Who Is To Blame For Making Brexit Divisive?

It is a remarkable coincidence that the Sun and the Moon are the same size in the sky.  As a result we have solar eclipses that are extremely dramatic.  There are enough stars around that the Earth is probably not unique, but it must nonetheless be pretty rare.   There is a similar remarkable symmetry around the current state of opinion on Brexit.   A study of public opinion in the UK suggests that at the moment around 35% of the population are firmly committed to the idea of leaving the EU.  And around 35% believe strongly that we should stay in.   Neither opinion is particularly surprising, but to have such even support for both is one heck of a coincidence. 


Probing deeper into the attitudes of the holders of these opinions shows that the two blocks might differ in what they want for the country but they have very similar attitudes to people who disagree with them.  They both regard themselves as open minded and honest, and the others as arrogant and hypocritical.

This is a fascinating statistic in the abstract.  But it does show why this issue is proving so decisive.   For evey solid Brexiter there is an equally doughty remainer.  The interesting thing was shortly after absorbing this study I went onto Twitter and right at the top of my timeline was a leaver that I follow.  I follow her because she is funny, and spends a lot of time mocking remainers.   But this particular tweet was regretting how divisive the issue had become.  I dare say I am the only remainer who follows her.   But her regular circle instantly chipped in agreed, but naturally blamed the remainers for being the ones causing the division.

I imagine that had a remainer made the same point the response from fellow remainers would be much the same.

It reminded me of the time I interviewed someone who told me the reason he wanted to change jobs was that he was a team player, but none of the people he currently worked with were.  He might have been right, but it was hard to work out just where the fault might lie.  But the fact that there are so many people on both sides who are sure they are right must be the basic reason.  They are bound to come into contact.  They both must be aware that they are short of the numbers they need to win outright, but that it will take relatively little shift in their opinion for their preferred course of action to prevail.  It's much like trench warfare.

I have no idea how this is all going to end, but it certainly isn’t helping that both sides are being so abusive about it.