People Don't Want To Talk About Brexit

I live in a part of the country that was about 50:50 during the vote.  I'd give leave a very slight edge if I was forced to choose, but it was pretty close.  In the years before the referendum was even talked about as a possibility there was some rather conspicuous Ukippery going on.   One house had information about the inequities of the EU posted on a board outside, and UKIP attracted a lot of votes in local council elections.  And you heard people moaning about the EU quite often.


Since the referendum I have hardly heard anyone discuss it.  It has become something that you only bring up with people you know, and who you know you agree with.  The contrast with the blanket coverage in the media is telling.   I am writing this just after Christmas where I have met up with a large number of my extended family members from a wide range of backgrounds and parts of the country - and other countries.   The subject never came up once. It wasn't even avoided.

Why don't people want to talk about Brexit?

The obvious reason is that it doesn't really have much bearing on any of our day to day lives.  But even so I think that people are not just not having occasion to talk about it.  It is being studiously ignored and avoided.

I think the real reason is that because it touches on identity,  a lot of people feel very strongly either one way or the other.  If you feel like you are being pulled out of the European family where you belong, then that is something that is really going to hurt.  If you are glad that your country is no longer being ruled from abroad, then that is something that is going to touch nerves too.

So basically people don't want to talk about it because it is something that is just too raw at the moment.  Will this wear off over time?  There isn't much sign of the tabloids making any effort to lower the temperature.  My feeling is that as the story unfolds, however it happens, people will get more wedded to their current opinion.  That there has been no immediate economic crisis as a result of the decision has not won many remainers over to the leave side.  Had there been some big bad news I don't think that leavers would have changed their minds either.  You only let facts sway you when either they totally destroy your previous assumptions, or you didn't care too much about it in the first place.

I don't think any of this is a good thing.  There are lots of decisions ahead of us. We really need a consensus on what the approach we are going to take is.  If we really are going to be aiming to trade primarily with the world outside Europe once we leave the union, we need to get started working on that right now.  We need to build a very effective infrastructure to support it.  As it happens, if my personal experience is anything to go by, what used to be called the Department of Trade has some pretty good support for UK based exporters.  That will need to be beefed up but I think we are already in a good place from the point of view of helping companies compete.  Where we are deficient is quite understandable.  We haven't had to negotiate the terms of trade with other countries and blocs for 4 decades so there are very few Brits around with the relevant experience of doing so.  We need to start training people in that as soon as possible.   Unless of course, the plan is to stay within the overall European trade system.  In which case we need to create a cadre of EU watchers who can make sure we keep on top of what is going on in Brussels and responding accordingly.

I don't think the 'hard' and 'soft'  Brexit debate is going into enough detail of what exactly the options are.  It certainly isn't being treated as something that is as important as it is.  In fact I think the difference between a hard and a soft Brexit is probably bigger than the difference between remaining in the EU and a soft Brexit.  One interesting way to look at this is to look at the real situation we are in rather than the one conjured up by the newspapers, our daily experience and wishful thinking.  The UK gets to enjoy a standard of living well above the average on the planet.  We can only do this because we produce the value which we exchange.  Being in the single market whether or not we have political influence is a big component of this.  Being outside it will mean we'll need to think again about how exactly we make a living.   This is is tough.  I am not sure I really want to talk about it.