There were many reasons why I voted remain. The main one being that I saw the economic benefits of being an EU member far outweighing any costs, the UK has benefited from increased trade, immigration and inward Foreign Direct Investment and much domestic investment depends on access to the single market which covers sectors such as, consultancy, education and financial services at which the UK excels.

In my view, the referendum debate over the EU was farcical and there were too many outright lies by the Brexiteers that were not properly challenged. It is amazing that there was virtually no debate about the exit costs of Brexit in the debate. There is now talk that the Brexit bill could be as high as £100 billion. In the end the bill will be nothing like that probably in the region of £40 - £45 billion net. However, let's not lose sight of the fact that the real exit costs will be much bigger, there will be a large hit to domestic and foreign investment, a large loss of tax revenue as the economy takes a hit and some businesses decide to relocate in part or in whole to countries within the European Union. Then there will be an army of civil servants, lawyers and consultants required to do work like trade negotiations, agricultural support that were previously dealt with by EU officials.

The costs of a Hard Brexit in terms of rising inflation, loss of trade and falling real wages, rising unemployment will make the potential £100 billion Brexit exit bill look like small change. I wish that all the time, effort and money that is going to be expended on Brexit over the next 5 years could have been avoided as we already have huge problems with the NHS, Schools and Social care to deal with, which will now be put on the backburner.

Brexit is a self-inflicted wound that has divided the country and considerably diminished the status of the UK and it has opened up a can of worms with regard to Northern Ireland and Scotland. There is potential for a better outcome but this is unlikely to occur if Theresa May wins the election - as she has already ruled out the Single Market, Customs Union and jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Best be prepared for a disastrous hard Brexit, eventually the folly of all this will be exposed for all to see and attempts made to mitigate it but UK policy makers need to get real and leave their delusional "sunny uplands" view of Brexit.