It's quite literally one of the best, most robust and most competent systems of governance in the world.
LOL
Parliament demand new legislation
As I understand it, the Parliament does not have the power to compel the Commission to introduce legislation. The Parliament can make requests (not "demands") but the Commission has the power to say "no" to those requests. This is critical.
No monetary payoff, no. I see now that money is what's detaining you.
Exhibit A: The Rwanda scheme.
The Rwanda scheme isn't an increase in the reprehensible behaviour of government, it's the same amount of reprehensible behaviour as has always been displayed, before and after Brexit.
the fact that the people get any say at all in the terms of that set of trade agreements is considerably better than the say we'd get in any other trade agreement
I've no idea what you're talking about.
Meanwhile the EU, for all its faults, has rules based around human rights, environmental protection, animal welfare and mutual prosperity. That's the type of trade agreement that we want.
EU directives around human rights, environmental protection or animal welfare are not trade agreements. Membership in the EU is not a trade agreement. Indeed, the fact that it is more than just a trade agreement, is the problem.
Not only that: being out of the EU has cost us 5% growth per annum. Our exposure to global catastrophes has been worse, and our recoveries slower, than EU countries and comparable economies. Our labour market is a mess,
The cost of leaving the EU is money well spent.
our governments, without the leavening influence of the "undemocratic" EU, have been more corrupt, more cruel and less respectful of human rights
This just seems absurd to me. I see no such increases.
Regardless, you want less corruption, less cruelty, more respect for human rights, and you're happy to give up degrees of democracy in order to have that. We differ.
For a start it means that the structure of the government better reflects the concerns of the population. The EU never really made much of a dent in the consciousness of Britons. I expect the number of citizens who knew the name of their MEP off the top of their head would be dwarfed by the number of citizens who knew the name of their MP. This is in comparison to continental countries, particularly in my mind Germany, where the EU, EU political parties and MEPs are very much present in the minds of the electorate. At least, that was my experience.
Also, in my view the EU is quite undemocratic. The separate Council, Commission and Parliament are an affront. Especially the fact that the Parliament, which represents the electorate, does not have the power to introduce legislation. The people are an inconvenient afterthought in the EU power structure. I'm afraid I can't find a link right this second but somewhere I have a copy of an interview with Yanis Varoufakis when he was finance minister for Greece back when they had their economic meltdown where he says that he was told by others around the halls of EU power that "the people" should not be given the power to decide economic policy. That, to me, is the EU. The British people are better off out of it.
EU Regional Development Funds are another horror. They're run by unelected bureaucrats, stepping on the toes of existing, democratically elected regional institutions like.. councils. Instead of giving hundreds of millions to councils for development projects, or even creating larger regional institutions with democratically elected leadership, someone thought it would be a good idea to give those millions to unelected bureaucrats to spend in the same area. I'm still mystified as to how this ever came to pass. Brexit couldn't come soon enough.
Edit: Found the interview. Here's the full quote from Varoufakis, talking about the impending referendum on whether to accept European proposals regarding Greece's debt: [in the event that the referendum accepts the European proposals] "I am not going to impede its progress through parliament. This is my commitment to democracy and my commitment to the people, that I have entrusted with the decision, with the verdict of yes/no, or no, in a way that has incensed my colleagues in the Euro group who don't believe that 'such complex matters', as I've been told, 'should be put to common folk'." -- https://youtu.be/OmqnYHmRg48?t=625
There is definitely a place for Soviet simps in the Fediverse, it's just in a corner all by itself. That's the beauty of the Fediverse.