Why do you think people who voted differently to you in the referendum voted that way?

[themueslicamel]

Just this really, what do you think drove people who looked at the referendum and made the conscious decision to vote the other way?

My family thought it "would be nice" for the NHS o get 350m a week more

I didn't vote but I would guess

Leave
Voted for as fed up with population rising rapidly due to immigration and then school and hospitals being pushed to breaking point.
Some may have believed we would have more money.
Increase in terror attacks since widespread immigration started across Europe after previously feeling safe.
Fed up with being told how good immigration is and if they complain they are racist, which some are, but many aren't.
Fed up with the economy being said to grow when its just as population has risen.
Fed up with European Human Rights laws.
Believe many successful countries like Switzerland manage without being members of EU and short term pain is necessary for long term gain.

For
Believe immigration is good and only see the benefits.
Believe relationship with EU helps us economically.
Don't want to be isolated.
Believe UK cannot survive without Europe and we will go into a downwards spiral.
Believe anyone who disagrees with them is thick and / or racist.

Believe... short term pain is necessary for long term gain
Funny how the narrative on this score has shifted, isn't it? I can't remember in the run-up to the vote ANY leavers talking about any pain, no matter how short; it was all going to be immediately brilliant.

I heard it at the time a fair bit in discussions with people but obviously political campaigns on both sides will generally just sell the positives and leave out negatives.

DS seems to have this sussed, asked to do a political manifesto at school he said to me I just have to put popular things in don't I so everyone votes for me and I only need a 10 percent chance of being able to achieve them Mummy? He then put the current Head teacher should be replaced by the old (lovely but forced out in a day) Head , the whole class cheered and political manifestos got quietly dropped.

Two replies in and already ‘because they’re racist idiots’ 🙄

I think people voted differently because they had different priorities, were more/less risk averse and had different views on the EU’s future direction.

That’s it really.

My father voted leave. He is a very long-standing eurosceptic and a former liberal party member and councillor (pre the Alliance/ Lib Dems) who was involved in UKIP in its very early days when it was a single-issue anti Euro/ anti further European integration party (he left once the racists took over).

If you want to know why he voted leave then the simplest thing would be to visit Richard North's website (eureferendum.com) as their views were to all intents and purposes identical. We haven't discussed brexit recently but I am sure he is as alarmed as I am by the government's incompetence. The EEA option would be his preferred solution.

I suspect my mum voted leave too (we haven't talked about it because she is plainly embarrassed about it and there is nothing to be gained by rubbing her nose in it). In her case, the balance was shifted by her MP, who for all his faults (he's a bit of a brexit loon and an ultra right winger) does take the time to visit the small villages and hamlets in his constituency - something other parties fail to do. He is supposedly avuncular and convincing, and I think that sort of thing swung it for many older people who don't pay a lot of attention to politics.

My in laws voted remain, but virtually their entire friendship group voted leave except those with children living in the EU. The most common reason was extra money for the NHS, but MIL reported that she heard one person celebrating the leave win on the grounds that "now the potholes will get filled in".

So: people voted for lots of reasons, some more logical and thought-out than others.

Those leavers that I've spoken with have been very honest about the reasons behind their vote. I won't mention them here as they seem to aggravate other leavers for some reason. Suffice to say that I thought and still think differently to them. I just worry about how much of this mess is caused by biased (both sides) media reports and the utter incompetence of the government to even try to make it work somehow. Tbh, I think that majority of this mess has been caused by the tories. You would think they'dwant to put more moderate people in charge to drive this thing through but apparently not.

One good friend voted leave because of frustration over EU fishing quotas.

Another, more acquaintance really, a lovely talented lady who had a habit of posting Britain First things on FB but she got too much aggro from everyone for that so desisted. So voted leave for patriotic () or anti immigration reasons at a guess.

My sister voted leave because she "thought it wouldn't happen and would give the government a wake up call" dick

Most of the Remainers I know through work voted that way because they want us to reform the EU from within the option Cameron had already put forward that was rejected summarily by the EU - or, possibily, because that approach had clearly been so effective in the previous 40 years and others, rather ignorant of European history and the history of what is now the EU in particular, because they felt that it's responsible for avoiding war in Europe since 1945 fuck you, Former Yugoslavia but my absolute favourite were those who told me they didn't know much about the EU, but because the Guardian was in favour of Remain, it must be the right choice

Socially, I don't know anyone who voted Remain. I also don't know any racists

Whichever way you voted I think we can all agree that it's not going great at the moment.

I don't really know anyone who admits to having voted Leave but ...

my df told me that a friend of his voted Leave because the EU doesn't allow you to carry a couple of dead sheep to market to sell.

It's my very favourite "I voted to fuck the economy for a generation for a completely fucking insane personal unicorn" reason of all the reasons I have ever come across.

Sorry, that should have read:

"The EU doesn't allow you to carry a couple of dead sheep to market to sell in your car."

My bad, as they say.

I don't really know anyone who admits to having voted Leave but ...

Perhaps the reason you don’t is because of your attitude toward voting to leave?

If you think that voting to leave is something that is to be ‘admitted’ then that suggests that you think that voting that way is ‘wrong’ or awful or beyond the pale in some way.

If you attach a value judgement to something, then people who have done that something are not likely to share it with you, are they?

I suspect you probably ‘know’ quite a few more Leave voters than you think you do, it’s just that they won’t share it with you.

No, Faith, I really don't. I live in a patch of London described as a "right-on ghetto" by another friend. Pretty much everyone I know didn't just vote Remain, they also were involved in getting other people to vote Remain.

My social circle is clearly ridiculously small.

Apologies then.

Your social circle must be very small then - I know both Leavers & remainers.

Most of the remainers I know aren’t overly upset or worried (a couple are though), and most of the Leavers I know aren’t the stereotype (a couple are though).

Mostly, everyone has just got on with their lives & no one has fallen out.

Well, it's not that small ... but clearly quite homogenous on this issue. It crossed normal political lines.

Come on, somebody try and beat the sheep for a reason! Either side of the vote will do.

I can’t beat the sheep, sorry!

🤣🤣 🐑 🐑

Not true of everybody, I'm sure (Ruth Lea, for example, is a very well respected economist), but all the people I know personally who voted Leave have absolutely no clue about basic economics (e.g. the size of our current account deficit, what a 20% fall in sterling means etc etc).

I am afraid the only people I know who voted Leave absolutely fit the stereotypes.

1. Octagenarians who think the UK is still entitled to the power of being at the head of an Empire on which the sun never sets. Currently railing at Berniers "bullying" . Swallowed hook line and sinker the Daily Mail etc's xenophobic lies and the Leave campaigns lies. Reassures us that it will all be alright because it was before we were in the EU...

1. Right wing residents of Essex and the estuary towns who work in the city, earn loadsamoney, and worship at the alter of Farage. Union Jack cushions in the living room....

^I don't really know anyone who admits to having voted Leave but ...

Perhaps the reason you don’t is because of your attitude toward voting to leave?^

I don't think that's awfully surprising tbh given the geographical and demographic concentration of the remain vote. I also live in a remain bubble - I am a Londoner working in a business unit in a large organisation where everyone is at least degree educated and you're almost an odd one out if you don't have a PhD. Outside work my personal social circle includes many immigrants.

I happen to know some leave voters, because they are older family members, but I literally don't know a single person my age or younger who voted leave.

A mum at DS school voted remain as "she liked going on holiday to Spain and wanted to ensure she still could". She was astonished to hear that people visited Spain well before the EU.

I think she probably meant afford to still visit Spain