New Referendum Would Flip Brexit Result 10 Years On, Poll Finds • Hacker News Board

Re: New Referendum Would Flip Brexit Result 10 Years On, Poll Finds

#181

Post by socalgal2 » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #113

socalgal2 wrote: post #81

I'm curious what valid reasons there are against Brexit? AFAICT, most people arguing it is/was bad are ignoring any kind of evidence. The UK is doing fine, especially relative to other EU countries. None of the things the anti-Brexit side claimed would happen have happened.

It's been quite meh economically - we'd be wealthier if we'd remained. Also immigration went up which is not what a lot of Brexiters were hoping. I think a lot of the Brexit vote was just people being fed up and voting for something different. In my experience few Brexit voters are happy with what arrived.

There's no evidence Britain would be wealthier if it remained.

Re: New Referendum Would Flip Brexit Result 10 Years On, Poll Finds

#182

Post by calvinmorrison » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:31 AM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #60

calvinmorrison wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The EU today is about as far from being an empire as the US was in the "Articles of Confederation" era (roughly 1781-1789): States are sovreign, the federal body doesn't have direct powers of taxation and the money it does get is what the states tell it it's getting, foreign policy only happens to extent individual states say it does, lacks a fully unified financial system, more about interstate commerce than anythin…

What happened after the articles of Confederation?

Re: New Referendum Would Flip Brexit Result 10 Years On, Poll Finds

#183

Post by calvinmorrison » Sun, Jun 14, 2026, 3:33 AM UTC

tomhow wrote: post #178

gspr wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and I apologize. My emotions overflowed. That being said – and with no reduction in my apology – I'm very glad to see that the comment my anger was directed at (a wild political statement without anything backing it up or anything contributing to further discussion) was also reprimanded. This kind of "contribution" to the discourse is a major threat to free societies, and should be called out (calling the au…

Thanks for the contrition. We hadn't reprimanded that user as yet, not because we regard it as a good comment (we certainly don't), but because we hadn't gotten to it. That's almost always the reason why we may reprimand one comment but not another bad one in a subthread. We're often not reading through subthreads in order of the discussion; we have different views of comments we look at to help us find the worst one…

I thought it was a good comment. Concise and clear on the realpolitik trade-off without too much directly. Thanks

Re: New Referendum Would Flip Brexit Result 10 Years On, Poll Finds

#184

Post by ben_w » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 7:04 AM UTC

calvinmorrison wrote: post #182

ben_w wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU today is about as far from being an empire as the US was in the "Articles of Confederation" era (roughly 1781-1789): States are sovreign, the federal body doesn't have direct powers of taxation and the money it does get is what the states tell it it's getting, foreign policy only happens to extent individual states say it does, lacks a fully unified financial system, more about interstate commerce than anythin…

What happened after the articles of Confederation?

Wikipedia has history pages if you really care.

The US is not an empire in the historical sense; and if you stretch definitions enough to make it count, that would make the US an "empire" which the UK is very much still under the thumb of, and indeed the entire EU in aggregate would also be under the USA's thumb with or without the UK in it, while also making the EU the UK's best chance for leaving the USA's sphere of influence.