5 ms·

I see it mentioned quite often that the people who tended to vote leave were older and wouldn't have to "live with the consequences for very long" but it's neve

by skwirl 10y ago

I see it mentioned quite often that the people who tended to vote leave were older and wouldn't have to "live with the consequences for very long" but it's never mentioned that they were the ones who voted to join the EU (what was then called the European Communities) in the first place. They voted to join 67% to 33% in 1975. They are all 60+ years old now, and polls showed 60+ voters voting to leave by over 60%. Why were they in favor of EU membership then but against it now? If they voted to leave because of stupidity and xenophobia, as I keep hearing here on HN and on Facebook, why did they ever vote to join in the first place? It's interesting how the people with the most historical context, the most experience with the system, and indeed the people who brought it about are seen as somehow not worthy of having an opinion on it and that their vote should count less or not at all.

kbenson 10y ago
A good question, and your numbers might be mostly correct, but there are some false assumptions leading to them (based on the information presented). Just because 40 years ago there was a 67% vote to join, that doesn't mean 67% of the people that voted to join are still alive (that assumes the voting results were fairly uniform across age demographics. It could be that young voters voted predominantly one way and older voters another back in 1975 (as it is reported they did now). That could greatly raise or lower the percentage of people still alive that voted to join.
madaxe_again 10y ago
Because they've had 25 years of anti-EU propaganda blasted at them, mostly by Boris Johnson. By his own admission, when he was a journalist in Brussels in the 90's, he fabricated stories from whole cloth - he compared it to chucking stones at the neighbour's greenhouse for fun. He was fired for this repeatedly, and therefore entered politics.

by skwirl 10y ago

kbenson 10y ago

A good question, and your numbers might be mostly correct, but there are some false assumptions leading to them (based on the information presented). Just because 40 years ago there was a 67% vote to join, that doesn't mean 67% of the people that voted to join are still alive (that assumes the voting results were fairly uniform across age demographics. It could be that young voters voted predominantly one way and older voters another back in 1975 (as it is reported they did now). That could greatly raise or lower the percentage of people still alive that voted to join.

madaxe_again 10y ago

Because they've had 25 years of anti-EU propaganda blasted at them, mostly by Boris Johnson. By his own admission, when he was a journalist in Brussels in the 90's, he fabricated stories from whole cloth - he compared it to chucking stones at the neighbour's greenhouse for fun. He was fired for this repeatedly, and therefore entered politics.