The difference is that for many people the referendum was a protest vote against the economic situation that they were in and we should be addressing those concerns, not ignoring them.
Sure, plenty of people voted for Brexit for misguided reasons, but not everyone did.
Replace “Brexit” with “Trump” and it makes just as much sense. It’s not about poor, aggrieved, left out white folks. It’s about sticking it to the immigrants and the folks who “are not like us.” And the power brokers know how to play that tune very well.
written by historians, no less.
Which was not caused by “Brussels” and which Brexit made worse.
That could describe me, except I voted remain because leave seemed like an incredibly dumb idea even without the bigotry. Lexit was never going to happen with the Tories running the country, regardless of it being desirable or not.
Let’s face it. the bigotry was the only promise that the Brexiters actually delivered. TERF Island wasn’t a thing 8 years ago. Now Britain is on the potential genocide watch list, so great job there, leavers.
My inner Granny Weatherwax doesn’t care about what they wanted, just what they achieved. I’ll tell them what they need to hear.
Maybe they can explain something I don’t understand then. Why do protest votes like that always go to the thing who are absolutely the most dedicated to making things worse for everyone? Like, why were so many people willing to protest by voting to cripple the country, but not voting for an actual left-wing party once in a while?
Now that knowledge could be useful for nipping any (democratic) votes for RFK in the bud, should they exist.
I mean, “I’m voting for my great grandchildren, not for myself” would be a pretty obvious response. That they can’t think beyond themselves even at the exact moment that they are talking about 50 years from now is quite telling.
Because at the time that wasn’t what was being offered. The choice was Status Quo (Remain) or Change something (Leave).
It was a crap choice and it should never have gone to vote, and was exploited to get people to vote against their self interests.
So this, basically.
…Huh, I just noticed that one was from 2016.
Those two things did feel kind of joined at the hip.
Just like the GOP, these fuckers only have hate and tax cuts to offer. I’m sick of the lot of them.
Damn straight.
“Use this one weird trick to eliminate 30 pounds of ugly belly fat!!”
That is often the case. Practically all of big business was against Brexit, though. Even the government of Japan came out with a warning that it was a bad idea. They are normally super undemonstrative. Honda pulled out of the UK, gutting high quality industrial jobs in my local mini-city of Swindon. Nissan accepted a multi-million £ bribe to stay here, for now…
Of course this is also the story of the UK’s long, slow, bumpy decline since World War 2, in which our chance to become a first rank regional power in a major alliance has been mismanaged to ruin.
Oh, come now. I know one person who voted Yes because she was told Europe was banning her menthol cigarettes. Not everyone’s racist, some people are just complete fkn morons.
Another factor is that quite a lot of people didn’t take the referendum that seriously at the time.
And couldn’t be bothered to vote on it.
Because it was
a) fucking legally non-binding
b) an obvious move by Cameron to appease the far-right wing in his own party and keep their demographic voting for Tory instead of UKIP (if he thought the referendum was a cheap, low-risk tactical play to take the pressure off, him that is - slight miscalculation there, Dave)
c) not supposed to succeed (or being followed through in the event, see a)) anyway, as evidenced in that nobody had any concrete plans for what to do next, not even those who had pushed for a referendum in the first place. The dog had caught the car it chased, hooray.
[steps away from the lectern, softly humming a nondescript tune]
I also have friends (and some coworkers) highly educated, well travelled, with jobs that put them in contact with people from all over the world… and they voted Brexit
All of them knew of the problems Brexit would bring, maybe not in detail but at least in general terms
But the one thing they all had in common was the belief that they would not be affected. They all thought (and with merit) they were well off enough or had the skills or professional contacts to do well in whatever situation
So they could indulge in a bit of “recreational patriotism” without fear
