Only one in 10 feel leaving the EU has helped their finances, while just 9% say it has benefited the NHS, despite £350m a week pledge according to new poll

A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.

The survey of more than 2,000 UK voters also finds strikingly low numbers of people who believe that Brexit has benefited them or the country.

Just one in 10 believe leaving the EU has helped their personal financial situation, against 35% who say it has been bad for their finances, while just 9% say it has been good for the NHS, against 47% who say it has had a negative effect.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Oh gee. Who coulda seen that coming, huh?

    Glad it happened, though. The total clown show of Brexit very quickly shut up all the Anti-EU trolls.

    • Lafari@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Reading this in a Minnesotan accent. Ah jeez! Who coulda seen this coming, ha, hon? They really, well, they shot themselves damn near in the foot, didn’t they now? Don’cha know the Eurapeans want to help you now, but these racists ya see, racism always gets in the way of peace. That’s what my mother always said.

      • sapetoku@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        The UK can apply and get in line like the others, which should be long enough for UK laws to be EU-compliant, no special treatment.

        Scotland should secede and apply first, though.

        • buzziebee@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t understand this argument re Scotland. Brexit was a disaster for a country which had been a member with a trading block for a few decades and which only had some regulatory compliance laws on its own books to amend.

          Scotland has been fully integrated into the UK economy, political system, and legal system, etc for hundreds of years. It would be many many times more painful and damaging for them to leave, and joining the EU after who knows how many years of sitting up there isolated wouldn’t make up for what Scotland would lose by leaving the UK.

          We should be arguing for more cooperation and bigger unions, not smaller ones. Further devolved powers, a better system for representation of the nations in parliament, kicking out the Tories and bringing in more beneficial policies for the UK, etc should be the priority imo. Not even more -exits.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      But in more equal terms, not with all the special exemptions that were present under the previous terms.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m not an expert on foreign affairs, but from what I understand, UK got kind of a sweetheart deal to be included in EU originally.

      I doubt very seriously they will get such a sweet heart deal next time, since they are proven an unreliable and fickle partner… and thats on the pretense they are allowed back in at all.

      • MrAlpharius@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They would absolutely get allowed back. They were one of the most important economic and military powers in the EU.

        But you are absolutely right in the whole “deal” thing. No pound, yes Schengen, no national exceptions, no fishing great deals and of course, EU military is a must. No more veto to the joint military for sure.

        After that is clear, they would be allowed back for sure. Maybe they can keep the password as a gesture.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It would be fair if they had no special exceptions, but it would be a large failure by negotiators if they proposed that. A few exceptions as a show of graciousness would go a long way, and probably do more to thwart any other brexit mentalities than being strict would.

          • MrAlpharius@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I understand that the pound would be an absolute moral need for the UK, but for me It would be the first thing that would be demanded to drop. A UK in eurozone would be key to the strength of the Euro.

            If the UK is smart the fighting ring would be the London City privileges. That’s where money is.

            But ultimately I do agree that they would keep some small things but to the eyes of the other members, they must be “punished” in all the other important areas just to keep the flock together.

            Just to clarify for anyone reading: these are opinions, not facts.

            • FarceOfWill@infosec.pub
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              1 year ago

              The requirement to adopt the euro is not something that can be forced. You can agree to do it eventually when you join, when any country joins, but the EU would never kick a country out of the EU unless they moved to the euro at a specific time.

              The UK will one day rejoin, will agree to one day use the euro and then like many other countries in the EU will never use the euro

              • MrAlpharius@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                That is absolutely correct but you could bend the join requirements to force the adoption even against the euro requirements criteria. You can even talk about skipping the line under some specific requirements.

                The EU lets some of the members keep their currency because they are not that important to the gross number. Everyone knows the game they are playing but looks elsewhere. I am sure the Pound was always a problem and you have to consider again that UK never accept the Euro in the first place. I am pretty sure the way can be found to force the pound out and if not, they will be required to at least go the sweden way to keep it at the expense of “cheating”. It is a huge difference in political terms.

                During Brexit negotiations it was cristal clear who had the hight ground and the UK had to comply to a lot of their red lines.

  • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Completely failed? That is just not true. For Johnson’s co-conspirators, who lied and swindled to profit from Brexit, it absolutely caused the desired shifts in wealth - that is from everybody else into their own pockets.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There is no better friend to have than the kind that can provide millionaire consulting gigs and non-executive board memberships in thanks for writting the laws with them in mind when replacing EU legislation and regulation.

