• I’m from the UK and from the North. Don’t try and understand the stupidity of these people from these areas as economically developed as the worst parts of former soviet states now in the EU. These areas received a lot of EU development funding and still voted for Brexit AND the Tories (in 2019) that imposed austerity that made their post 2008 lives worse.

    They are thick as mince and deserve the ridicule as much as the lying brexit politicians deserve jail time.

    The only hope to not repeating the mistakes is the best quality education for as many people as possible. This hopefully enough of the smart ones from these areas are politically aware and active enough to offset the manipulation of the morons.

    • South west here, and it was the same here. We got so much EU funding for so many things - for a while we had the fastest broadband in the UK (yes, including London and the south east) because the EU paid for it, not to mention roads, farm subsidies, and a bunch of other “regional development fund” stuff - and now all that money is gone and the UK government haven’t replaced it with anything. Brexit support here was like 60%, because too many people believed the lies.

      I think ultimately what most people were really voting for in the referendum was an end to austerity and an end to top-down decisions made by faraway people who don’t understand the real lives of people in these regions. The mistake they made (because of lying politicians) was that the problem was the EU, rather than our own government.

        • I agree. There were definitely a few things with the EU that weren’t working well. The one that stirred up a lot of emotion here was the matter of fishing, because there was a lot of very real tension between local fishermen and the fishing boats from France and Spain. But leaving the EU wasn’t the right answer to these problems. Having an adult conversation to find a way of improving things was the right way.

    • I think conservatives voting against their own interests is a very well established trope. Certainly is in Australia.

      Plenty of octogenarians who vote conservative while complaining their pension is too low and they can’t afford rent.