Brexit: Would You Vote Differently?

Two years on – would you still vote the same way?

Cast your mind back 2 years and you will remember how we were all bombarded for months with a constant stream of information from both sides of the Brexit argument.

Both the “leave” and “remain” campaigns focused on capturing headlines and spreading scare stories that ultimately led to one of the biggest surprises in UK political history.  The decision to leave the EU sent shockwaves across Europe, as well as many other parts of the world.

The significance of the decision to leave the EU cannot be underestimated and will impact on the UK for generations to come.  But how accurate were the various predictions made by both sides and to what extent did we all vote based on the “facts” presented to us at the time?

The Remain campaign predicted

• A recession by 2017 – actually the economy has grown
  
  
• Half a million job losses – unemployment has fallen
  
  
• Households would be £4,300 a year worse off in 15 years’ time – it’s early days but there are no signs of this yet
  
  
• The value of the Pound would fall – this has happened leading to an increase in prices for some items such as petrol.

The Leave campaign predicted

• £350millon a week currently going to the EU would be redirected to the NHS – there are no signs of this so far (and the figure quoted by the campaign as going to the EU was never accurate).
  
  
• The end of cheap EU labour taking UK jobs – the reduction in new health care staff coming from the EU is already hitting the NHS
  
  
• The UK could stay in the single market and continue to trade freely with EU nations – this is proving tricky to negotiate
  
  
• Controls on immigration would relieve pressures on housing, education and health – actually current migrants pay more in tax than then claim in benefits

Two years later, ongoing Brexit negotiations and various developments mean that we all know a lot more about the process and what all this really means for the UK.

This has led to an increasing number of people asking for a second vote, claiming that UK citizens were misled by both sides during the campaign.

Given that we now know more than we did at the time we entered the EU referendum voting booth, regardless of which way you voted, the question we would like to ask is:

If there was another EU referendum vote today, would you vote differently than you did two years ago?

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