Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
I'm dubious about whether half the country would be utterly seething with resentment. Certainly there would be many voters and, crucially, many Tory MPs, who would feel this way. But I suspect an equal number would be rather indifferent, for a number of reasons, but mainly because - as we both acknowledge - Brexit was a protest vote as much as anything, driven by a desire to give the establishment a bloody nose rather than a desire for the tangible outcome and its consequences (unknown as many of them may be).
Something can be two things at once. It was a protest vote in one sense, but it also was the expression of a long-held and deeply felt dislike of the EU that has existed in this country for decades. At its most basic level, that may simply be expressed as a profound dislike of being governed by foreigners, but it's still there. For many, that hatred has only become greater over the last year and will get worse during negotiations. So the idea that anti-EU sentiment will somehow dissipate over the coming years seems naive to me.