Down Among the Leavers – Brexit survey

Down Among the Leavers


Friday evening 24th June 2016

I asked you all on social media what can I do about this referendum result? ? A friend said keep writing. The activist in me said get downtown and see what my town has to say. Meet a friend in a pub. We agree on everything while half watching the cricket, as England crush the former colony Ceylon. I feel uneasy, move naturally towards the underdog, the dispossessed .Better watching this unfair match-up than media congratulating themselves on capturing ( but never predicting) this generational turning point on the other screen. i move away from my friend, as consensus will never do in my search for local vox pop.

At the back of the pub the Pilot ( please steer me safe to shore) a young crowd chaperoned by two old boys are volubly watching the Super14 French rugby final. Rugby i know about that. Safe ground. They were drinking Belgian Stella not Doom Bar ..The leader of this delightful young group of muscle and aftershave asked me directly how i voted. He is well spoken and probably a graduate, even possibly from nearby Exeter, a major player in the Euro economy.

I say i voted Remain, thinking they had too. NO they all voted leave. They are young, surely they and me are suffering some crazy voting inversion? I asked why Leave? . I said i respected their decision but hoped it was not racism or xenophobia. They said no their reasons were purely economic. I asked about the economic arguments, but not much was said in reply to that. I asked about their puzzling passion for French rugby, two millionaire owned clubs stocked by global superstars slugging it out in obscurity. On Euro soil, in Spain.

They love it cos the best in the world are free to live and earn a pension in French rugby, beyond their glory days. They said they supported Toulon at the beginning until their Australian star cheated and now they support Racing (Paris. ) Great; so British support of the underdog, one of our values. Mine too. i suggested ‘so you change your mind on a whim – like you might do over stay or go, on an impulse?’We discuss the ‘fact’ that Scots hate all English. I say no not true. I am born in Scotland.

They say they all hate ‘us’. they say they would not be welcome in Glasgow. I suggest that Glasgow is one of the friendlest places on earth. They say no. Then they turn to cheer the rugby underdog. But not the Scots underdog. I could go on but it was really absorbing and i was pleased to keep leaning in. The elder chaperones were really wary of me and getting more so, so I left. Dead pool ball bounce. The underdog won the game, led by a New Zealand superstar.


Saturday 25th June
With encouragement from far away by Stephen Taberner, I continue my one person probe into the minds and hearts of Leavers here in Devon. Yesterday my inquiry got quite ugly, but nonetheless illuminating. A bloke in a local pub was holding forth on the ‘fact’ that if the Scottish People had known the vote would have gone to Leave, then they would have voted leave too; but now they do not know what to do. He also helped us understand that there was no more oil in the North Sea.

When i challenged all of this he said ‘I know it is true cos I heard it on Radio Four.’ Turns out his interpretation of this authority was highly selective (I had heard the same programme and let him know that). Somewhat subdued, he nevertheless continued in his post- factual way on his theme that Scots and Scotland would wreck themselves. Where does this demonisation of the country of my birth come from?

I felt a tremor of being ‘othered,’ not sure whether to declare my origins or not.As we talk of other aspects of the referendum he declares that ‘Anyone who voted remain should be ‘thoroughly ashamed of themselves.’ I said ‘Oh well i voted remain and i do not feel at all ashamed.’ He was taken aback, assuming from my age and my being in ‘his’ pub that I was a Leaver.

Gathering himself he said ‘Yes, you should be ashamed. A whole generation fought and died in two wars for this country, and you dishonour them by voting to stay with the EU.’ This was vehemently delivered, shouted. Not backing off i suggested that maybe they also fought to defeat tyranny and fascism, to stop deracination of an entire continent. His anger rose to such a red-faced peak that he was shouting in my face. He called me ‘A traitor,’ that I was letting down all my parent’s generation had fought for. The landlord intervened and separated us, dragging him off, where he muttered alone to the pool cues. All this helped me understand though how strongly leaving was conflated with honouring the past, not creating a viable future for our children.


Sunday 26th June
Down among the Leavers #3 Who is pulling the leavers? My inquiry continued Sunday but this time across the estuary, looking to put some water between my questions and the incendiary reaction they provoked on Saturday.  First stop to park the bicycle was an old coaching inn famous for its Sunday morning gathering of the monied and chattering classes. No signs of panic here over the cappuccinos and over-stuffed sandwiches.  In fact I detected a self- satisfied purring, though it was hard to know what was behind that.  

