EU Referendum Results: My Thoughts

In case it's not clear enough, I voted to REMAIN in the EU. So naturally I am *incredibly* upset at the outcome. I feel hopeless, desperate, speechless (but not so much as to prevent this post), and disappointed. And I have EVERY RIGHT to be upset. The personal is the political. Just like the poll tax was the pressing issue for my mother and people in her generation, the EU referendum is the pressing issue of my generation. Look at the data: (generally) those who voted remain have to live with the consequences for longer than the ones who voted leave. And this is so sad.

Welcome back State-Centrism - you were not missed at all.

51.9% to 48.1% is hardly a landslide victory. There hasn't been a landslide victory in any British vote since the 1990s when Labour was re-elected to government. It was only just a 2% swing for leave. Thus, "victory" for the leave campaign was incredibly slim. The picture solely from these numbers is of an incredibly polarised country. Us remainers need to change the discourse (because only we seem to have had any sense). We need to declare our opposition to a minority (because 1.9% IS a minority) dragging so many of us. We need to organise. 

And, ironically, the members of the EU 27 are now far more "in control" of the UK's fate than they were 36 hours ago. Germany has already said there have to be consequences and that we will not get any special treatment because "out means out". How is this so difficult to understand.

And before anyone says "but if the roles were reversed, leave voters wouldn't be acting like this". No. They wouldn't. Do you know why they wouldn't be so emotionally distressed? Because they wouldn't have lost any of their rights. They wouldn't have lost any of their freedoms. And they wouldn't have gained a country full of openly racist, xenophobic, bigoted people.

It's easy for Brexit supporters to demand remainers unite with them than it is for them to say what future they want us to unite around. They don't have a clue about what lies ahead, what the economic, social, and political situation will be, nor do they know what deal they will be given. There's no clear strategy, and whatever happens, almost half the country will be alienated if they don't think this through as mutually beneficially as possible. If Brexiteers (as I've just found out they're called?!) are serious about handing control to British people and uniting a very divided country, then a proportional voting system HAS to be the priority so all voices are heard and some fairly amicable agreement can be reached. But leave won't do that. Those at the forefront of the leave campaign are already back-peddling on their promises and claims. Good start, I guess.

Moreover, it's easy for Brexit voters to say "what about the 28% who didn't vote?". I hope you realise that the 72% relates ONLY to the number of people actually registered to vote? That figure doesn't take into account the number of people who weren't registered for a long list of reasons (people in shelters and no permanent address are denied the right to vote; the change in boundaries has meant many people couldn't because the system failed them; the UK "citizens" who live abroad and were not allowed to participate; the list goes on). And then of the 28% registered who didn't vote, there too is an incredibly long list of reasons as to why they didn't (perhaps work commitments changed last minute and they weren't in their local area to vote and couldn't change to postal or proxy because of timings; people who did not receive their postal vote because of clerical errors; and so on). 

We MUST NOT criticise the 28% - we do not know their stories. Also we must not extrapolate the figures and say we need to force these numbers in General Elections. I mean, yes, 72% in a GE would be AMAZING. However, referendums generally receive a higher % of engagement by virtue of every count actually being representative, rather than in a first-past-the-post system like in GE's which naturally is disproportionate to the votes cast. Naturally, referendums make people feel like their vote is worth something (yes or no, in or out, up or down, etc), rather than GE's where the system is already biased against smaller parties.

One of my lecturers has made the absolutely BRILLIANT point that this referendum has shown a lot of political scientists (and the general public too) interpreting "democracy" as meaning "sit down, shut up, like it" once a vote has happened. They also seem to think that democracy means "never disagree with a majority view: instead, accept it and adapt". So quit saying "it's democracy" or "democracy has spoken" now please. The numbers don't indicate democratic equity. Rather, they indicate tyranny of the (tiny) majority.

Final note regarding Scotland: is it not astonishing that the Scottish government is already seeking immediate talks with the EU, whilst the UK government is seemingly doing nothing, with no intentions to make haste and implement the necessary Article 50? Right now, it feels like the UK does not really have a government, but Scotland most definitely does.

Maybe we could put 2016 in some rice? I think we're all a bit screwed and broken now.