YP Letters: Brexit campaigners are being arrogant over slim victory

Brexit campaigners are being arrogant over slim victory

By The Newsroom Sunday, 23rd October 2016, 8:14 pm Updated Tuesday, 25th October 2016, 5:02 pm

Brexiteers like Boris Johnson have been accused of exploiting the scale of their June 23 mandate.

SEVERAL recent letters, including that by Dr Whiteley (The Yorkshire Post, October 19), have referred to as what they regard as the arrogance of the Remoaners.

However, in my opinion, it is the Brexiteers who are displaying a far more arrogant attitude.

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Having won the EU referendum by a very slender margin, they are currently trying to stifle any further discussion not only about Brexit, but also the nature of Brexit – for them nothing but a full hard immediate Brexit regardless of the consequences will suffice.

Anyone would think that they had won 92 per cent of the popular vote, not the less than 52 per cent which they actually achieved.

As previous correspondents have pointed out, only 37 per cent of those eligible to vote supported Leave compared with 35 per cent who voted Remain, leaving 28 per cent who were unable to or did not bother to vote.

This slender majority was achieved, in part, because those who wanted to Leave were much more motivated to go out to vote than those who wanted to Remain (a significant proportion of the latter probably did not bother to vote because they had been led to believe that Remain would win), and also because of some of the false promises that Vote Leave made, including the extra £350m per week for the NHS, which they now admit will not happen.

A recent survey of those who did not vote, however, has indicated that the majority would have actually voted Remain, and that if everyone who was entitled to vote had done so, Remain would actually have won, so the Brexiteers probably do not speak for the majority of the public which they constantly claim.

As the consequences of Brexit become clearer, and more people begin to regret the way they vote, the Leave brigade appear to be running increasing scared about any further discussion on the subject.

Meanwhile Mr Douglas (The Yorkshire Post, October 12), like several others, makes the incorrect assumption that use of the metric system is linked to Britain’s membership of the EU, whereas in point of fact the two are entirely unconnected.