4 ms·

This is a funny one. The economic argument was principally a Remain argument, and was for the most part ignored. I think this was for two reasons 1) there's ple

by moomin 10y ago

This is a funny one. The economic argument was principally a Remain argument, and was for the most part ignored. I think this was for two reasons 1) there's plenty of people who just didn't buy it, there was enough smoke thrown for many believe it wasn't settled, but I think more powerfully 2) a lot of people don't really think their economic well-being is linked to the country's economic well-being. In particular, there's a belief that a worse economy will principally affect London. (Sadly, it appears the opposite is the case.) Anecdotally, I've spoken to a number of Leavers who talk about taking back control (most of them also believe immigration is a problem). They tend to be working class and feel that the government doesn't listen to them. I really seriously doubt this vote will make a blind bit of difference on that front.

icc97 10y ago
It's still my feeling the underlying powerful reason for people voting for Brexit was immigration. The rest was just a smokescreen to pretend like that wasn't their only reason.
- ionised 10y ago
  The sad fact there being that immigration being an issue rather than a net benefit itself was a distraction perpetuated by the Murdoch press. Fear of 'the other' is a timeless scapegoating tactic when you really want to distract people from the real causes of their problems. In the case of the UK those problems are entrenched and systemic classism and privilege, a financial services industry rife with fraud and cowboy behaviour and our own sycophantic career politicians that compared to the EU, have done very little for the working poor and other disadvantaged demographics in society.
- pja 10y ago
  According to Dominic Cummings (who ran Vote Leave) it was absolutely the case that immigration was the No 1 driver for the vote to leave the EU. So much so that they had to explicitly set aside 15 minutes at the beginning of every focus group to let people rant about immigration before they could get them to move on to anything else at all. Anecdotally, this is also what my parents found on the doorstep.

by moomin 10y ago

icc97 10y ago

It's still my feeling the underlying powerful reason for people voting for Brexit was immigration. The rest was just a smokescreen to pretend like that wasn't their only reason.

ionised 10y ago
The sad fact there being that immigration being an issue rather than a net benefit itself was a distraction perpetuated by the Murdoch press. Fear of 'the other' is a timeless scapegoating tactic when you really want to distract people from the real causes of their problems. In the case of the UK those problems are entrenched and systemic classism and privilege, a financial services industry rife with fraud and cowboy behaviour and our own sycophantic career politicians that compared to the EU, have done very little for the working poor and other disadvantaged demographics in society.
pja 10y ago
According to Dominic Cummings (who ran Vote Leave) it was absolutely the case that immigration was the No 1 driver for the vote to leave the EU. So much so that they had to explicitly set aside 15 minutes at the beginning of every focus group to let people rant about immigration before they could get them to move on to anything else at all. Anecdotally, this is also what my parents found on the doorstep.