For me it seems to be a bit tacked on. Rundness is a timeless human thing, brexit is in this context just a contemporary local buzzword with relevance limited in scope and time.
Yup. It seems every article I read in 2017 has some forced refrence to Brexit, Trump, or Protests. While my views on those things are not strong, seeing them interrupts my stream of thought when attached to something unrelated. Then I am forced to wonder what views the author is projecting by the inclusion. What was I reading again? Annoying af.
Genuinely curious. Doing a study on how people interpret texts. Agreement seems to be a significant factor in how much people like an article.