Gosh, been away all day today and I nearly missed this one!

From: Nige Parsons
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 07:41 AM

Re Steve Shaw, 27 Nov 17 - 07:34 AM
Sez Nige: "The majority of the voting public didn't agree with you."

Sez Steve: "38% is not a majority. I know I'm only a biologist but my maths seems better than yours."

Sez Nige again (with his rude hat on): "Nope, either your maths, or your use of English is slipping.
"The voting public" means the public that vote.
38% is not a majority of the available electorate.
52% is a majority of the voting public."

Yebbut Nige, however you wish to interpret the rather vague phrase "the voting public," and we may want to differ on that (but hey), there's a very obstinate fact afoot here. Just over one-third of the sentient beings of this nation are guaranteed, at least on the day of the vote, to have disagreed with me. On that very day, just under one-third definitely agreed with me. On that very same day, just over one-quarter of them didn't vote. Neither you nor I know why they didn't vote, the only certainty being that there were multifarious reasons for it. The commonest brexiteer interpretation I've heard here (mostly from two thankfully erstwhile colleagues of ours) is that it's all their bloody fault if they couldn't be arsed to vote and they don't deserve any further say (isn't democracy wonderful when it can be so easily circumscribed by any old Tory?) Thing is, Nige, we don't know, do we? There were the genuinely undecided, the fence-sitters, the serial mind-changers, the disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells who were pissed off by the serial lying from both sides, the opposers of referendums on principle, oh, and a few lazy arses and a few political illiterati. Care to put figures on that lot, Nige? Bottom line: all you can claim with any confidence for your side is just over one-third of the electorate (a much clearer term than "voting public," n'est-ce pas?). Just remember that the next time you hear your fellow toe-rags rattling on about "the people having spoken" and all the rest of that confounded bullshit.