I don't think you should be amazed. One thing that was always clear about Brexit was that many of the potential costs would be felt quickly, because they would result from the immediate loss of benefits of EU membership, but many of the potential benefits would not be felt for years after the vote, because it would need several years to hammer out the exit arrangements and whatever future relationship the EU and UK were going to have, then probably several more years for the UK to start making significant new trade deals or major changes to its domestic legislation that it wasn't free to make as an EU member, and then several more years for people and businesses to respond to any new incentives and opportunities that were created.

Personally I've always been quite ambivalent about Brexit. I think there were going to be some big pros and some big cons whether we remained or left, and how any new relationships were handled was probably going to matter more to our future success than whether we were "in" or "out". However I can certainly understand why some people who weren't exactly fans of the EU still voted to remain because they didn't want the costs of a long period of change without really knowing what was waiting at the end.

Thing is, "The people who brought the UK into this" are, at the end of the day, not the politicians, but the voters.

I am lucky enough to live in a country where I have the opportunity and freedom to vote as I see fit. And because of that, me, and no one else, is responsible for how I vote.

With great power comes great responsibility.

I voted Remain but can see some benefits in helping to improve wages and strengthen trade unions by limiting the availability of mass unskilled labour which harms the economy (aside from business owners), see https://theconversation.com/the-return-of-the-hand-car-wash-... for example.

Not trying to bash you here. But I was honestly wondering if there were any upsides to leaving Europe. With this you’re practically adding to that there’s none.

What if no one wants to do those jobs who's from the UK?

While Brexit is surely a major factor here, obviously we also have the pandemic that has a particularly severe effect on some of the same industries. There are other significant factors in specific industries, such as the terrible conditions for lorry drivers in the UK compared to elsewhere in Europe. There's also the bizarre own goal of the government pushing ahead with its IR35 agenda at a time like this, which again hits some of the same industries particularly hard.

It's going to be difficult to discuss these industries rationally and consider potential changes that could be made without some reasonably objective way to evaluate all of the relevant factors and how much they are contributing to the current situation in any given industry. As with almost anything to do with Brexit or the pandemic, it seems unlikely there are any simple and universally "right" answers.

The issue with the EU free movement was lots of eastern European labourers undercutting UK salaries and driving up rental prices by living 6+ to a house, etc.

I find it ironic that Americans criticise Brexit when they themselves benefit massively from the extreme restrictions on immigration (compare Tech salaries in the US and Europe for example!).