Quote Originally Posted by Croesy Blue View Post
I think the narrative here is wrong about remainers loving the EU at all costs. People voted to remain in the EU because they thought remaining in a large trading block and allowing freedom of movement was a good thing for the U.K.

It doesn’t mean they don’t think the EU as an organisation needs a big change and isn’t a bunch of *****.

It’s just we did quite a good job of changing them from the inside whereas now we have no say in a trading bloc that has a huge effect on our economy.
There were a lot of different reasons for people to vote Remain. The ones you have put forward about collective weight as a trading bloc and freedom of movement were major ones for a lot of people. But the reason that the Dennis Skinner view had shrunk so much in the labour and trade union movement (certainly compared to the dominant anti-EEC view in the 1970s when it was seen as 'the bosses club') is that the EU in 2016 was seen as the champion and guarantor of employment rights and environmental standards - and as generally progressive. Some of that was myth - much like most of the Brexit arguments - but the TUC and most affiliated unions were persuaded. They also accepted the 'stronger together' pitch, and the need for Europe to hold its own against the USA, China etc. No-one I knew who voted Remain did so without wanting major EU reform