Amid the excitement of triggering Article 50, YouGov released a poll that slipped past the public eye. It really shouldn’t have: the survey took a look inside the minds of Leave voters and what they hoped for in the EU break up wake. What came out was nothing short of disturbing.
The poll, conducted in February 2017, asked what we’d like reintroduced to the UK after leaving the EU and its pesky laws behind. Some of the findings were remarkably trivial given the enormity of what was occurring: 52% of Leavers want our passports returned to their original blue. To be fair, the Government couldn’t have chosen an uglier shade of maroon if they’d tried so I’m behind this one wholeheartedly. I’m just hoping no one voted Brexit because they prefer blue.
Others Leaver results were more troubling like corporal punishment in schools but one belief went far beyond mild concern – the death penalty. Yesterday’s poll revealed that over half of Brexit Leave voters asked would like to see capital punishment make a comeback.
First out, it ain’t gonna happen. Get the guillotines back in the cupboard and keep the rope well and truly retired, for God’s sake. Don’t let winning a referendum go to your head, Leavers – you (thankfully) have as little political power now as you did before. Secondly, what is wrong with you? Way to reassure Remainers that the majority of Leavers have their heads screwed on the right way.
There’s so much wrong with the death penalty that even the US, the most famous pro-capital punishment country and best example for our comparison, is executing fewer prisoners each year. Perhaps realising they’re in a top five with China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia has given them pause for though. Many of the laws supporters don’t like the idea of their hard-earned money funding the life of a monster, without realising it’s going to happen regardless. It’s still more expensive to put a prisoner to death in the US than to detain him for life.
There’s also the pesky problem of being wrong. Countless innocents have died because of the death penalty and they will continue to do so – statistically 4% of all US death row inmates are innocent. That doesn’t even begin to cover the number in less democratic countries. These people are not an acceptable casualty for someone’s desire for retribution. They too might have been pro-death penalty until they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. What’s the betting they had a swift change of heart?
One of the crucial lessons of Brexit and the subsequent polls is that it’s important we don’t get caught up in our own confidence. Too many people are willing to say they’re not always right without truly believing it. Both sides – because Remainers are guilty of ignorance too – must start having less faith in their own opinions than science, statistics and experts (shut up, Gove).
Another YouGov survey looking at trust revealed Leavers are far less likely to believe expert opinions than Remainers. Some 8% of Leavers don’t even trust doctors, which begs the question why they’d ever bother to go see one. There’s also 11% that don’t trust scientists, leaving a worrying 3% that presumably don’t know how medicine works. Here’s hoping that 8% take off some of the NHS strain and stay at home next time.
What is revealing from the Post-Brexit bring-back poll is the number of people wanting to revert to imperial measurements and pre-decimal currency. Let’s face it, we know the demographic voting for that. They aren’t the beliefs of young Leavers; no one brought up with grammes and kilogrammes, pounds and pennies, wants to relearn the old ways. These are the opinions of a dying breed that saw Brexit in terms of nostalgia not national importance. No referendum is going to help relive the “good old days”.
Things weren’t better before. Statistics show this over again and the future generations don’t want a return to a past of violence, intolerance and inexplicably difficult measurements.
We’ll give you a different passport colour if it means all that much but that’s it. The rest of us are only interested in making Britain’s future better. To do that, we’ll be consigning death penalties, shillings and Brexit to the botched history books where they belong.
The post The Latest Poll of Brexit Supporters: Bring Back Canes, Old Currency and Capital Punishment appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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