I knew there must be a use for Katty Kay....she has gone off-message and laid out the reasons for Brexit.….naturally she can’t quite throw off her BBC training and imprinting and concludes it’s all about the dreaded populism and simple messages appealing to emotion not brain….yep…all the Leave voters are simpletons with no mind of their own…….
Angry electorate
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, the leader of the Leave campaign, have tapped into a similar public mood of disgruntlement. On both sides of the Atlantic, a lot of people feel they’ve been handed a bad deal. In the UK, it’s European bureaucrats in Brussels who are to blame.
Globalisation
The forces of globalisation are causing havoc for European workers as they are for American workers. If you are a white working class man (in particular) the combined effects of immigration, free trade and technology have made your job and your wages less secure. Policy makers in the UK and the US have singularly failed to address these issues in any meaningful way. If the Brexit camp wins next week it could suggest the global anti-globalisation mood (if such a thing is possible) is stronger than we realised.
Immigration
Immigration deserves its own category because it is so critical in both campaigns. Economists argue about the relative impact of immigrants versus robots on wage stagnation – voters don’t care much.
Like its European partner, the British government is caught in the nightmare story that is the European migrant/refugee crisis, with no effective response.
Lost pride
The complicated feeling of having had a bad deal has created an insidious spin off, a sense of broken pride, both national and personal. Working men, in particular, face a world they did not expect, jobs are hard to find and pay badly meaning they often can’t provide single-handedly for their families, as their fathers and grandfathers did. That alone causes a loss of pride.
For Brits the loss of national pride comes from a feeling that British sovereignty has been given away to Brussels and if we leave the EU, we will be stronger, better, more respected.
Populism
And, finally, populism loves simplicity, especially, it seems, when it’s dressed up with an impressively wacky hair do. Boris Johnson and Donald Trump appeal to the heart not the head, they offer simple solutions in a time of complex problems.
A victory for Brexit next week by no means guarantees a Trump victory in the autumn. However, if the forces of disgruntlement, nationalism, populism and anti-globalisation are strong enough to force a radical move in the UK, they may be strong enough to force a radical election in America too.
Evan Davies (him of the “Albert”) has just stated, Snoozenite, that the majority of “leavers” are over 65 or are poorly educated.
I translate that as “If you disagree with what we say, you must be thick”.
Classic BBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the supercilious stance of lefties! You must be under educated if you don’t agree with me!
I recall the revolting Polly Toynbee implying something similar on the AQ’s special last Saturday.
Rhif Saith
‘The majority of “leavers” are over 65 or are poorly educated.’
The over 65s were far far better educated than those churned out by the modern comprehensive system.
No more home grown scientists, engineers, surgeons , physicists, mathematician or doctors. They are all from outside the UK .
On the other hand, we now have ‘theologians’ , ‘economists’ , ‘historians , sociologists , actors and of course, career politicians, none of whom have ever done a real days work in their life.
Dyn Cwmraeg
The quote was from “him of the Albert”.
You missed out Meeja Studies!
Number 7 (Rhif Saith)
I am with you on that 😉
‘Meeja Studies’ ? – I have never suffered from it . I have had measles though .
Rhif saith….the word you seek, to describe ‘taffman’ is simply
‘Cymro’..
If you’ll allow me here I can help out with the welsh connections:
A a welsh speaking welsh man……..Cymro
B a welsh speaking woman……….Cymraes
C the country itself…….Cymru
D the plural or collective noun for A and B …….Cymry (note the spelling diff to C)
E the welsh language….Cymraeg
F something welsh in nature ( eg welsh cheese) Cymreig….( caws cymreig)
I hope this is helpful to you sir.
Thanks Myfyriwr – apologies.
I have “picked up” less Welsh in 6 years here than I did Greek in 6 months on the islands.
I thought “Dyn Cymraeg” was a good try, but never mind.
Some under 65’s whom I taught at Yooni were under educated, including little fatty Mardell who endured some of my lectures. As brilliant as what I am mistakes and been made and lessons learnt
Possibly Evan defines ‘poorly educated’ as ‘finished his education at an early age’. This definition could be misleading. School exams in the sixties and seventies were pretty demanding. Someone who went straight to work after achieving high-grade A-Levels (or even O-Levels) might be more intelligent and well-informed than a young graduate in golf course maintenance from the former Romney Marsh polytechnic.
Good point Helena. I remember the 11 Plus, followed by regular tests and annual exams, culminating in “O” and “A” level exams, which made no concessions. We just had to get on with it.
My grandparents received little formal education – I’m not sure what form it took but it must have been very basic, yet they were literate and numerate. Books were everywhere, some quite serious (I remember The Origin of Species), but no TV until mid/late 1960s.
I agree with both of you. My mother left school at 14, I believe, but worked as a secretary with good shorthand and typing speeds. School encouraged self-learning as well as the formal learning by rote. Right up to the time she could no longer read she was interested in history, arts etc.
My father came to this country just short of his 12th birthday knowing only one word of English. Within three years he had been taught it to the extent that he won the class English prize. He left school at 15 and, like my mother, was highly numerate and literate. Like her he loved the arts, particularly classical music in his case.
Formal learning encourages love of knowledge. My father, when deep into dementia, couldn’t remember who we were most of the time but could still recite long English poems that he must have either learned at school or taught himself later.
The reality is the reverse. The Education system, from schools to universities, even to PhD level, has been successively dumbed down over the last 35 years, to promote an egalitarian society, where everyone goes to a university. And if there are not enough universities, they were created from FE colleges and polytechnics. Thus we had “university lecturers” in former FE colleges, teaching to degree level and beyond, without themselves having a degree. The lecturers had no clue, and students over the last three decades, even less.
The process continues even as we speak, as these badly educated, now university lecturers and professors, give rise to even worse ones then the previous ones etc, one can thus state, that the rate or decay of the standard of education S with time, is proportional to the Standard S, plus a human interference (government) factor HIF.
So Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are poorly educated ?
Here’s the images to take to the election booth on Thursday 23rd June
Geldof, Davies, Clegg,Sturgeon/Salmond …..and that complete shambles in Greece ……….to name but 5 examples.
If we assume that the EU lasts another 30 years, then if we stay in the EU, all parliamentary elections within Britain,
for the next 30 years, have no importance except to change the “bums on seats” in parliament, as all decisions are made by the EU, and have to be in concordance with German and French view. We might as well dissolve parliament, and save the money.
We either control our own destiny as a people, or others control it