The UK’s EU referendum result is
a reckless leap in the dark
In
the early stages of the European Union referendum when everyone knew a lot less
about the respective cases for staying or leaving, it was suggested that the
choice essentially boiled down to a simple one. If you are risk averse vote to
Remain. If you like taking risks vote to Leave.
There was also a feeling- and nothing more tangible than a feeling- that
when it came down to the wire more people would end up voting Remain and not
taking that risk. These sorts of things were dismissed by hard core campaigners
(from both sides) who said we should and would vote on the real long term serious
political and economic issues. Trouble
is nowadays with social media spreading ideas like wildfire most people don’t
do that. Most people vote based either on one particular issue that it niggling
them or else on little more than gut feelings. In that respect the result is no
more than a reckless leap in the dark, an expression of an optimistic `grass is
greener on the other side` view. I’m sure there were just as many Leave voters
who had nervous stomachs on hearing the results this morning as those who voted
Remain. As is already becoming apparent nobody actually knows what will happen
now. The mechanism is clear enough- the soon to be ubiquitous Article 50- but
the economic and social repercussions of operating that mechanism are not.
