Lord Ashcroft's polls said:
Nearly half (49%) of leave voters said the biggest single reason for wanting to leave the EU was “the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK”.
Which they are already, since the UK -- like all EU members -- remains a sovereign nation, subject only to the treaties that it has signed voluntarily.
One third (33%) said the main reason was that leaving “offered the best chance for the UK to regain control over immigration and its own borders.”
Which it has already, Theresa May just wasn't bothering to exercise those powers during her tenure as Home Sec...
Just over one in eight (13%) said remaining would mean having no choice “about how the EU expanded its membership or its powers in the years ahead.”
Which is (AFAIK) simply not true, since (AFAIK) no
sovereign member-state is obliged to sign anything that its current
national government does not agree with, giving each
sovereign member-state effective veto-powers over
every EU-treaty. Not to mention, that Tony B. Liar's (democratically elected)
UK government was one of those that pushed hardest for the
last major expansion of EU-membership, which brought in Poland et al.
Only just over one in twenty (6%) said their main reason was that “when it comes to trade and the economy, the UK would benefit more from being outside the EU than from being part of it.”
So, that would be 6% of 52% of about 33.5 million Referendum voters: just over 1 million people, nationwide.
I could equally argue that many Remainers may have simply unquestionably merely believed David Cameron because he was a well liked Prime Minister then.
You could try, but I think you'd have difficulty making
both those charges stick.
As you (should) know perfectly well (because the statistics are there for everyone to see), there were fairly clear demographic splits between Remain and Leave voters, with Remainers
tending to be younger and/or better educated and/or better-off and/or more left-leaning(?) than Leavers,
on average. While we obviously can't generalise about the particular (I am not suggesting that you yourself are 50+ and/or un[der]educated and/or on the poverty line and/or right-leaning; I know nothing about you, other than you voted Leave), I think it's more
likely that most Remainers voted that way because -- having actually done their research beforehand -- they'd decided it was in the best interests of themselves and/or their nation to do so,
regardless of what Cameron thought. And possibly also because they were pretty sure that Leave-ing would result in
exactly the kind of chaotic fustercluck and pass-the-blame-game that we're seeing right now. (But oh no, I forgot, that was just 'Project Fear' talking, wasn't it...?)
And suggesting that Call-me-Dave was still well-liked after 5 years of "We're all in this together [unless you're already loaded]" austerity measures? Please, have mercy, my sides are hurting -- especially when you (should)
also already know perfectly well that a substantial number of (low-income) Leave-voters did so, not because they had any particular valuable opinions of their own about the EU (based on, you know, actually
true information, as opposed to tabloid sensationalism about bent bananas, etc.), but
precisely because Cameron was backing 'Remain', and they wanted to stick it to him for making their lives more miserable.
(I find it interesting, but also kind of depressing, that in the days directly
after the Referendum, UK internet traffic statistics showed a sudden spike in interest in what the EU actually stands for/does. That is, a substantial number of people -- and I speculate: Leave-voters with buyer's remorse? -- apparently didn't bother researching the pros and/or cons of EU-membership for themselves, until
after the votes were counted. After all, what have the Rom-... sorry, the EU27 -- ever done for us? [Apart from supporting human rights, worker's rights, farmers' livelihoods, academic co-operation, trade relations with the rest of the world...])
