Which country will be next to follow us out of the EU ?

We've had a house in France for 18 years, so asked the locals what they thought about it all. They couldn't have cared less, though had some admiration for us voting out. Our butcher, Philippe, shrugged his shoulders and said (in French of course), "Well, you have the £, you drive on the left, you just love being different".

JenniferEccles

The topic was raised by the people we met Lucretzia not us.

As soon as they heard we were British some said they would love a referendum.

This was in France, Italy and Spain.

Like I said countries would undoubtedly be divided like we were but it wouldn’t take much to coerce PMs.

We definitely owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel Farage for being the initial driving force for our referendum.

If I ever find myself being grateful to Nigel farage, please shoot me.

We do!

You do what ?

The idea that Ireland were "bullied" into voting a particular way is ridiculous - they actually have secret ballot - people could vote how they liked! They aren't all ignorant country bumpkins- they have running water and everything! The vote was about the Nice Treaty the outcome of which was very marginal, so they needed to elaborate the complexities and had a second vote giving more information - no bullying and people could certainly vote how they liked. Since the UK vote polls in ROI consistently give high support for the EU in Ireland - up to 80% - so much higher than leave support in the U.K. Anyway, why do leavers care who leaves or joins the EU- why does it matter to you, apart from to confirm your own prejudices.

It still depends who you talk to wherever you are. In France, the people I knew weren’t happy about having the euro foisted on them all those years ago.
Some are amazed that we wanted to leave-and lose all the benefits that they perceived us as having, some of which existed and some of which were simply not true.
Others, like one family we are related to, would like to opt out but told me, “sans la France et l’Allemagne il n’y a pas d’UE.
Les autre pays n’ont besoin que de notre argent pour soutenir leurs économies”.
In other words they’re only in it for the money to support their economies - maybe thinking of Greece for example.
I didn’t choose it, but it’s done and whinging about it won’t help anyone.

Soon after the referendum we spoke to some people from Belgium who totally supported the countries decision to leave the EU. They then went on to say they were planning to move to the U.K. to retire. Not realising that brexit would probably make that much more difficult for them. I have a friend with Italian relatives who all think the U.K. is mad.

Hard to believe any other country would leave the EU after all that we have been through.
We need to get out of this pandemic and see what the next years bring post Brexit. If they are good then the leavers will have cause to feel they were right if they are bad the remainers can feel justified in their wish to stay in the EU.

Blinko
How true. I'm probably one of the few people on here who has been to Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia. Not just once or twice but several times. These countries are dirt poor. They have nothing to give. And that's without bringing the 'c' word into it: corruption.
I had been living in Bulgaria for 4 years before they joined.
Strangely enough, everyone was aware of how much eu money would be stolen but the eu officials who visited often wouldn't/ didn't want to know.
I personally know of €20 million that was given to our local farming co-operative to update farming. Nothing happened.
That was small change to some of the sums stolen.
But I had personal links to this co-operative.

I couldn’t care less who joins or leaves the EU now we’re not in it anymore.
But this notion that everyone still in the EU is deliriously happy is nonsense.
A point worth remembering;
Plenty of people in N.I & Scotland voted to leave the EU. in fact, in N.I it was over 40%.

Kandinsky I don't remember Ireland wanting to leave EU. I remember the 2 referendums on theTreaty of Lisbon2008 & 2009

My Dutch friends say they want out and it a common thought in Holland, they have been waiting to see how it goes for us, abd admire us for being first.

Chardy

Correct.

But the point remains:

‘What part of NO’ don’t you understand’

They made Ireland vote again.

Anyway, one of my New Years resolutions was to never talk about brexit again.
And as London is going into tier 25 tonight - which means we probably won’t be able to look out of the window, I’ll go and make the most of what time I have left.

Mollygo that's the attitude we heard when we were in France.
At the time it was France, Germany and UK supporting all the later Eastern Europe joiners. And the impoverished S. European countries.
The Northern European countries are in a different category.
I think we (UK) showed our uncertainty by never adopting the euro.

Urmstongran

Anecdotal only of course but way back in 2016 after the referendum result, many of the local bars and the hair salon we regularly support shouted out ‘Bien! UK!’ and gave us a thumbs up.
?

Perhaps they were hoping that some Brits would go back to the UK?

polyester57

Yes, I certainly do thing that the British change of diet had something to do with being in the EU. As did the diet in Germany and all other EU countries,

I prefer to put it down to Elizabeth David - she introduced me to French and Italian cooking 50 odd years ago.

Kandinsky ^ tier 25^? enjoy street gazing!!

oh what a nasty little thread. Leave it at that.

Perhaps they were hoping that some Brits would go back to the UK?

Nope, don’t think so Dinahmo these people have become friends over 16y of living in a residential area. We have eaten out with them, not just supported their businesses.

Spain relies heavily on tourism. They told us that before we left in November. They hope the vaccine brings visitors back this summer - they are very much needed.

Your comment seemed slightly mean?

The EU didn’t make Ireland vote again , they didn’t make them vote in the first place, it was a decision by the sovereign ROI, and it wasn’t to ensure a different result, it was because of the marginal decision and a need to elaborate the complexities. Nothing wrong with that, it was something we should have done given the shambles we have ended up with.

Sparkling
In other times ? we mixed a lot with Dutch people while in Spain in the winter. Their attitude was that they were not 'emotionally' joined to the eu. They saw it purely as a trading block but don't like the direction it's going in.
Lots of them are angry at their contribution.

Not sure where the French you heard about lived, Urmston, but in Normandy where we have a home there was nothing but disbelief that the British could be so stupid.

This thread appears to be trying to justify the leave vote??

Bit weird.

All the anecdotes seem to confirm that people hear what they want. I have close family members in both Italy and Ireland, their jobs range from university professor to bus driver.All more than happy to be part of a cooperative organisation which crosses national barriers. Not perfect, and scope for reform from within as with any other organisation, supportive and giving protection in many areas.