Friday 24 June 2016

EU vote and the death of intelligent debate.


The most important decision of a lifetime and the 'debate' appears to have come down to one word 'Immigration'. Whatever arguments leave campaigners claim to have made (and I admit some have well thought out opinions even though I personally disagree with them), they would have to admit that immigration has been the decisive factor for a lot of leave voters.
That is the most shameful thing about this vote. It has not been a debate, it has been a rallying call for xenophobia and hatred. I am not calling all leave voters racist, but most of its leaders were happy to play the race card to get people to vote - playing to the lowest common denominator. It is that part of the vote that makes the difference between the leave and remain votes, not the people who made an informed decision to vote leave having considered all the arguments.
That is the most shameful thing about this vote. It has not been a debate, it has been a rallying call for xenophobia and hatred. I am not calling all leave voters racist, but most of its leaders were happy to play the race card to get people to vote - playing to the lowest common denominator. It is that part of the vote that makes the difference between the leave and remain votes, not the people who made an informed decision to vote leave having considered all the arguments.
That is the most shameful thing about this vote. It has not been a debate, it has been a rallying call for xenophobia and hatred. I am not calling all leave voters racist, but most of its leaders were happy to play the race card to get people to vote - playing to the lowest common denominator. It is that part of the vote that makes the difference between the leave and remain votes, not the people who made an informed decision to vote leave having considered all the arguments.
And were remain active in trying to address this part of the issue? No. They also banged on about immigration, feeding the fire of this section of voters, taking part in a battle they were never going to win and giving more credence to it as a result. Idiots.

Like the leave camp, Cameron and Osborne did not think a debate was necessary, they thought they could win by scaring people into voting remain. It backfired badly for them. They failed to realise that the word 'economy' is something most voters now think operates in the interest of a corrupt self serving elite. As such playing an economic fear card played straight into the hands of the 'who needs experts' brigade. You only have to see how the % saying they would vote remain fell once the campaign proper got underway to see how much this was a vote that remain lost, rather than (or as well as) it being one that the leave campaign won. Remain probably did more to make waverers vote leave than the leave campaign itself did.

At the end of the day, whichever way the vote had gone, the way the campaigns were run should not make anyone proud to be British, which is a great shame seeing that we can no longer call ourselves anything other than British, unless you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland.