> What did they gain, and honestly why is this so negative. There hasn't been a particularly strong or cohesive explanation other than saying Cameron is an idiot and the world is over?
Obviously, only my two euro-cents:
There's a deep-seated feeling in the British population that laws should ultimately be sovereign and not made by the European Union - there's a firm belief that leaving the EU allows Parliament to make its own laws without outside interference. Obviously there are a range of silly restrictions of things that previously were not possible within the EU framework that now are. One example might be that the UK was unable to eliminate VAT from sanitary products within the EU.
I mostly subscribe to the more emotional and wishy-washy negativity reasons, but some more concrete negatives:
* The City of London is very important to the UK economy and there are genuine fears that large multi-nationals who headquarter in London to access the EU market will have no choice but to relocate onto the continent.
* Lots of other parts of industry genuinely rely on cheap labour from Eastern Europe (to the order of magnitude of tens of thousands per year). There's a fear that they will not be able to access this labour, driving costs up.
* Short term instability and subsequent capital flight have a non-insignificant chance of leading to recession, or at least reduced growth.
* Those of us who are lucky enough to have the opportunity enjoy the ability to travel and work freely within the EU; and EU citizens in the UK are worried about their future status.
* Many firms working within across the EU are worried about complications if the UK does not remain in a free trade zone with the EU. There are already reports of UK startups losing investments and companies who have lost contracts due to the uncertainty.
* There's lots of scientific cooperation that sees UK universities receiving considerable research grants from the EU. Even without a squeeze from a poorer economy, there's not much faith that the UK Government will have the same spending priorities.
Some of this will become more clear as we move through a negotiation process to exit, but there are a range of unknowns and no clear vision from the Government what a post-EU UK will look like. That causes uncertainty both amongst the people and markets.
I'm trying to leave aside the short and medium term domestic and social problems that the referendum has both highlighted and bought about, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to say that they're just as pressing as the exit negotiations themselves.