All this talk of the UK being less powerful in the EU if we somehow remain, and not being able to go back etc.. The EU is a democracy. We have sitting EU MPs, something that the whole of the country seem to have forgotten, including the leavers, who probably didn't research and vote for the correct folk in the first place.
Once the decision was made it was always going to be a tough exit, here in the UK there are too many remainers who still wanted to stay and the leavers didn't want to stand up to deliver the benefits that they promised so we ended up with a compromise that works for neither. However don't forget the EU were in this too and the one thing they didn't seen was an easy exit for any country. The EU is a flawed organisation that is expensive to run, what is doesn't need is an easy route out for any net contributor so they had to show that leaving was a significant disadvantage in leaving and this is what they have done helped mainly by the UK split weakening our negotiating position.
The only positive out of this is it has shown up all the current crop of MPs as ineffective leaders and decision makers and some have even shown there self centred true selfs which I hope we as voters remember for future votes.
It's a tough exit because the EU is so ingrained in our lives, laws and society. The problem is, none of this was really mentioned, and plenty of those who voted leave obviously didn't bother to research this.
As a starter, let's discuss the massive amount of money the the UK contributes in member fees - it's a massive.... £9 billion - to put that into perspective, we pay about 120 billion for the NHS every year. The EU contribution wouldn't fund NHS Scotland for a year, and that's before things like farming subsidies etc. pay out - some reports are stating that proposed changes in EU export laws could cost up to £20 billion a year for UK business.
And what do we get in return? The ability to live and retire anywhere in Europe.
Tax free trading with our closest countries.
Centralisation - so we need less lawyers and law writers in our government, and less bureaucracy as for example, goods for EU export are manufactured to an EU standard rather than both a UK and an EU standard.
And since I've brought it up, EU quality and safety standards are very good, and have the clout of all those countries to shake up big business who otherwise don't want to participate.
Influence. The UK is a joke, when we leave, we'll be a minnow, with less power than we have in the EU, anyone thinking otherwise is kidding themselves.
Migration - I hate the term immigrants - let's be realistic, they are people. We have it pretty good here in the UK, health care and education are decent, welfare exists and people can live on it, sure employment and homelessness has a ways to go, but on the whole, there are much, much worse places in the world. The NHS always needs staff, many come from other European countries. Whether it be the low skilled jobs that we are too lazy to do, or the higher skilled or more technical jobs that our education sector hasn't provided the staff for, in come other skilled workers from elsewhere in the EU to give balance.
As for them making it easy to leave... why would they?
I can't even begin to comprehend why the EU would negotiate a deal with the UK that makes the UK better than it was in the EU, that's political suicide - allowing an Ex-member to have their cake and eat it.
Leaving the EU was always going to be a disaster for the UK - at least in the short term (then it's on us to make something of it - and with the MPs we have making an **** of the first step... well...)
Put simply, we need them more than they need us, even in a not deal situation, the cost to all of the EU countries of, say taxation on UK imports will be much less than the UK pays in EU imports - and of course the load is spread more thinly with the size of Europe.
No sitting government wants to commit to doing something that isn't in the countries best interests, that's why we don't see governments campaigning on higher taxes (even if it's what we really need to improve things across the board) or other things that would be massively beneficial, but hugely unpopular like banning vehicles from streets surrounding schools, or banning smoking.
The EU was never going to give us all of the benefits we currently have along with not being a member, whilst allowing us to get rid of the downsides (which I still don't really see personally...), just in the same way they aren't going to fund re-writing our laws, many of which we'll have to retain in order to trade with them anyway.
On a sided note,
I found this page hilarious. The ability to take each and every advantage and turn it into a disadvantage appeals, and demonstrates the pot luck element of both scenarios!