In the end, I flipped a coin and voted. I don't remember which way the coin landed.

It was a very important referendum, but not for any arguments that were presented. Ok, yeah, the left against euro did say that we would give power to unelected European central bankers, but I don't remember hearing about the scenario that actually happened.

It will probably not turn on your single vote anyway.

That is why we live in an era of post truth politics in the first place - political psychologists have figured out that what motivates most people is not some worked out rational position, but their gut fears and anxieties, who they spoke to last, the personal feelings they have about the main protagonists, and their family history of voting which often goes back generations and is rooted in some long forgotten trauma  - war, national health service, unemployment, first job, and maybe, sometimes, current perceptions of personal economic self-interest.

Do you prefer Cameron over Boris, do you reflexively support establishment institutions like the Bank of England or do you feel the establishment has betrayed you and you want to give them one in the eye?  What are your friends and neighbours saying and doing. Who do you trust even slightly more.  Corbyn doesn't seem to inspire confidence on either side, and so Labour risks being shunted into irrelevance.  Lots of people like Boris for all the wrong reasons, but does that matter. Farage seams to have tapped into a widespread feeling of betrayal; that Briton doesn't look after its own any more, as in the days of empire, but would you buy a second hand car off him?

My guess is that this is not like an election where "if in doubt, vote them out" might apply.  Constitutional change is too scary.  The Brexit side too shrill. In the end, something as emotive as the killing of Jo Cox may have been the deciding factor, insofar she embodied how a lot of Brits like to see themselves.

Index of Frank's Diaries