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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
DMcG Brexit #2 (2815* d) RE: Brexit #2 08 Jan 19


There is an interesting article by one of the Remain groups published in today's Guardian.
It is worth reading in full but this section leapt out to me:

So what are the lessons if another referendum becomes the only route out of the current mess?

First, a new campaign will need an emotionally resonant message rather than relying solely on the “facts”. The former prime minister Gordon Brown came closest to finding this tone when he argued that Britain should “lead not leave”. His video from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral making this case was the most shared remain video on Facebook during the referendum. Unfortunately, greater use of this slogan was dismissed by our pollsters. They insisted that voters simply wanted facts on the economic impact. “Tell them again” is likely to be the leave slogan if there is a new vote. Something appropriately patriotic and uplifting will be needed on the remain side to compete.


I think he is spot on, and that a lot of campaigners for a second referendum risk making the same error: "Now the facts are clearer people will change their minds."

That will almost certainly fail because it lacks that emotional dimension. Such a dimension is often treated as inferior to the cold rational thinking, but on truth we are all a mixture of both, and there is good evidence that the emotional cannot easily be overridden by fact: an attempt is more likely to give rise to a "blow you! I will do what I want" response. So for a second referendum I agree with the author that a good emotional case needs to be built, not just a rational one.




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