A post-Brexit UK has seen our nation deal with spiralling inflation, labour shortages, poor economic growth and a woeful lack of trade deals … prompting thousands of Mirror readers to voice their despair through our poll.
A hefty 2,053 said leaving the EU has brought the UK nothing but problems, with just 143 saying it hadn’t. Twenty-two of you weren’t sure.
When asked if the UK was right to vote for Brexit, 1,997 readers answered an emphatic ‘no’, while 211 said ‘yes’; 13 of you were undecided.
The results mirror the reality that life outside the EU has been far from plain sailing since a majority of voters said the UK should leave in 2016.
Yet despite things being pretty dire for many of us, huge swathes staunchly believe that officially withdrawing in 2020 was the right decision – and blame issues the country has faced since on coronavirus, the war in Ukraine and a failure to properly implement Brexit and take advantage of potential openings.
Thousands of you took part in the poll, with many of you expanding on your decision in the comments. Here’s a flavour of just some of them:
(
Getty Images)
‘I hope the little Englanders are happy – cos their grandkids won’t be’
Lynnmarieoct: “I was always sceptical about leaving Europe. At least if our Government wasn’t being fair we had someone to turn to.”
Parcel Of Rogue: “Brexit’s going well, eh? Own laws? Useless and damaging trade deals not put through parliament when they used to be. Businesses closing, public services short of staff. Brits deported out of Europe. It’s rubbish!”
Jaguarjon53: “Brexit is an unmitigated economic disaster. We’re short of export income, short of qualified people and short of allies. Our politicians, of the two main parties, are being pathetic, unwilling to take the decisions required to restart the economy. Sadly the minor parties aren’t able to influence the debate. Woeful.”
Renta: “It’s been a nightmare. I hope the little Englanders are happy – cos their grandkids won’t be.”
Europhiles: “People are loathe to admit the truth about Brexit, because they fear to do so would reveal their stupidity, so until the ‘IQ Zeroes’ start to come forward and accept that they have severe thinking limitations, then they will continue to make the wrong choices.”
Dirkvonroden: “The problem with UK citizens – and I am one – is they believed the rhetoric that we were paying more than we were getting out of the EU.
“Plus there was the ‘fact’ we couldn’t control our own borders. None of it was fact, as we still had border control, just our governments cut costs, and by doing so there was less border control!”
‘Brexit is the only way we can stop paying these unelected bureaucrats’
Railwayboots: “Why should we want to go back into a consortium of countries with unelected bodies that want to rule us? Brexit gives us back our ability to set our own laws. Because various politicians have not sorted it out properly does not mean it’s wrong.”
BernardHough: “Before the EU the large majority of vehicles on our roads were built in the UK, once in the EU they all suddenly changed to European-made models. Even our police forces changed from mostly Ford etc. Once the contracts for any engineering work was put out to the EU members, we lost most of our own industries. Until the rich in the UK change their investments from EU industries back into the UK it will be a struggle”.
Ranza1: “Brexit is the only way we can stop paying these unelected bureaucrats”.
Neville45: “These problems are happening all over the world at the moment but let’s make out it’s just the UK and Brexit to blame! That will keep the division going.”
Brexit will, of course, divide opinion for decades to come, but what do YOU think to the poll results? Are they a fair reflection of public opinion?
Have you got a different view? Let us know in the comments