A few thoughts on the EU referendum result

Many of my peers are upset and angry at the outcome of Thursdays referendum so I would like to ask a few questions of us, acknowledging that there is likely no way back from the decision for the UK to leave the EU.

First let us consider what happened by looking at the demographics - the statistical data related to the population, and groups within in.

UK social grade definitions. From ukgeographics.

How Britain voted. From Lord Ashcroft Polls.

We may conclude from the above figures that the 'higher' professionals were the only ones to have a majority remain vote, with the lower professionals pretty even. It is clear that the C2 and DE demographics representing skilled manual to unemployed people, overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU.

Looking at the breakdown of ages, the trend is clear, voters younger than 35 (roughly 20% of the population) had a majority in the remain camp, voters older than 45 (roughly 42% of the population) had a majority in the leave camp, and those between (roughly 14% of the population) were even. Percentage of population estimates were done by using 2011 census data used here.

The overall outcome - a 51.9% majority to leave, which equates to 37.37% of the electorate, not more than half of the UK population.

Who is to blame?

Inevitably people will blame (for success or failure) whomsoever they choose. It is interesting however to look at various poll results for example:

How much attention do you generally pay to politics poll result. From Lord Ashcroft Polls.

Though this may indicate that leave supporters pay slightly less attention to politics in general than remain supporters, this is a tenuous link. More interesting by far is the 50-50 split for those that pay a lot of attention (or more). It indicates that the campaigns played a large part in the outcome of the referendum.

My own opinion, and that of many that I have spoken to, is that both sides used hatred, fear, and lies to sway the masses. Both campaigns were increasingly negative as the vote neared. In short neither side gave us much confidence in British politics, and many would agree that both sides embarrassed themselves and our country.

This may be why Jeremy Corbyn has such immense support, some may claim that he took a backseat in this referendum, and it is well known that he is not a massive fan of the EU, but perhaps he simply has more dignity and sense than those using exaggeration, lies, and doctored statistics to deceive and cloud the issues. I for one look forward to the direction that Corbyn will give Labour in the future.

The ugly truth

There are many reasons (presented here) as to why people voted to leave and remain, but let us consider something else.

The majority of those that feel wronged by the outcome are remain supporters that may not realise their own privilege. My Facebook and Twitter feeds have certainly been full of similar demographics feeling quite frankly disgusted at this outcome, with a few rather childish leave supporters gloating shamelessly.

Whether in education, social class, wealth etc, most of us (yes, I'm one of the disgruntled remain camp) are privileged in some way.

Let us consider that large proportions of the older and lower social grade demographics voted to leave. Perhaps this had less than we think to do with the EU, perhaps this was the only way for those who feel without a voice, to speak up.

It is our responsibility as the privileged to hear them. Is this a cry of distress? Is it right for some to associate leave supporters with racists? Or to attribute ignorance to lower social status, education, or wealth?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to imply these things - there are plenty of higher social class, well educated, wealthy leave supporters - I'm just considering the other demographic as it shows a significant trend.

Maybe we need to stop worrying so much about the implications of this referendum on our relations with the EU, and start asking what has caused such a large proportion of these demographics to vote leave.

Do we, as the privileged, need to make changes in order to support those less so? I'm not just talking about education etc., what I'm getting at is the political system that we are governed by.

I've always believed that it is a complete farce that the incumbent minister of state for universities and science holds a history degree, was a journalist, an investment banker, and has no formal science qualifications! The incumbent secretary of state for health studied PPE, taught English in Japan, and was an entrepreneur before his role as an MP. What does he know about health (as we've seen by his various death-wish policies, not enough).

Democracy?

Many claim that we live in a democracy, but I'm not so sure. A referendum is as close to a true democracy as we may be able to achieve, however it is influenced by politicians, celebrities, companies and many more. How many of us voted on our principles rather than for the outcome we perceived to benefit us most?

One may argue that the closest we came to a true democracy was Athenian Greece in the time of Socrates. Let us recall that even then, women and slaves could not vote. Socrates' student Plato was an idealist and believed that for a successful democracy all people should be virtuous - not only showing high moral standards, but all having been educated in politics by society. I'm not sure about how virtuous I am, but this referendum has provided plenty of political education.

Plato's student Aristotle was not an aristocrat like Socrates and Plato, and believed that a just society was one of the 'golden mean' i.e. one where the majority of the population were of the middle class, and this presented the best polity. Are we that middle that needs to take more responsibility?

Plato and Aristotle agreed that politics and ethics are related, and that the state should be an agent of virtue, that educates society in the right way. Machiavelli saw the state purely as an agent of control, in which the leader(s) must and should do anything required in order to ensure the safety and stability of the people.

I would not consider our government an agent of virtue, and we can see quite clearly that the populous have not been educated in the right way with regards to this referendum. The state is an agent of control but lacks civil responsibility. As it does not educate society in the right way, we are divided. 

The UK now finds itself in a state of mild war, and I believe that it is our responsibility to modify the political paradigm. The state should work for us all, it should not pit us against one another to allow career politicians to benefit from this conflict.

Final thoughts

Many of us are concentrating on the obvious repercussions and outcomes of the leave vote, however I believe that this referendum has identified fatal flaws in our polity. I am not in a position to suggest a perfect solution, however as educated and privileged members of our society we must recognise that change is needed, and become agents of virtue.

Political campaigns have used lies to influence the outcome of this referendum - the truth is rare and hard to discern for even the most experienced among us. We must base our decisions on fact and truth.

The 'lower social grade' demographics appear to have used this referendum to show their disdain for our current polity. It is up to us to make a difference so that in future we may be proud of our decisions as a nation rather than disgusted at the process.

An aged population means that as 'the young' we will be outnumbered and must communicate with our elders, engaging in debate rather than seeking to 'correct' them.

We must not accept a system where any elected MP can hold the post of science, health, education... minister/secretary etc. These positions should be appointments decided on knowledge, experience, and qualifications in these sectors.

Our democracy is not good enough, and perhaps never will be. We cannot look to political parties made up of career politicians to have our best interests at heart. We must unite in individual action. The individual must show humanity. The individual must wield fact. The individual must consider their neighbours.

Finally - this is all my own opinion - I could be wrong. All I intend is to make you think. If we all used our minds to find fact instead of listening to opinions we would be better off. If we took the system of Socrates whereby the greater factual and logical argument was automatically victorious, we might be able to settle a referendum unanimously in minutes. If we allow emotion, particularly fear and hatred, to influence our decisions, we become easy to manipulate. I hope that humanity is able to benefit from experience, knowledge, and reason, instead of the alternatives that we are so used to.

Peace.