tinyclanger2 wrote: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bre ... 77276.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Part of why it has been so powerful – in addition to the other factors which contributed to Brexit, such as inequality and a general sense of economic hopelessness in many parts of the country – is because of its emotional appeal. As Ukip donor Arron Banks admitted, "facts don't work". It plays upon an existing and strong sense of national pride.
which is different from any kind of national pride I might have had, because all I feel now is appalled.
The reason we see a drift to the far left and the far right and a rejection of rationalism is that people want to believe that there is an easy solution to their problems. The reality that the world is changing, and not necessarily for the better; and that the nation state is rather limited in what it can do to mitigate that isn't something people want to hear.
Blame immigrants and the EU for cheap labour is a great answer. Of course the fact we need immigration to offset a crippling demographic time bomb isn't recognised. Yes the UK is "filling up", but it is filling up with old white people. Similarly we see this argument that if only we had a universal income everything would be great, except nobody can actually work out how to pay for it, and any sort of careful thought would show that you probably never can.
Nobody wants to hear about sensible pragmatic solutions, that while messy, might help a bit.
The tragedy being that the one organisation able to stand up against globalisation and the race to the bottom is the EU, just look at how effective their new privacy legislation is.
Which is why the hedge funds and the advocates of unrestrained free market capitalism campaigned so hard against it. Lexit was the flip side of that, the EU is stopping us implementing these wonderfully simple solutions (which are wonderfully and simply wrong..)
Release the Guardvarks.