Re:Intel CEO Cites Brexit as Reason for Chip Fab Plans in UK...
by Silhouette on Friday October 08, 2021 @04:25AM
(#28796929)
I agree there was plenty of silliness in certain parts of the UK press, though there was also a more reasonable point made that the people advocating change from within had had decades to make progress and had not successfully addressed the criticisms being made so their arguments looked unconvincing. Once Cameron came back with what most people seemed to consider token concessions at best despite being in possibly the strongest negotiating position a UK PM would ever have, the reform from within advocates had little wind left in their sails.
I agree that political amnesia is a strange phenomenon. On this kind of issue, that can shift the balance of popular opinion either way over time.
Much like how criticism of Darwinian evolution doesn't automatically support arguments in favour of creationism, let alone "prove" it - neither does (quite legitimate!) criticism of the EU automatically make a case for leaving the EU. My impression is that those newspapers were basically making that argument: "the EU sucks, we should leave" - it was never "the EU sucks, let's make it better".
> It's perhaps worth remembering that the older generation who voted more in favour of leaving in the Brexit referendum were much the same generation whose younger selves voted to stay in once before.
Indeed, and this does perplex me - but again, consider that the arguments for Leave were nothing like the arguments for not joining the EU back in 1973. Also, don't forget the public's near limitless capacity for political amnesia.