Angry stats are misused
I’m getting sick of the way in which statistics are being misused in the continuing Brexit debate.
Twice recently I have seen it reported that 83 per cent of people voted for parties that supported Brexit in the general election, suggesting that 83 per cent of people support Brexit itself. This is clearly untrue as only 52 per cent voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Brexit is actually a non-partisan issue – there are people in all parties who are for and against it – and it should be treated as such. Most people have accepted that it will happen, for better or worse, but it would be quite wrong to leave our future relationship with Europe in the hands of a single political party.
There should be a multi-party approach to our negotiations with the other 27 countries, so that the interests of the 48 per cent who wanted to stay in the EU are not ignored. This would be proper democracy, rather than ‘winner takes all’, and is the only way that the people of the UK will feel united after the event.
So let’s put pressure on our political leaders to approach the forthcoming negotiations with a spirit of compromise, both internally and externally, so that we get an outcome that is acceptable to the largest number of people.
Robert Monro, Whitchurch
