BBC finds a Brexiteer farmer who has regrets – as some Remainers do

This is not of itself a surprise. All sorts of people have changed their minds since June 2016 for all sorts of reasons. Some people who supported Brexit now think that it is considerably more complex than they realised and ultimately not worth the hassle.

But there has been movement the other way too.

There are plenty of people who voted Remain, but don’t like the way the EU has treated the UK since 2016 and would now back Leave. There are unionist Remainers who are angry at the way Dublin has so completely and intransigently allied itself to Brussels, and who now want Brexit, as well as cooler relations with the Irish Republic than prevailed before.

Most polling seems to suggest that any such movement has cancelled itself out.

Charlie Weir, the said farmer, is worried about things such as the Common Agricultural Policy funding. That is surprising, because changes to CAP were one of the more obvious consequences of Brexit.

Earlier this week the BBC led its news bulletins on problems for care homes in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. Such stories are not only legitimate, they are important. Yet rarely it seems are there stories leading bulletins in which a business or sector leader thinks Brexit will help their area of trade boom. There are such people, even here in Northern Ireland.

That same bulletin had as its second story about how the ever generous Irish government would step in to fund Northern Ireland folk who need to use their EU health cards.

In the battle for hearts and minds, opponents of Brexit on the island of Ireland have won hands down.

There is a more positive narrative on the UK leaving the EU and how it will help the entirety of the kingdom. It is not a fashionable view in Northern Ireland, but it is a view and it deserves its space — maybe even at the top of a news bulletin.