I think I addressed this in an earlier post, but too lazy to hunt it down. Essentially:Bi_3 wrote:ABNorman, all kidding aside, in a previous post you implied you were not impressed by the arguments of either side. What made you choose?
1) I was (and remain) unconvinced that we'll give up our access to the single market, so the immigration talk from Leave was bluster (and indeed, they've already started backtracking on this, amongst other things). I thought it'd be really dumb to give up any control over regulations governing that single market, but still largely have our trade in the area dominated by it. I also don't believe that immigration has been the massive issue in the UK that it has been made out to be. I'm not sure I agree with the element that claim it's essentially a solution to the UK's age problem, but I think it's pretty close to null impact.
2) Environmentally, the EU's done a lot more for the UK than our government, and I have no confidence that a Tory government (that's already been very much behind fracking, for example) would seek to continue or improve that work. As a middle-class citizen with a comfortable life that won't be able to afford a house any time soon unless house prices absolutely TANK, there aren't many issues in UK politics that directly affect me. The environment is one of them.
3) Even though they were obviously coming from a place of "let's keep the stable status quo, you guys", I was willing to place more trust in the majority of experts and institutions with more knowledge and resources than me.
4) I'm a globalist, in the sense that I believe we should be doing more together to tackle global issues like climate change and overpopulation. And in the sense that I HATE blind patriotism/nationalism. I'm not sure these post-Brexit arguments from educated middle-class conservatives on the net can be retroactively applied to what was undeniably a campaign built on fear, anger and hatred (Remain only had one of those to blast the public with).
5) The personalities of either side also played a part. Boris Johnson comes across as a friendly dope but that masks a disagreeable (to me) mid-to-far right core. Nigel Farage speaks for the large contingent of intolerant people and deserves very little of my time. The prominent figures praising leave were people like Trump, Le Pen, etc - these are not people I have much in common with politically. The Remainers were almost as divisive, but outside of the politicians, a lot of people whose opinions I respect were in favour of remaining.
6) This is not a point I like to rabble on about, because it has been the source of personal issues, but I am fairly antagonistic towards England, even though I live here. The fact that Scotland (part of my heritage) and Europe (a diversity of people and views) were attached did provide some solace, and part of me was reluctant to put that at jeopardy. Not a huge part of my voting strategy, but definitely part of it.
