'Thoughts on Brexit'

What is one to think of the current Brexit discussion. Personally, I really don't know, except that it's much more promising than I thought it would be when I voted 'Leave' a year last June. Like many others, I found casting my referendum vote a strange experience - a strange mixture of certainty and uncertainty. Even though not keen on the holding of an In-Out referendum, I was always certain I would vote 'Leave' but deeply uncertain about how the process of leaving would go. Reason I was not keen on a referendum was that I thought it near impossible to make a considered judgement. So had to vote, at least in part, by instinct.
Now it would be very easy to think that negotiations are not going well. Most of main commentators were in favour of remain, and don't accept the referendum 'decision' - while telling us that they do! The BBC in particular cannot believe the people did not do what they assumed they would do. Every story, however small and insignificant is portrayed as having a negative impact. Any remotely positive item usually begins "Despite Brexit......". It's also the case that the Government leading up to the referendum seems to have done zilch preparation for a Leave vote. Left a bit of 'catching up' to do.
The main reason I write blogs is to help me rationalise my thoughts. And this post is no more than 'introductory' and general. Plus it's a response to attitudes of people I know who are utterly appalled by the prospect of the UK leaving the EU. One good friend of mine tells me that if he were younger, he would leave Britain (to live where I did not ask). Must admit I was astonished. But I do accept that divisions run deep on this issue. The only remainder comment that causes me marginal irritation (and I'm not one to be irritated by opinion) is "I voted remain for the sake of our children". Unfortunately what I hear is what's meant but not spoken "You voted Leave because you're too selfish to consider your children". In fact I voted Leave for my children and grandchildren. I want them to live in a free, independent country run as a democracy, and not as a unresponsive bureaucracy run by a faceless machine which tramples underfoot any independent nation that has its own ideas. Poor Greece. It's why the whole thing will eventually collapse.
It's taken a while for the UK Govt to get up to speed with the negotiations. But I do think we're getting there now. We are publishing interesting discussion papers. The EU machine is just sitting there (on what their negotiators see as the high ground) insisting that the UK does what we are told, in the order they dictate. It's an attitude that's made me more certain than ever that I voted the right way. Anyway, that'll do for background intro. Will read it tomorrow, and probably change bits of it. And perhaps write another post about today's total re-setting of Labour Party policy. Firstly will have to decide whether it's much of a change at all, or just political posturing.