I'm only up to page 6 and I have to go and clean the bathroom. Always fun. But I wanted to just comment on the idea that it's become about class. Maybe it has.
For me, it has become about respecting experts, something we don't seem to do.
We've reached a point of 'everyone is as good as everyone else' which in broad terms, yes they are.
But in some cases, some people are better.
The oft-repeated example of the heart sugeon, for example. In some cases, his training, experience and education do make him the best man for the job. Like when surgery needs performing.
When a plane needs flying, I will trust the guy who has been trained to fly it, rather than assuming I know better and grabbing the controls.
When all the top economists in the world tell me that staying in the EU is better for the UK, I will believe them. Because I am not a top economist. I have some grasp of the issues but it is not a deep, detailed knowledge.
I will also believe all the major environmental charities when they say remaining is best, and I will trust the government advisors for agriculture I spoke to who said remaining would be far better. I may be able to marshall up some arguments against but ultimately, this is their area of expertise, not mine, and I will respect that.
The two leave voters I have spoken to are not interested in anything beyond the immigration issue. They are both lovely people, and not racist, but they are concerned that 'cities the size of Wolverhampton are being built and we are running out of space'. According to one. The other cannot see why the UK need deal with other countries at all. We should just be independent. We have been before. I'm not sure what era she's thinking of to be fair. Tudor times?
But neither of them have recognised that there may be a gap in their knowledge. Never mind not knowing things, they don't even realise there might be things they don't know that others do. They are utterly convinced in the right to vote, that their vote is as equal as anyone else's, and in some ways I agree, in that there are things we can vote on which everyone needs a say in, and everyone's vote should then be weighted equally.
But in this, when the consequences are so far-reaching and broad-ranging and multi-layered, I actually don't think everyone is equal.
I don't think we should have had a referendum at all. If you are going to do something this epic, it needed to be decided on by people who actually understand, properly, what they are talking about.
And as it happens, all the people I know who did the reading up, and research, all have degrees or have travelled widely. And they almost, not entirely, but almost, all, voted remain.
The two people I know who voted leave have never been to uni or travelled, in one case, never leaving the county.
I do wonder if there's a sort of correlation under it all, in as far as 'the people who like to know things, whatever their class, are more likely to go travelling to see them, or go to uni to learn about them, so are just by nature more likely to read up on something like this'.
You aren't interested in this sort of thing, you don't read up, you either don't know or aren't interested in what the experts have to say. And you make your choice based on a slogan.
Maybe sometimes it is ok to say that there are circumstances where we are not all equal. On that note, if you want the best home-made lemon curd ever, go round to my leave voting neighbour. I think you'll be hard pushed to top it. Just don't ask her economics advice.