The British people voted, by majority, to leave the EU. This was done with an official national referendum, not a Twitter opinion poll.
1) The British people were lied to by an election campaign who also broke the electoral law. Politicians currently in charge of Brexit are still lying about "Brexit dividend" which does not exist.
2) The British people who were living in the other EU member states were not allowed to vote in a referendum which had a huge impact on their lives and the rights which they have under the EU.
3) Permanently UK resident tax paying EU citizens were not allowed to vote.
4) Large number of leave voters have changed their mind since the referendum. Many of them have now been replaced by young voters who overwhelmingly support staying in the EU.
5. No one voting in that referendum really knew what leaving the EU meant in practice. Not even the politicians seemed to understand the difference between the EU and the EEA. Or the functions of Euratom, why that cooperation is so important for the UK.
The UK does hold cards in this battle. Namely a 70 million strong base of 1st world consumers, financial services plus others, and global intelligence / security, the best by far in Europe. These are all things the EU needs. The U.K. is not Poland or Greece with nothing to bargain with. We are a main contributor to the budget.
I really don't think the UK has any cards. I work in financial services in London, and this seems like a perfect opportunity for Paris, Dublin and other EU cities to grab business and talent from London, and this is already happening.
London will no doubt survive Brexit because of the financial services, but hard Brexit would be a catastrophe for the British farmers and any British businesses who sell goods to the EU markets. Any form of Brexit would be devastating to communities outside of London and it would also leave London worse off. It is already hurting the NHS.
And yes, UK has been one of the largest contributors to the budget, but losing those contributions is not a major issue to the EU. It also means no EU farm subsidies, science funding or infrastructure funding for the UK. I do read local news in the other EU countries, and it seems to me that they have already forgotten that the UK is about the leave the EU. It is barely a footnote in the daily conversation.
We should just leave with no deal and get it over with. No divorce bill and full control passed back to the U.K. Then build a new workable relationship when the EU has to admit that they need things from us as much as we do them, if not more. This is the only honourable thing to do now amongst this whole mess so we should just get on with it. Stay in the EU isn’t an option and a good deal for both parties doesn’t seem to be currently workable. So we split clean and then talk business properly when things have settled. The negotiating hasn’t gone well because the British government havn’t had their heart in it, and the EU has taken full advantage of this with their unreasonable demands.
I am not sure if anyone proposing leaving without a deal in place fully understands the potential repercussions or how destructive that event would be.