This age group was relentlessly over 60 and well heeled, in an understated way. As copies of the Mail on Sunday were unfurled on the semi-circular table beneath the main bow window looking out on the street, I joined the edge of the table to generally insert myself into the proceedings. The main topic was the future leadership of the Tory party. When i asked if Labour were to be a party to whatever might unfold there was low grade sniggering.

One man said he had heard that ‘Corbyn was resigning today.’ Someone else said he may as well, as all his troops have left him. This topic of possible left wing opposition now disregarded, we returned to the question of the new tory leader. This discussion was led by a woman reading out commentary on the runners and riders from page 3 of the Mail. No one demurred at these pen portraits.  

Some were easily dismissed without discussion; ‘can’t stand the woman, end of’ etc. Boris’s roguish ways continue to earn admiration, even though they agreed that he had been mendacious over his campaign. When pushed on this, they said that nevertheless, he was a strong character and would pull the people behind him. The conversation then turned to the impact of the markets on their holiday money. I was getting nowhere so I was soon back in the saddle.


Further down the river the story was the same, and again newspaper led. Individual thinking seemed to have been suspended, as was any concern for the longer term generational issues. Needing some edge to my meandering, I returned to the scene of yesterday’s histrionics, to discover that the word in the pub was out that I was leading some kind of investigation, which was interesting in itself.  Far from hostility, the Sunday crowd were keen to know what this was about, this ‘survey’ of mine.

I explained that i was genuinely interested to know what was in the minds of leavers.  Soon there was a small queue. Someone asked if this survey would be published. I said perhaps. The richest conversation was with a couple, both running small businesses, who voted leave as a protest against big business and big brother politics pushing them around and telling them what was best. They were emphatic in their distancing of themselves from ‘bigotry and xenophobia,’ and I believed them. They were fearful, though, at the way things were unfolding, and that the same elite would be moving the pieces around in the same old way. They were more than interested in why I thought remain a good idea, from a personal as much from any ideological perspective. They were utterly dismissive of the idea of any second referendum. On the TV, a French second goal sent the Irish to their knees. Time to go after this really rewarding and sane exchange. Down among the Leavers #3 


Who is pulling the leavers? My inquiry continued Sunday but this time across the estuary, looking to put some water between my questions and the incendiary reaction they provoked on Saturday.  First stop to park the bicycle was an old coaching inn famous for its Sunday morning gathering of the monied and chattering classes. No signs of panic here over the cappuccinos and over-stuffed sandwiches.  In fact I detected a self- satisfied purring, though it was hard to know what was behind that.  This age group was relentlessly over 60 and well heeled, in an understated way.

As copies of the Mail on Sunday were unfurled on the semi-circular table beneath the main bow window looking out on the street, I joined the edge of the table to generally insert myself into the proceedings. The main topic was the future leadership of the Tory party. When i asked if Labour were to be a party to whatever might unfold there was low grade sniggering. One man said he had heard that ‘Corbyn was resigning today.’ Someone else said he may as well, as all his troops have left him. This topic of possible left wing opposition now disregarded, we returned to the question of the new tory leader. This discussion was led by a woman reading out commentary on the runners and riders from page 3 of the Mail.

No one demurred at these pen portraits.  Some were easily dismissed without discussion; ‘can’t stand the woman, end of’ etc. Boris’s roguish ways continue to earn admiration, even though they agreed that he had been mendacious over his campaign. When pushed on this, they said that nevertheless, he was a strong character and would pull the people behind him. The conversation then turned to the impact of the markets on their holiday money. I was getting nowhere so I was soon back in the saddle.


Further down the river the story was the same, and again newspaper led. Individual thinking seemed to have been suspended, as was any concern for the longer term generational issues. Needing some edge to my meandering, I returned to the scene of yesterday’s histrionics, to discover that the word in the pub was out that I was leading some kind of investigation, which was interesting in itself.  Far from hostility, the Sunday crowd were keen to know what this was about, this ‘survey’ of mine. I explained that i was genuinely interested to know what was in the minds of leavers.  Soon there was a small queue.

Someone asked if this survey would be published. I said perhaps. The richest conversation was with a couple, both running small businesses, who voted leave as a protest against big business and big brother politics pushing them around and telling them what was best. They were emphatic in their distancing of themselves from ‘bigotry and xenophobia,’ and I believed them. They were fearful, though, at the way things were unfolding, and that the same elite would be moving the pieces around in the same old way. They were more than interested in why I thought remain a good idea, from a personal as much from any ideological perspective. They were utterly dismissive of the idea of any second referendum. On the TV, a French second goal sent the Irish to their knees. Time to go after this really rewarding and sane exchange. 

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