Whichever way you look at it, 17.4 million voters voted out. Were they all misinformed or loonies?
Clearly not. Evidently many were well-informed about the likely outcomes of an exit from the EU and felt that the negative economic and social impacts were worth the perceived benefit to the nation. Presumably these people have in the past and will continue to vote for UKIP - assuming it doesn't dissolve itself.
We have seen that the Conservative Brexiteers were more in it for their own interest rather than that of the country - witness Johnson and Gove's frantic backpedalling on triggering Article 50. All the other political parties were committed to remaining in the EU.
Labour totally misjudged the mood.
Couldn't agree with you more. The problem for Labour is that with the hard left in ascendancy, the attitude to EU was always going to be lukewarm at best.
But the fact remains that, however strong the groundswell of public opinion, the decision to leave the EU was probably not objectively the best strategy in the circumstances from an economic perspective - which is why so many experts were advising that remain was the best course of action.
One can easily imagine that if there was a referendum on whether the government guidelines on drinking alcohol were relaxed, there would be a clear majority in favour - but one would hardly expect the medical profession to agree that ad-lib alcohol consumption is beneficial to one's health.
