Brexit where we are today
Dear Sir,
In 1964 Harold Wilson famously said – a week is a long time in politics.
Back then no internet, no mobile phones, information through 2 or 3 TV channels in the evening news or the national press in the next day editions.
Fast forward to 2019 when these words I am writing now can be sent around the world in milliseconds.
We have just passed three years since the vote to leave Europe on June 23rd 2016.
Result : Leave 17.410.000 Remain 16.140.000 Difference 1.270.000
That year we lost David Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali and John Glenn Leicester City won the Premier League and Donald Trump won his ticket to immortality.
Seems like an eternity.
Closer to home and based on national statistics around 500.000 people aged 50 or more died in 2016 and again in 2017 and 2018.
Figures for those reaching voting age each year are not precise as it depends on individuals registering so can only be estimated at around 400.00 each year.
What is more certain is that younger people( 18-45) voted two thirds to remain and one third to leave, whilst above 45 years those figures were reversed.
We are now in a different electoral landscape. Had we voted and then left the EU immediately people would have been happy. Chaos of sorts would have ensued but the peoples vote would have been respected.
Three years down the line, the peoples vote has not been respected, mainly due to the majority of our politicians voting to remain, and we are in a completely different world scenario.
Now at least the the amount of information available to and absorbed by the public is immensely greater than three years ago.
To establish the national mood now we must have another vote with the proviso if the vote is leave then we leave within 3 months maximum.
This whole sorry episode has been a monumental learning curve for both the public and our politicians.
After this has been settled it will be several generations before our ruling elite again risk asking the advice of the voting public.
John Little