      Mind you, I’m not saying this is Corruption: the only part of the Judiciary that can investigate and prosecute Corruption in the UK is the Serious Fraud Office who have about as big as budget as the tinniest of British city halls (i.e. Councils) so nobody but the small fry ever gets investigated, much less prosecuted and convicted, so there are no people one can say are corrupt in the UK without falling foul of the local Libel Legislation (which is quite extreme by European standards) as they’re not officially corrupt until convicted.

      It’s a special country with a special system, hence the continue deca, and whilst Brexit stands out as a trully primo inter pares of specialness, something like this happenning is no surprise.

      The honest and intelligent britons (of which there are many) need to start pondering more on the possibility that when you keep getting the same ailments and treating them only for more appearing, the actual problem might be an underlying disease rather than merelly the ailments themselves.

  • Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    You should go crawling on your knees and beg the EU to take you back, and farage, rees-mogg and boris should pay for the entire thing.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s like a couple getting married again after a divorce. It HAS happened, but only when both people are lost together in a world of mutual crazy that neither can live outside. I don’t think the EU is participating in the Uk’s fantasy world, so it’ll never happen.

      • Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        UK had one of the larger militarys in the EU. Only reason I can see them ever considering it.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Aren’t most of the EU also NATO members? I guess I’ve never thought much about the military aspects of the EU.

      • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Nah. The honest truth is that the EU doesn’t care that much about the UK.

        It’s much more like someone storming out their local pub and refusing to come back. It’s a big deal to the guy that left, but a much smaller deal to everyone still drinking in the pub.

        If the UK stops acting like a dick and pays for their share they’d be eventually welcome back, once it looked like they’d actually learnt their lesson and wouldn’t do it again. The real barriers to rejoining are on the UK side. No one wants to reopen that can of worms.

    • highenergyphysics@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My hot take: the EU is better off without them. Britain has always been a belligerent holier than thou obstacle to progress for the EU, even after they got a sweetheart deal that NO OTHER European nation got offered.

      Let them rot on their island while the rest of Europe actually makes progress.

    • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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      1 year ago

      All the while being pissed off that no, you won’t get all the exceptions you had the last time. And yes, you’ll have to ditch £ for € eventually*.

      * there’s a pretty stupid loophole that allows you to postpone adopting Euro indefinitely, though I feel even the fact that officially they’re agreeing to adopt the Euro will be a low blow for the pride of UK people.

  • carl_dungeon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Gosh, if ONLY SOMEONE WOULD HAVE WARNED PEOPLE that brexit was a terrible idea tossed together by fear mongering, self interested dickheads!!! If only someone had mentioned it was a terrible idea ahead of time!

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The reality is that there were a thousand paths back from that cliff. The vote was no binding, and barely a majority. If the British public wanted to halt it they could have just elected non-leave politicians in the years afterwards, but they didn’t.

    • LazyBane@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s not like remainers ever put up a convincing argument prior to losing the referendum.

      Turned voting age on the referendum, visited our predominantly working class school, only ever brought up cheaper phone calls abroad as to why they should vote to remain.

      Brexit only had pull out the weakest reasons to leave becuase they were the only ones who took the referendum seriously.

    • nogooduser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The problem was that nobody in the UK did an effective job of arguing for remain. They were caught napping because they were convinced that people wouldn’t want to leave.

      When they realised that we were in danger of voting to leave it was too late.

      Obviously, people in the EU said that it was a bad idea but they obviously would say that because we’re “sending them £350 million a week” and they wouldn’t want to lose that.

      • justJanne@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        The UK spent decades convincing everyone that all bad decisions are made by the EU and all good decisions are made by Westminster. That’s the first mistake.

        If the UK had properly educated its citizens about what the EU actually was and did, no remain campaign would’ve been necessary whatsoever. But it was politically convenient to have a scapegoat.

        And let’s be honest, remain aka “remoaners” had a ton of arguments all the time. But brexiteers just wanted to enter the magical land where the UK still mattered and they’d eat their cake and have it still.

  • Custoslibera@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No fucking shit.

    I’m still in disbelief at racist ignorant Tory cunts that voted for this.

    Fuck them and their political apathy.

    Fuck them and their complete disregard for factual information.

    They can now lie in the bed they made, the absolute fools.

    • Jas91a@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Murdoch holds a lot of the blame as well, without that prick taking sides in his newspapers it would never have happened

    • Lafari@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And fuck the fucking fucks!! Fuck you, you fuck! You BIG fuck! You massive, whopping, FUCK!

  • Gazumi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    IF the UK rejoins the EU at any time in the future, we will certainly never have the preferential terms and disproportionate power that we’d originally had. Defacto not as good as a deal. However, STILL much better to be part of the EU than to be circling the drain as we are right now.

