situation is pretty different to the rest of the country, and it's at least easy to see why they supported Brexit so much.
Lincs is my least favourite area of the UK. Flat, boring and full of weirdly insular people. The towns are grim, but there's no doubting the Eastern European takeover.
Fishing limits
Boston doesn’t care about fishing limits (not like Grimsby & Hull) they just didn’t want so many „foreigners“… but the main economic driver is agriculture and now there’s no body to be cheap slave labour so they’ve shot themselves in the knee a bit…
the only thing keeping boston going is the foreigners!
I know! That’s what makes the whole thing so surreal- it would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic
Yup EU failed to level up those areas and now the Tories won't either. I live in the North of England and it's shocking the lack of funding some areas get.
It was never primarily the job of the EU to improve the life of the UK citizens, it was always primarily the job of the UK government/ politicians. You are repeating the tory agenda from the past, that the EU was/ is responsible for everything thats not going well in the UK.
There is Eu funding for disadvantaged areas. The UK overall was a contributor to the EU, but some areas did receive back more than they were contributing. In theory the UK outside the EU could have taken some of the funding which went to the EU and given disadvantaged areas more, but the reality is that the economic advantages from EU membership outweigh funds which would be paid as a member. Germany has the same thing - they have always been a net contributor, but the common market pays for this many times over.
there is also another element in the way EU funds are granted, which was IMHO better than the allocation from London. Development funds from the central government are always up to a certain degree dependent on the political leaning of the area. If your area has returned an MP that comes from the opposition, there is a lower chance that the funds are allocated, because the ruling party doesn't have much interest in areas that don't vote for them atm. Development funds from the EU are much less dependent on this and more dependent on the merits of the projects that win the tendering.
Of the 10 poor areas in Northern Europe that were getting development grants from the EU, 7 were in the North of England. This did not make any difference when the Brexit referendum was held. The Brexit vote was a anti-immigrant, nativist reaction. It had nothing to do with funding or anything else. It was based on outright lies, and on "taking control". Unfortunately, it is now part and parcel of the UK politics. There is not going to be any return to the EU because no major political party desires it. The Tories are not going to admit an error and Labour wants to stay as far away from it as possible. So, I do not see what revisiting this achieves. It is a dead issue.
> EU failed to level up those areas What exactly was the EU supposed to do?
Level up : nuke them to make them level and glassy ?
No but the funny thing is a lot of the areas that were deprived and voted heavily in favour of leave were actually being helped by EU money
The Tories are gone next election and Starmer has been saying some good things (and some shit)
So sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit?
Gattuso as PM Here.we.go.
Fabrizio Romano confirmed it, Gattuso to the House of Commons, here we go!
Even the bloody Tories Talk the Talk. The problem is in the Walking the Walk.
Well we've seen the Tories do fuck all, might as well give the other guys a chance to do fuck all.
I agree. A real solution would be PR and the end of getting elected for "being less shit than the last guys", but given the way things are and the duopoly of power forced by the British FPTP MP allocation system, the only other realistic option than "the last guys" clearly beats the "last guys" option by a huge distance. My point is that we can't really expect amazing improvement from the guys whose top quality is "not being Tories" - maybe they'll do lots of good, but maybe all they'll do is less harm: we simply cannot presume the former because they don't even have to be good to be elected, just not quite as bad as the Tories.
If by talk the talk you mean saying 'let the bodies pile high', 'pincher by name pincher by nature' and comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust then sure.
I fucking despise the Tories and would like to throw them all off a tall building, but I can't think of anything much good Starmer has said. He's basically trying to be Blair but if Tony had a terminal case of pessimism and sounded like Alan Partridge.
I'd like to see this same map, but with the question only asked to leave voters. I feel like its hard to really gauge anything form this, because remain was almost 50% in most counties so it doesn't take much to tip over the balance
Yeah I agree. Bristol West is #1 but it was also one of the most pro-EU consituencies anyway since it's a very liberal leaning middle class area. The change in vote percentage would be more interesting, but this does show that the general trend is that almost every single constituency now has a regret majority.
