h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Proportion of the UK public who accept evolution as fact: 48%. (Source: Ipsos Mori for the BBC).

Proportion of the UK public who voted Remain: 48%.

Coincidence?




Yes, obviously, but it's a provocative one. To a decimal place, the number of people who voted Leave and the number of people who provably benightedly thick is EXACTLY THE SAME. Who'da thunk?

*does double take*

>>The way I see it is that Brexit was probably inevitable, given the rising tide of opinion against the changes to people's lives which EU membership and, more recently, globalisation are perceived to have brought over the last few decades.<<

Hang on, Icy - are you suggesting that the Brits would, given the chance, vote to leave the globe?

Exactly. The majority would have ticked any negative-sounding option.

What concerned me is the spate of racial abuse reports "immigrants and their descendants are being stopped in the street and ordered to leave Britain". And some have being assaulted, it appears the vote has been seen by some as an open mandate to take matters into their own hands.

"So true it is about time that people had to take a written test to get the vote, that won't unfortunately happen soon"


Considering what that sort of thing has been used for in my own country's history, I'd advise against such a requirement.




"the number of people who voted Leave and the number of people who provably benightedly thick is EXACTLY THE SAME. Who'da thunk?"


Way to pick a completely unneccessary fight over a completely unrelated subject Hooloovoo.

Who's picking a fight?

I only even have that stat because the fight is *over*, and the thickies won.

I'm sufficiently optimistic to hope that there will be some positive changes as a result of this referendum. Not sure what, or when, but may be some sort of indirect benefit. Lots of bad stuff yet to happen too probably.

At the moment, I see Headmaster Michael Gove 'reforming' education to bring back mandatory corporal punishment. I see Nigel Farage whipping up race riots. And I see the whole thing being presided over by a blond-haired loon with more than one thing in common with Boris Yeltsin.

Maybe we need Brian Cox to rush on stage singing 'Things Can Only Get Better".

Line Item Commentaries:




Bobstafford's post 195: There's always the opposite approach employed by the Australians, voting a legally mandatory civic duty with penalties for failure to do so.

Seems to work well.




Icy North's post 196: ...that 'No! No! A thousand times No!' voter attitude...




swl and Peanut's posts 197 and 198: political conventions on political fraud always have avtively favored the antisocials.




Otto Fisch and Icy North's posts 199 and 200: It does appear that despite the success of the petition for parliamentary debate that referendom vote is going to stick.

Its not the end of the world.

Indecision can be more damaging than an adverse decision.

Taking this from the American point of view against the backdrop of American Civil War issues, the situation is making people feel uneasy about the stability of both the UK and the EU.




Hoovooloo's post 201: my own outlook on evolution: an undeniable natural process I don't feel obligated to accept, approve of, or promote; letting nature take its course is the single most surefire prescription for disaster; doing so amounts to promoting evolution, a self-contradiction in their outlook anti-evolutionists don't seem to be able to grasp.

Right now I am campaigning on two fronts.

One is that people who voted Leave are not especially stupid. Deceived maybe, but not loons or thick more than anybody else. They voted for £350m/week to the NHS, controlled immigration, no more double handling of community grants, removing red tape and accountable law makers.

These are not unreasonable things to vote for. The fact that many of the proponents of Leave had NO INTENTION of delivering any or all of these things is not the fault of the electorate. The irony of the lack of accountability of the leaders of Leave isn't lost on all of us.

My second is to stop calling for a second vote. It isn't a big thing here but it is in real life. If the millions of people now signing partitions for a second referendum had spent the previous weekend campaigning on street corners in Birmingham and Ipswich et al (or even London), the vote would have been completely different.

I do take solace in the fact that the majority of people who will negotiate the terms of Section 50 will have voted Remain. Provided they actually implement the vote honestly and to the best of their ability, I think there will be something that they will salvage.

I don't think anyone in the political establishment really expected Brexit to win the referendum. IMO Gove and Johnson were lancing the EuroSceptic boil in the Tory Party whilst jockeying for the PMs job. Maybe they expected to lose but say to the Eurosceptics, "Hey guys, we did our best, we're on your side".

The whole atmosphere in the lead up to the vote was a resigned air that Remain was going to win. Settling down to the BBC at 10pm this was certainly the case, especially when they started quoting polls showing Remain had won. The Pound had soared mid-morning as someone in the City started to get polling showing a Remain win.

I went to bed about 2am after some slightly unusual results but nothing that pointed towards a Brexit win. I got up at 6, opened my browser and was almost physically sick with shock.

Reading the statements today and cutting through the hysterical denialist nonsense, I think we're going to end up in a relationship with the EU which will bear a startling resemblance to the one we have now but it will have a different name, allowing everyone to be a winner. We won't be members of the EU but we'll have full access to the market - in return for freedom of movement and a fee of around £350m a week.

I think that's awfully optimistic.

I'm not in favour of a second vote right now but don't think it is unreasonable to in some way have another say once the actualities of exiting have been worked out.

As I am reading it though that will not be possible as Article 50 has to be triggered before discussions can happen.

Re: swl 213: "We won't be members of the EU but we'll have full access to the market - in return for freedom of movement and a fee of around £350m a week"

Yes, I've read this, too, but it doesn't exactly sound like what the Leave camp set out for. I'm guessing 'freedom of movement' is synonymous with 'uncontrolled migration between UK and EU'? And what do we currently pay weekly?

My point exactly

And without any say in the regulations etc...

Oh c'mon now, Gove and Vine posing outside no 10, it is just too much

even just the mental imagery