    • realitista@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Everyone says this, but I think the EU wants Britain back in enough to make some exceptions again. The way I look at it is that it doesn’t hurt to try.

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Eh, willing to bet that Germany wants to set a precedent that they, and no one else, like France, can just leave and rejoin on a political far right whim.

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      To me, I never understood the desire to leave. Even the people who being talking heads for Brexit actively benefitied financially from UKs position in the EU. The choice to leave was roused up on a bunch half truths and bold face lies to scare the the general public of hatining anything south of the channel… Despite getting so much benefit.

      Smartest thing they could do is beg their way back into the EU and claw back what ever benefits they had enjoyed like stated above there is no scenario where UK ends up good as they were back in 2016 let alone in a better bargaining position, but they also don’t have to throw away their future prosperity based on stubborn pride.

      • chitak166@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s hysteria.

        but they also don’t have to throw away their future prosperity based on stubborn pride.

        Lol, but they will.

    • butterflyattack@lemmy.world
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      I am still furious about Brexit on a personal level. Freedom of movement was amazing. It meant that I could just decide to go live and work in an EU country whenever I wanted. I had previously used this to spend a couple of years in Spain and maybe a year in France. I’d been planning a move to Portugal when Brexit took this away from me. All those opportunities gone because of dumb fuckers who didn’t even realise we had them. Ignorant bigoted wankers. Goes without saying I voted remain. I’d be delighted to rejoin, and if it means we adopt the euro that’s fine with me. It won’t happen for at least a decade though, and at my age that’ll be too late for me.

      • fadhl3y@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No, they realised that they had the freedom of movement. The Brexit vote was in part to punish people like you because you still had that freedom.

    • Senshi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And getting rid of the unfair preferential terms is good for the EU as a whole, because it will reduce resentment in all other current and potential future member nations.

      Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe Brexit hurt everyone in Europe and I can’t wait to welcome UK back into the Union, but make it on equal terms. It’s a very small silver lining to the whole fiasco. I just hope it doesn’t take too long for UK to find a leader string enough to say “I think we made a mistake, we should reapply”. Make a new referendum while the populace still realizes the connection between Brexit and the current misery before some populist schmuck finds a new scapegoat.

      • Gazumi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agree completely. The old arrangements were compromises to get the original deal dome. That was half a century ago and a lot has changed.

      • Gazumi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not an economist, but what I have seen is the decline in the value of Sterling since Brexit as well of the downgrading of the UK credit rating. Even if we adopt the Euro, the value of the same goods will still vary between different countries. However, the same silly arguments will arise again saying that the is EU taking over.

        • st3ph3n@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          That would be nice for Ireland, we could finally join Schengen which is currently out of the question because of the open border with Northern Ireland.

      • unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        That isn’t really an issue, either Denmark or Czechia don’t want the Euro but said they’ll get it so they skirm around the ascention criteria a bit. Can’t see why the UK couldn’t do the same.

        • MrAlpharius@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That isn’t an Issue, jet. But it could be in the long run.

          The fact that the EU haven’t taken measures in that matter doesn’t mean it will not do it in the future.

          • unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I get it, but still. Britain got its priviliges in the EU by being a part of it for a long time. If it becomes a problem in some 20 years, Britain probably won’t be alone, will have been a member for a longish time and will most definitely be better off than outside the EU. And if it comes to it, they’ll be able to leave again.

            At least they’ll have the most experience in leaving which might make the second time at least a bit more painless.

  • MasterInu@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I thought I read that outside of London that the average income for the UK is lower than the average Mississippi state resident (poorest state in the US statistically; still has debtor prisons)

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      Well yeah, they’re literally peasants.

      Inb4 some peasant gets mad that I would say that they belong to a rural lower socioeconomic class by birth with less legal rights than their “betters.”

      • Clbull@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s kinda accurate actually.

        One of the biggest problems with Britain is that everything is centralized around London while other cities and towns are an afterthought to the government.

        London is the only city with an underground railway network. It is also one of only three cities (Newcastle and Glasgow being the others) with any kind of metro transit network. Public transport outside of these three cities is heavily overpriced and monopolized at a local level by a handful of big bus operators, i e. First, Stagecoach, Arriva, Go Ahead.

        Another massive problem is that we simply aren’t building new homes because doing so would harm landlord profits. Londoners are moving further out because London is so overpriced.

        Things are so bad here that Bristol (the city I live in) is now the second-most expensive city to live in behind the capital. Before that, the idea of us overtaking SE England or even Bath was unthinkable.

    • Suzune@ani.social
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      1 year ago

      It probably makes more sense to use median income. Sometimes a few rich people “raise” everyone’s average income.