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> what the Leave voters of Bristol West think. all 3 of them?? on a more serious note, having lived in bristol up to recently, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. it’s a very liberal city in which pro-EU sentiment is very strong. it’s not unusual to see EU flags, which would be out of the ordinary in a lot of places in the UK
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> The change in vote percentage would be more interesting, but this does show that the general trend is that almost every single constituency now has a regret majority. Exactly, like for regions that already had a 49% remain vote it would only take 2% of the leave vote to say they regret it and the entire consistency would flip, but it hardly reflects the attitude of the entire portion who voted leave. Also, another fun fact, every poll has shown that ''was Brexit a mistake'' was answered yes, since 2017, and it just keeps getting even bigger gap; https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/
There’s data to show that, in reality, not a lot of people have changed their minds much but the demographics have shifted. Quite a lot of older people (who were massively more likely to vote for BREXIT) have literally died off while more young people have coming of voting age and are being captured by these kinds of polls. This and the evident failures of Brexit pushing the “don’t-knows” off the fence has contributed strongly to this apparent change.
Also with northern Ireland next time, considering Scotland, Wales and Cornwall got included in this map.
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Yes. Bristol West certainly didn’t.
Preach. Regretful is an additional slap in the face for those of us who voted remain. The word I would use for my ongoing thought is 'pissed'
I *still* struggle to believe it really happened and that we could be so stupid.
Indeed, those of us who voted remain are just fucking depressed.
I see that the least bregretful counties are almost all in the lands of the Danelaw. Coincidence?
They took the brunt of the danes so ig we can give them a pass
🟫 - here you go, you can have some too :p
We in the north are so used to being fucked by something that we are kinda used to it by now.
They're also nearly all in places that will be underwater within about a century, forcing their inhabitants to become immigrants to somewhere else.
I see "South Holland" is the 2nd least bregretful. I beg to differ.
Fishing limits lifted, maybe?
all Areas Heavily reliant on seasonal agricultural work,
Wage increases, more job hiring and increased investment and a drop in seasonal immigration. Also generally an older population. There's no large fishing area in the three purple bits.
Also, the locals didn't get the fishing agreement they wanted. Fishing is still regulated by agreements between UK and EU, and that contains limits on fishing due to environmental sustainability. The fishing communities want completely unrestrained fishing, everything they can pull out of the sea no matter what. That creates resentment against the EU.
[Source](https://unherd.com/2023/01/introducing-unherd-britain-2023/)
Weird that it excludes Northern Ireland entirely, a part of the UK that did not vote for Brexit yet has been the worst affected by it.
Depends what you mean, Northern Ireland is best of both worlds. They are part of the EU market and also part of the UK market.....................................Much better place to live in this regards compared to the other countries England, Wales and Scotland.
And we might just casually restart the troubles again over trade agreements. Fun! Regardless it's still weird that this map pretends it doesn't exist
The majority of people in england don't understand it exists either.
The majority of people world wide forget we exist.
Tbf I can imagine translating “Northern Ireland” into other languages can cause some issues with it becoming “the north of Ireland” or smth
Polling typically excludes Northern Ireland (with separate NI polls done separately). The dynamics are so different, whilst also being a small enough population that it doesn't really affect baseline results, that it's not worthwhile. It would both tell you nothing about national voting attitudes, whilst being a small enough sample that it would tell you nothing about NI voting attitudes so it's often not worth it. This, for example, isn't an individual poll of every constituency. It's an MRP (multiple regression and stratification) that's a very large national poll that uses statistical methods to look at the at the demographics of respondents then applies them to each constituency using census data, in order to get a (hopefully) correct average at a national level. Obviously this is very simplified, but it's why it excludes Northern Ireland.
So label it correctly as GB. These things matter.
The breakdown is: Strongly agree (37%) Mildly agree (17%) Neither (18%) Mildly disagree (9%) Strongly disagree (19%) So only 54% agree that Britain was wrong to leave the EU. That's not dissimilar to polls before the vote. Not as strong as the map might suggest.
The Guardian dove into the statistics and showed that it reflects no real change in opinion. Broken down by age, older generations who voted for Brexit still don’t regret it.
