Politicians keep telling us a lie. It’s much-repeated, but that doesn’t make it true. Here’s Andrea Leadsom pushing it, but she’s only one of many who do so, pretty much daily, and always unchallenged.
Leadsom, just like the others reading from the same briefing notes, says the 2016 Referendum result was “the biggest democratic decision in our history”.
But it wasn’t.
It wasn’t the “biggest”. It wasn’t “democratic”. And it wasn’t a “decision”.
Biggest?
Fewer people voted in 2016 (33.552m) than in the 1992 General Election (33.614m) – despite population growth of 14%.
There has been far better turnout than 2016. 72% in 2016 v 78% in 1992 v 84% in 1950 for example.
And don’t forget the obvious – the majority was wafer thin. 2016 Referendum Vote Leave: 51.9%. v 1975 Referendum Vote In: 67%.
On any meaningful measure, 2016 wasn’t the “biggest”, and, with population growth factored in, it wasn’t the biggest on any measure.
Democratic?
- Disenfranchised Voters
- Cambridge Analytica
- Side-of-a-Bus Lies
- Spending Lies
- Dark Money
It wasn’t democratic. It was as bent as a nine-rouble note.
(It might have been “the most bent” democratic exercise in our history, but perhaps that is not what Andrea meant.)
Decision?
Three years on, as the ferocity of argument between – and inside – political parties demonstrates, the meaning of Brexit is still being debated.
It means (and meant) different things to different people. Those 51.9% were not united in one vision. There was no single “decision.”
Not Big and Not Clever
The 2016 Referendum wasn’t the biggest, it wasn’t democratic, and it wasn’t a decision.