Rose
You wrote:
No we haven't, we've been in it since the 1970's, people were unhappy with the effect of it. What effect? What do you mean by this?
I voted remain and I talked to a number of people who voted to leave. What was clear to me is that the two chief reasons for voting leave were:
(a) "the country is swamped with foreigners claiming welfare benefits"
and
(b) "we don't rule ourselves any more".
In most instances, further attempts to elicit information produced no concrete examples, merely hearsay or even statements like "well, Nigel Farage says so ..." I might add that the same people liked going abroad for their holidays and bringing back as much "duty free" as they wanted.
I agree with jeremyp, the overall impression is that we (or the Conservative government) have thrown in the towel. Mrs May's approach to all this seems somewhat Panglossian.