Thread by @CaeruleanSea

'We should just remain, the way it was seems to be working for everyone, well, those that matter anyway, so just remain'

A Leave voter on 5 Live just now. I think that aside says everything. Ppl feel broken & defeated, irrelevant. That's what worries me more than the outcome.

This whole thing is so deeply depressing. Since the referendum, a binary question on a complex matter, asked of the public by the government everyone who voted Leave has been told they were wrong. Not just wrong but stupid & undeserving of a vote. 2/

Hardcore Remainers have painted a picture of a UK that is only good because it's in the EU. That w/o the EU we are racist, sexist, intolerant, xenophobic & backwards. They made our country seem like something to be ashamed of & by extension Leavers are wrong for being proud. 3/

The news media largely also have spent the time either telling Leaves they were wrong or deliberately playing to the stereotype of what one wants. TV media, (comedy esp, which is so precious in this county) has heavily taken the anti-Leaver line. 4/

Then the government & parliament itself has made it VERY clear the answer was wrong. On top of THAT you have Tusk, Junker etc continually undermining the decision by appealing to Remainers to ignore Leavers, by mocking & sneering 5/

Add into all of this the constant underlying narrative that Leavers were all duped, conned, absolutely no-one could have a legitimate reason to leave the EU. Ever present criticism of the EU prior to the ref from ALL the above has disappeared, like it never happened 6/

Like it was just something Leave voters have imagined, that the EU is perfect, it's ideal.

There are perfectly good reasons to stay in the EU, it's silly to say otherwise. There are arguments, convincing ones! But instead became an attack, not a debate, 7/

a long, drawn out, complicated & deliberate disenfranchisement of anyone who voted Leave. A campaign of humiliation & dehumanisation. And you have broken ppl, squashed the supposed intrinsically British fight out of us. I'm a calm Leaver, an eloquent Leaver, but.. 8/

I can't bring myself to write a comment, phone in to a talk show, even broach the subject in conversation. I don't want to speak up, argue my case anymore cos nothing I, or anyone, says is good enough. And there are millions like me & this was totally unnecessary! 9/

And the STUPID thing is, done right, with respect, with understanding & care I don't doubt the arguments to remain would have been GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN MANY LEAVERS OVER! But you didn't even try, not for one second & I think you may have broken the spirit of us. 10/

And I'll never forgive the orchestrators of those. Never. I'll never forgive those that ran with it unquestioningly, siding with ppl they are opposed to on every other political measure purely on the answer to a binary question. 11/

I'm ashamed not of what my country is, of who we are. I'm ashamed of how easy it was to divide us, to create this hatred, to disenfranchise so many ppl at the wave of a hand. And it's just not going to go away & it breaks my heart /end

(apologies for typos & errors, I'm in a car trying not to get motion sickness & failing miserably)