Brexit: On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you stand?

M0nica I said I was still a 1, not because I love the EU but because I firmly believe we are better in than out. Peace is my main reason, but obviously other things too. It is an imperfect organisation, but it is easier to get change from the inside. I feel like we're on a runaway train now.

Although I voted to remain, I hoped that a 'leave' result might trigger action from other countries (particularly France) to apply pressure for a shake-up that would result in us all being able to renegotiate the terms for something better.

I understand what you're saying MOnica. I would never have voted Leave, although I did listen to the arguments.

As for inefficiency, I don't know how much you've ever had to do with bureaucracy in the UK. I come from an extended family of senior civil servants and people who have been involved with local government. I honestly think we should look at our own inefficiency and lack of democracy before criticising the EU. Apparently, the EU employs fewer bureaucrats than Whitehall - and that's before counting the people working in local government.

I was, and am, instinctively a remainer. I was born during the war and lost several family members in WW1. I place the political union and the contribution the EU has made to European unity above everything else, but as an organisation it is pants and by staying in we would have been endorsing the current inefficient, and in places, corrupt organisation.

I was never tempted towards Brexit and if I had been, it's campaigning methods would have put paid to that, but I voted yes, with reluctance, not for the principle but for the implicit approval the vote gave to the ways and means of EU governance

Same here Lazigirl. I've spent the last few days in a hospice with my mother. Many of the staff, including the clinical manager, are Roumanian.

This area relies heavily on scientific/medical/IT research and development - a very high proportion of the staff are EU citizens and much of the funding for research comes from the EU (or did, because it's already beginning to dry up).

Well we may be able to "pick our own" but who is going to do the many other jobs that EU workers have been doing here and are now leaving in droves? My elderly mother is in hospital and is being looked after by a trained Rumanian nurse, who said to me "I'm only here for the benefits, ha ha". I feel totally ashamed at the way we are behaving because we want to take back control and sovereignty, whatever that is.

I know of a couple of local farms, who still have PYO, and farmshops with seasonal produce, which has been ready picked. However, I can't really see millions of city dwellers going into the countryside to pick their fruit and veg rather than nipping to the local supermarket. The carbon footprint of all those cars leaving cities is, in any case, probably higher than taking produce to market in lorries.

Ironically, we could end up with more imported fruit and veg, because labour abroad is cheaper, which might offset higher transport costs. It would probably be worthwhile growing, picking and freezing/canning some fruit and veg then importing to the UK.

Re the farmer I mentioned - DH said that if the worst comes to the worse she will have to go back to 'pick-your-own' which was quite widespread locally but seems to have disappeared completely as farms expanded and foreign workers became more available.

I was about 4.5 (is that allowed or does it have to be a whole number?) and am now resigned and hope a clear path ahead becomes more obvious soon. hopefully with no chopped heads or wars

Jalima Who knows whether the tautological "Brexit means Brexit" means any more than De Gaulle's "Non"?

I'll be delighted if the UK is in a better place outside the EU in five or ten years' time, but I just can't see it happening. By then, we'll have different politicians and a different electorate. I also suspect that we're at the beginning of some kind of social revolution (hopefully with no chopped heads or wars).

MOnica I stated "1" because the referendum was a binary choice. I am well aware of the EU's flaws, but my referendum vote was never in any doubt.

Apart from the positives of the EU, I couldn't see (and still can't see) a better alternative. I didn't take much notice of Osborne or even Obama, but the real experts. I followed various arguments for months and was, I believe, objective.

^Ah, it wasn't the same farmer, I'd misread the 'she'.
But one equally naive, it seems.^

Why naive - she, in all probability, voted Remain and assumed, as did the whole country, that Remain would be the result.

Why is she naive? The foreign workers spoke too and said how they had been welcomed into the local area which is rural.
The report about recruitment drying up already was a follow-on report from a recruitment agent in Eastern Europe.

M0nica - yes, I'm surprised by that. too. Many people were saying how confused they were right up to the day of the poll, and some have said that they would have voted differently with hindsight. That's why I asked the question.

My 'conviction' level was much the same as my 'internal debate' level. Both could have done with a lot more facts about what we were leaving (I'm no business mogul but I do understand basic economics) but there was no way of knowing what fire we might be jumping into if we decided to leave the pan.

There was a lot of misinformation and also a lot of misunderstanding. It is only now that the process has been started that we can begin to see where it's going, although we were getting an idea from the outcome of Cameron's efforts.

Perhaps that's just your interpretation of the rating system, Monica.

I rated it as 1 because, despite its imperfections, I unequivocably did not want the UK to leave the EU. So perhaps some people are rating their 'conviction' level rather than their 'internal debate' level.

Ah, it wasn't the same farmer, I'd misread the 'she'.
But one equally naive, it seems.

I am absolutely amazed at the number of people voting either 1 or 10. The decision either way was highly problematic, the European Union is inefficiently and badly run. It hasn't had a successful audit in 25 years. Some of its decisions have adversely affected the interests of many of its member countries.

Brexit is no better, those supporting it and running its publicity campaign were mendacious, we are in danger of becoming Little Englanders, cut off from Europe, to the danger to the peace not just Europe, but the world and on balance Brexit is likely to be economically damaging to the country.

As i said, I am amazed that anyone on either side can have embraced their side so uncritically and totally.

Strange that he should be having problems Jalima. We were emphatically informed by a number of Leavers that EU workers were causing big problems by taking jobs from local people. So surely he must be able to recruit from the local workforce?

That wouldn't be the widely reported farmer who voted Leave and is now mystified by the drying up of the supply of EU workers, would it?

I wonder how many Leave voters are now going to tell me that they didn't mean for EU workers not to come here to pick their fruit and veg...

Suffolk television today was showing how farmers are finding it more and more difficult to find enough people to pick the seasonable food.
A farmer on the local news has planted a lot more strawberry plants but is now wondering if she will have the workers to pick them in the coming years as recruitment is drying up.

sorry daphnedill

Unless there is some radical shift in European politics within the next few years, it's highly likely that a younger generation of voters will want to rejoin. If that happens, it's unlikely that we would be allowed all the "get outs" that we have now

So would they be able to rejoin in the future if they voted to do so in a referendum daphnedill ? (they meaning future generations).

Was the referendum 'once in a generation' or did Brexit mean Brexit no return?

Of course I got it, roses. It just did not seem very appropriate in the circumstances.

1 then 1 now.

There seem to be European politicians on television tonight saying that it isn't too late and that Britain has time to change its mind. Why aren't any of our own politicians saying this??

You can never tell when somebody makes a joke durhamjen
The Dunkirk spirit get it? Whisky, brandy, vodka.
And no,I have never done a booze run to France btw.

My Mother at 99 is distraught at the result of the referendum.

The UK did not write its own suicide before WW2 note and invite Hitler to invade. Comparison with the Dunkirk spirit is silly.