Reply To: More on Brexit
If they voted to ‘kick the foreigners out’ and no doubt many did, they’ve been ‘betrayed’ by the government which has made it clear that not only can all EU migrants who are already here stay (and a good thing too) but so can any who enter until the end of 2021. The extreme Brexiteers have chosen to interpret the result as a mandate, not to kick the ‘foreigners’ out but to bring in more ‘free trade’, i.e more globalisation, which was a contributing factor in the deprived areas becoming deprived. But, if it comes to an another referendum, we can be sure that they will again be beating the xenophobic drum to win votes (I remember seeing one of their leaflets suggesting that the whole population of Rumania and Bulgaria had the right to come here; true but unlikely to be exercised any more than the right of the whole UK population to move to Spain was going to be). The Remain side had a bad hand since they were defending things are they are, that a general status quo that was indefensible should remain. Which all goes to show that a referendum is not the best way to make decisions since what motivates people to vote one way or the other often has nothing to do with the question at issue.