dolanbaker wrote:
Many people have absolutely no idea what the "man in the street" is thinking and in many cases do not care, so just dismiss them as "uneducated".
Having moved to England just after the vote this is the thing that I most struggle with. The media here is just a partisan punch and judy show. In conversation the topic is barely mentoned by the average Brit and when it is broached I find their grasp on the EU is extremely limited, and don't even get me started on their ignorance of their own country! And many of these are professionals I'm talking about, many of whom have worked abroad!
National media is a battlefield, whereas sometimes just listening to the local radio is where you'll find out what the public are thinking. In a recent local radio vox pop both leave and remain voters up my way all expressed the desire to "just get on with it, stop mucking about." I don't believe there really is an appetite outside the remain bubbles for a "peoples vote", if anything it's probably rubbing people up the wrong way. Corbyn's absolutely right to not push on this.
I reckon on the ground ending of Freedom of Movement is the great masses redline around which they'll coalesce if pushed. Many conflated non-EU immigration with Freedom of Movement. Yeah, they haven't fully understood it means the dream of retiring to the Playa da Blackpool becomes harder but then they mentally never viewed those stomping grounds as foreign anyway!
This is why I reckon we're heading for a customs deal, and tough shít DUP, you're getting an Irish sea border. If the DUP collapse the government they'll get one with Corbyn anyway so that's why I reckon the DUP will spin it as a compromise somehow. Call it damage limitation after bringing forward the prospect of a border poll by a few generations!