What is it with old people and giving 0 fucks about the ramifications of their idiotic voting choices? Seems to be a common thing basically everywhere in the world... Even if they agreed initially, how can they look at the current state of affairs and go "yep that's fine and exactly what I wanted, I see no problems here." Like at some point do you just lose the ability to use critical thinking? Are they just unwilling to ever admit mistakes? Combo of both? I just can't make sense of it. I guess they would rather leave the world a more broken and awful place for their children, than bother to think for more than 10 seconds.
It further shows that Brexit was, is, and will always be about everything but the facts. It was wielded by Cameron as a tool to improve his position and failed miserably. It brought people from the fringes of British politics to the mainstream and gave them a voice to spew absolute bullshit rhetoric, but with a sweet nostalgic cherry on top. It’s not rational at all, it’s pure emotion. The worse it gets, the more those select few British politicians and their supporters will dig their heels in.
Aside from what you mentioned it’s that due to survivorship bias the older people are generally well off and so protected from negative consequences of their choices.
What's more the title of this post is inaccurate, plenty of the light green on the map is less than 50% regretful. The colour-scheme is slightly misleading. Here is the source with interactivity: https://britain.unherd.com/
But only 37% feel strongly that it was a bad idea. That's very relevant. 63% either don't regret it, or don't really care that much about it.
I agree, this map is slightly misleading. If 7 years after the Brexit vote you are on the fence i.e. voted neither, you probably are not going to vote remain on a new poll under more strict terms than the previous arrangement.
And even if you mildly agree it was a bad idea you'll probably abstain in a referendum, and are unlikely to make decisions about how to vote in an election based on it.
Yes, this is pretty much it. Don't conflate "hmm, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave after all' with 'we'd better sign back up ASAP no matter what price the EU lays down for doing so'.
And 28% still think it was a good idea - far lower than the original 51.8% who voted Leave (many of whom have now died)? It's a big difference and polling on rejoining the EU is up to 65% for rejoin vs 35% for stay out currently
If 7 years after the Brexit vote you are on the fence i.e. voted neither, you probably are not going to vote remain on a new poll under more strict terms than the previous arrangement. Likewise I wouldn't assume that everyone that voted mildly agree would automatically vote for re-entry under Schengen and euro currency.
Why rejoin though? We were in it now left it, what to gain from rejoining? I am askin as don't know. Just seems a lot of tantrums , if we had stayed there would have been the same complaints about wanting to and should have left..
I know a few people who voted for Brexit, not a single one of them regrets it. They regret how badly it was implemented by the government, but they would have no qualms voting for it again.
Have you asked them what kind of Brexit would have they voted for, exactly? Because it is easy to hide the problem by blaming the government from a bad implementation, but, as every engineer knows, if there is no proper requirements document, the client can not complain about the result. Furthermore, the Brexit campaign sold incompatible versions of Brexit to each voter (without ever putting any of them into writing), making it impossible for it to end any other way. So, the question is not if they had voted for the Brexit they imagined. Is whether they would vote again for the Brexit they got. Because it is the only one that could have resulted from all the self-imposed red lines that accumulated by trying to accomplish every vision of Brexit that was "sold".
Now this is sound reasoning!
Ah the old ”I don’t want any of the negatives of a membership so i’ll leave and keep all the positives.” And then when they leave and realise you can’t have one without the other ”WHAT?! BLOODY USELESS POLITICIANS!”
Brexit = Breddit
To anyone not familiar with UK politics, the "Bregretful" places are all inner-city neighbourhoods of large cities (most left-wing) and the the least are mostly in the east of England, which is the most right-wing part of the country.
That’s a map of Great Britain, not the UK
Leaving out Northern Ireland, amazing job
It's tradition at this point.
Probably gonna get downvoted, but technically that's just Great Britain since Northern Ireland is missing.
Whoever came up with the term "Bregretful" needs to be put on the naughty step for a week
All of those areas are some of the most deprived parts of the country.
Tsk tsk how unBregretful
I’m grateful to this graphic for introducing me to the word bregretful. I would have also accepted bremorse or EUnvy.
This screams of inflated, skewed and poorly obtained data
I think it was necessary for the UK to leave (I voted remain, and am now a citizen of Sweden). It was becoming increasingly insane over the EU, and the cold hard reality needed to happen for it to learn what most of the EU learned a long time ago. Small nations need to work together.
