Disclaimer: the following is the (abridged) opinion of someone who is not an economist or politician. This someone is just very, very, displeased at how the #EURef campaigns have been conducted.
How can anyone truly be #EURefReady when honest information has been so hard to come by? After months of campaigning, I’m left frustrated and confused by what each side has been pushing.
I’ll be blunt: this referendum has become an oversimplified farce.
For starters both sides have operated on fear- of a failing economy or of immigrants. We all know what Machiavelli says about fear being better than being loved, but this aside neither campaign seems to have offered messages of positivity or encouragement: On multiple occasions Cameron has needed a serious kick up the bum and a demand to ‘tell us why we should stay, not why we shouldn’t leave!’ while Vote Leave has played predominantly on all the bad things the EU has ever done to Britain.
On top of this the arguments being offered to the public are simplistic to the point of ridiculous, and it’s demeaning not to mention frustrating to every undecided voter who wants genuine information. Example: No, we are obviously not going to have ‘an extra £350 million a week’ lying around to spend on the NHS. No, Brexit will not lead to World War Three. Treat your voters with some respect and explain properly.
Just as there is no complex debate around the subject, there has been no serious attempt by either Vote Leave or Stronger In to address the opposition’s points. It has tended to pan out something like this:
- Support for Leave notches up in the polls
- Cameron produces armfuls of business leaders urging us to Remain
- Vote Leave exclaim, don’t trust the experts/big businesses! This is your decision!
Alternatively
- Someone (Farage) says something controversial (stupid) such as “if sterling were to fall a few percentage points after Brexit, so what?”
- The government issues a dire forecast about taxes/economic downturn/unemployment
- Vote Leave dismiss it entirely as fearmongering.
Why can’t Cameron explain in simple, clear terms what the knock-on effects of the pound dropping are? And that it can be predicted that it will drop because it has fallen every time Leave has gained ground in the polls? And on the Leave side- I’m honestly floored that they genuinely responded to every argument by denying it. By saying that it wasn’t true. Just. By refusing to even address the points being made against them.
“Treat your voters with some respect and explain properly.”
I guess my biggest problem with Vote Leave is that their entire campaign appeared to be based on immigration. Borders, influx of immigrants, lack of control over it; they have drawn everything back to this one argument. I’m convinced Boris and co. know that the issue of the EU is much more complicated than that, but they are choosing to present it in this very one dimensional manner to the public. Maybe they think it’s most effective- but regardless, the result is that about 50% of the UK’s population are now leaning toward attitudes which are essentially xenophobic.
Perhaps Vote Leave aren’t concerned by this because the end justifies the means. I am. We should be. Half the people in our country are aligning themselves with Farage, and while I’m not saying that Farage represents the beliefs of Vote Leave (who surely have more nuanced logic) his simple, basic opinions are what’s really reaching and persuading voters.
I would have really liked to see a thorough, involved discussion about why the EU is detrimental- something which covered more than Juncker and sovereignty and ‘we don’t like freedom of movement’.
As for Stronger In, the fear/dislike/Britain-must-take-back-control campaign by Leave has been countered by a very weak defensive from the Remain camp. It’s been confused from day one: Labour barely expressed their party stance; Cameron had to field potshots about Boris more than talking about the referendum; Sturgeon wouldn’t stop mentioning Scottish independence; and none of the other party leaders could defend the EU without redirecting all the negativity to the current government. To be honest that’s a reasonable viewpoint, but it does not help because people still blame Cameron and Cameron happens to be the face of the Remain campaign. People are angry at the government, and if they are angry enough they will vote against it by voting out. It reminds me of one of the Huffington Post’s 35 Reasons to Vote Leave: because “Michael Gove is my anti-establishment icon.” Honestly, it says it all.
Even in the very last desperate stages of the campaign, Stronger In has not been able to pull itself together. Its disunity was most recently- and pointedly- demonstrated by Corbyn refusing to stand on a platform with prominent Tories in support of Remain. Yes, the man has his principles, but given it has come down to the wire like this, I hope the Labour Leader is sure about just how much those principles are worth.
In conclusion:
- I am angry that neither side has provided what it should to the voting public.
- If we leave, Vote Leave are going to look like utter idiots if/when all the government’s warnings come true. (And if I were Cameron, I’d organise a televised speech purely to shout ‘I TOLD YOU SO’. “So what,” Farage? SO WHAT NOW.)
- If we stay, the country will have a lot of work to minimise the toxic social fallout from the unpleasant attitudes this referendum has brought out.
- I believe it is the greatest shame of all that an uninformed and unfounded xenophobia has pervaded so far across the country.
- I am preparing myself to live in a world where Britain has voted to leave, and I am preparing to deal with the consequences of that.
So I live 