I've spent some time today doing some reading and trying to understand why people have decided to vote to leave the EU. I still resolutely believe that it was the wrong result, but I do think I have learned a few things which I will try and explain here.
Politics in the country is broken. This was referendum fought with hyperbole and lies, preying on people's deepest fears. Most of the information that came out of both sides was quite poisonous and has created a toxic atmosphere of us vs. them.
For instance, my view of the campaign consisted of what my friendship groups though (at least 90% remain) and then the rubbish that was spouted by Johnson, Gove, Farage etc. This made it very easy to assume that everyone who voted leave was precisely as crazy as them. But when you get past the people on the front page, I have found very measured arguments, not based on any kind of xenophobia. People who have clearly thought this through, people who I could have had a sensible debate with.
And I imagine it looked the same to them. A remain campaign that was focused on all the disasters that would befall us should we leave the EU, where as there were plenty of people in this country who would have welcomed a sensible debate without all the rhetoric flying around.
Yes there are always going to be people who vote for headlines without thinking it through, but it makes me quite sad to see quite so many people on social media and elsewhere who are making personal attacks at people who did due diligence and have plenty of evidence to back up their opinions. But when you have politicians who are indistinguishable from those people who write these ridiculous headlines, what do you expect?
And yes, there are some despicable, racist people in this country who probably see this vote as a way of legitimising their actions, but how can we hold those people who voted not on the basis of immigration accountable for the acts of people who would have continued their appalling behaviour regardless of the outcome.
The politicians' lack of any real substance has become even more apparent now, with no real exit-plan to speak of. This means there is no way of having sensible discussions around what the next steps are and how we can mitigate the economic hole we have fallen into. Instead the markets continue to sink into the abyss and none of the leadership of the leave campaign can be bothered to put their hands up and do something about it, with one story indicating that they expected No. 10 to have an exit plan for them to use.
The hard truth of the matter is that no-one really has any idea what will happen post-EU or whether we will ever be able to go through with the exit. In a time of uncertainty such as this, the least we can do is spend our time productively and try and figure the best way forward for everyone, instead of name-calling and finger-pointing. Regardless of your opinion, the vote shows that this is a divided country and very finely balanced.
So go ahead and make your opinion known, debate it, come up with new ways to explain your point of view and try to convince others. But don't assume that there aren't valid reasons to disagree with you and certainly don't tar everyone with the brush of the moronic politicians who have managed to get us into this mess. There are many permutations remaining, so let's try and come up with ways to get us out of this shithole we have been left in.
I do think it was a mistake, but I for one accept it as the will of half the population, even if that will was heavily influenced by lies and manipulations of the 1%.
#BuildBridgesNotWalls