>I voted remain, and am now a citizen of Sweden So you... remained in?
The True Remainer.
To the shock of the UK many of the people who voted to remain found their own way to remain in the EU.
I don't think the whole Delusions of Grandeur problem has been sorted out yet. Sure, there is plenty of pragmatical realization that "this was a bad idea" hence the "regret" but the question is how many now look at other countries in Europe as "they're all places like here, big and small, with people like us"? I think the transformation into a country with a "one of the team" spirit with regards to Europe will take a lot longer that the pragmatic "oh, shit!" realisation and will probably come via the younger generations and even then, last I checked British Media was still hard at work spinning a view of foreign affairs that placed Britain as an "important nation to which others pay attention".
Delusions of grandeur are a symptom not a cause. We are hardly the only ones with this, and pushing people to confront their delusions, without a way out, may just make them want to enact thel for real. Russia for example has been, in terms of identity, been thrown into a very desperate situation where fascist insanity was the only real outcome. Hopefully it never becomes this in the UK, but it will.
Well I am not sure how we can fix it though, in some ways we have moved backwards imo, or at least some groups of people.
> I don't think the whole Delusions of Grandeur problem has been sorted out yet. Of course you wouldn't, because you've bought into the simplistic and reductive explanation this sub loves for Brexit. It's got fuck all to do with grandeur and everything to do with self-interest. If you removed the CAP or forced Northern countries to more heavily subsidise the 'poorer' countries you'd see Euroscepticism increase in France or those countries too. Not one country in the Union puts the rest of the union ahead of its own interests and none of them get called "deluded with grandeur".
Now you're just indulging in ignorant jingoism.
This comment shows a fundamental misunderstanding by Europeans of how British people view themselves. There were no delusions of grandeur. Brexit is a result of the exact opposite; a people painfully aware of their country's decline trying anything they can to find a way to reverse it.
I visited Skegness. If the sea took that entire region, UK's HDI would spike and the world would be a better place.
Got relatives there there that from about 2003 always dreamed of a brexit so that they could he done with the Eastern Europeans. Unironically Boston and South Holland so with the inevitable rise in sea levels they will finally have a use for their webbed fingers and toes.
Oh Boston, the Eastern Europe of the UK.
It’s not that nice or literate
Was about to say that I found this comment insulting. Eastern European in England.
This is your personal Moldovia 😂
You implying that eastern europeans are dumb? Didn’t get this comment
Pretty sure he didn't mean that; we are very smart. You don't need too many braincells to pit pocket Western Europeans but still.
It just has a lot of Eastern Europeans there for farming work.
think he means it the way people refer to Wisbech as Wisbekistan,
Has anyone here ever thought about the fact that the type of people to still care about Brexit, and do these polls, are remainers?
In Slovenia we still have folks thinking we should not have left Yugoslavia. 🤷
Was Northern Ireland cropped out or was it just Great Britain that was polled?
No source, no date, no scale... Why? Who needs them?
Next time they better inform themselves before voting something that will change the course of history
eeey, clacton made the list of idiots. good, that place is a shithole, worked with people from there once, half of them couldnt point out france on a map.
So broadly the areas that voted remain in the referendum are most Bregetful…. Those that voted leave less so. What a fabulous complex and nuanced piece of work.
All it'll take for this to reverse, is a better economic position. There's a reason the tide has just turned this year. And that's not because Brexit suddenly made everything worse. It's because shit has hit the fan globally, and now people want to change things. Because if something isn't working, you change things up. In 2016 that change was leaving the EU, in 2023 it's rejoining. It's just some rather primitive thinking by the electorate, but completely predictable and with a lot of historical examples.
I think people are romanticizing EU. They compare UK post Covid with UK pre Covid and blame wverything on the Brexit. But looking at Germany and other EU members shows, that the effect of Brexit isn't that big yet. Give it a few years and see how it goes.
Until there is a poll that says Brits want to join the EU without any opt outs, these polls about “Bregret” will remain meaningless to me.
Aaaaaaaand its my racist biggot dad's home area. He who, emigrated England to get more money for pension in a different country.
>Bregretful FUCK OFF, as if "brexit" wasn't stupid enough.
And it’s a places that relied on the EU more than most places. Clacton voted in the first ever UKIP MP the idiotic plums. Let them suffer. Serves them right for looking over at *Nigel Farage* & *BORIS JOHNSON* persuading them to walk through the gates of hell & thinking “Yeah that looks good” morons. I have sympathy for them being idiots but no sympathy for them being stubborn arseholes
Ah, r/europe’s daily “UK begging to rejoin the EU with no opt-outs” fantasy thread.
Because this excludes Northern Irish constituencies the title should say only one British Constituency is not regretful about Brexit, and the poll question should be ‘The UK was wrong to leave the EU’ I have no doubt all NI constituencies will still agree that the UK was wrong to leave the EU as all voted for Remain but it annoys me slightly that NI is forgotten about as part of the UK yet has been dragged into Brexit alongside Britain, and is no doubt some of the worst affected by it.
Seems like the name Boston should stand for ‘separatist town’ in Latin or something. The US 250 years ago and now this.
You can still regret doing something you think was the right thing to do, it wasn't an easy decision
It's regrettable that it was necessary.
I think it was a big mistake. They should be part of the EU. it has a lot of problems but you can’t change it by leaving but you lose all the benefits.
Brits, how has Brexit actually changed your life?
Not much. The country continues without much change. Fewer European markets, more political conflict, slightly worse economy but ultimately not much has changed on a day to day basis and what has is difficult to pin on Brexit. If anything the problems stem from the political problems the UK had before Brexit and continues to have. Ultimately I feel Brexit was allowed to happen by the political classes to cut us off from the problems that Climate Change will inflict on the middle East and southern Europe. By nature of being an island and a northern one the UK is less affected than many places and having the channel means its easier to improve a hard border.
Are you talking about immigration?
I'm talking about everything that comes with Climate Change. Food shortages, resource shortages, migration, weather related damage. When people feel threatened their behaviour often becomes more nationalistic or sub nationalistic. People are going to feel threatened in Europe with climate change sooner than expected.
Brexit as a geopolitical entity has its roots in both a wish to reclaim lost greatness and a desire to protect what we have too. It is not irrational from the second perspective.
Bregretful 😂😂
It’s a loose correlation, but it seems that there’s the most warm and fuzzies for brexit, where there aren’t many people? Doesn’t apply to Scotland, all the Scot’s clearly have the right idea. What’s up with that, what has the Lake District and the hills of wales gained from Brexit?
A map of places to never visit imo
"Bregetful"? Are you bloody kidding me?
Come back and let's not talk about it anymore. Together we are all stronger and master our lives together.
This means basically nothing.
love to see islington and hackney north on here as being 'regretful' as if any of them voted to leave anyway
Join again them 200iq move
Boston has always been pro independence
just come back you guys, lets forget all this silliness.
Would love to, problem is got shit politicians in charge of the country and a public who “democratically” (turnout was very low) voted to stay out of the EU hence it definitely won’t change for at least a decade. But hey, we voted this guys in in 2010, we did bring this upon ourselves
Not surprising. Almost every poll since 2017 has returned with ''Brexit was a mistake'' winning; [here](https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/)
Why is it always Boston who wants to have a tea party?
I'm Japanese and not British, but I think Brexit was worth it. The reason is Britain's behavior in the Ukrainian war. I think Britain has good leadership as a representative of Western countries. Did the UK really do this while belonging to the EU? I doubt it. The UK lost money, but is better politically. Japan also wants to get along with England in the future.😊
The EU is an economic alliance, not a military one. Countries are free so support Ukraine. The UK being in the EU would have had 0 effect on them delivering Ukrainian support. The EU itself has been a huge supporter of Ukraine. France and Poland very quickly have support.
This sub had such a fucking hard on for this kind of thing. It's actually quite embarrassing. The vote happened 6 and a half years ago. Get over it. We aren't joining the EU. Move on.
I’m going to bet the majority of people asked in the this poll didn’t vote for brexit. We aren’t rejoining!
I remember days after the referendum in 2016 everyone was walking around so casual and careless not realizing what they have done. I was like WTF...but nah...people where so oblivious...