The EU Out Campaign really amounts to Gove, Duncan-Smith and Norfolk

East Anglia (I take as the basis for comparison the evil EU regional designation East of England), has the smallest conurbations of any region.

True, but it has loads of them, rather than other regions that may have two or three really large main cities and bugger all else. For example over half of the East Midlands live in Derby, Nottingham or Leicester. East of England has 9 cities or towns with 100,000+ population.

I'm prepared to accept that there are indeed people in East Anglia, as available evidence points in that direction. Albeit abnormally scattered.

Look, seriously, the issue was not that they are rural but that those areas (as shown clearly on the map) are hotbeds of bigotry and Little Englander mentality. Essex even more so.

Regardless the Leave bunch will still not win.

And even if it did it would never actually happen.
Try reading up on some ******* EU laws.

The issue of the East of England's sizeable population was to contradict your implication that actually no one really supports Brexit. You dismiss a region out of hand even though it has almost 6 million residents, which I must emphasise again is more than all of Scotland.

Actually, since bigotry is an intolerance of other opinions and beliefs, I think you'll find that London with it's sneering suburban liberals and Scotland with it's army of screeching cyber bullies are the hotbeds of bigotry in this country, and just so happen to be the most pro-EU regions in the UK.

I'm prepared to accept that there are indeed people in East Anglia, as available evidence points in that direction. Albeit abnormally scattered.

Look, seriously, the issue was not that they are rural but that those areas (as shown clearly on the map) are hotbeds of bigotry and Little Englander mentality. Essex even more so.

Then we have Cambridge and indeed Cambridgeshire, also strongly for staying in.

I think my original statement, that Govo-Smitho-Faragism largely relies on rural reactionaries, is probably broadly right.

Interesting map from YouGov today showing where the Out votes are concentrated geographically.



It would appear that so far the likes of Michael Gove, Ian Duncan-Smith and other assorted right wing headbangers and morons (I'll raise you a Farage for your Hannan) have only succeeded in persuading E. Anglia and Essex that Leaving is the right way to go.

What a surprise.

I feel really bloody annoyed that we are going to have to put up with another two months of their blather for absolutely no benefit to anyone except a few Tory and UKIP battered egos, serving a definitely minority opinion. Even then they won't give up of course.

I assume this will soon become another Neverendum, like the one in Scotland. It shouldn't even be a national referendum - weak leadership by the Tories.

I knew it! Damn green hippies! Cambridge is full of them...

Oxford is also pro-EU
so, Ox-bridge is Europhile

If we stay in, would it be because the two best academic institutions in the country are pro-EU, or yet again Oxbridge decided the politics of this country?

I agree with your analysis, but isn't it more a case of people wanting their cake and eat it? The cheap fruit and veg goes down well in the shops, but people don't like to accept that picking it requires large numbers of cheap young foreign workers, working in conditions they would not accept. Averting their gaze from these issues, the good right wing citizens of E. Anglia complete their hypocrisy and callous swagger by constantly dissing the young migrants who make their lifestyle just a bit easier, giving their votes to posturing toads like Farage and Duncan Smith, who in reality don't give a damn for the white working class of Essex and Norfolk.

It's disgusting stuff when you get close and analyse it. I don't know how intelligent people like Gove can sleep nights as they use this nasty reactionary anger to serve their own private careerist aims.

George Galloway, Michael Foot, Tony Benn

What do they all have in common?

All anti-EU and far left.

Who is the real sell out?

There may be 6m people across the whole of E. Anglia, but there are some pretty significant gaps in their loyalty to Brexit even there - for example, that little white dot in the middle of Norfolk is Norwich, the most populous city in a region of small towns, which appears to be overwhelmingly for Remaining.

Then we have Cambridge and indeed Cambridgeshire, also strongly for staying in.

I think my original statement, that Govo-Smitho-Faragism largely relies on rural reactionaries, is probably broadly right.

Yes, sneer at the "bigoted" working classes in rural communities who vote in a way that goes against the posh, left-wing, Islington grain. Shouldn't you be trying to get them on side rather than dismissing them as reactionaries and Little Englanders?

Are they working class? I would guess that the demographic of the typical UKIP voter is middle class, white and middle aged/elderly.

Are they working class? I would guess that the demographic of the typical UKIP voter is middle class, white and middle aged/elderly.

Yes, most people in those rural communities are working class if you look at average earnings, type of job, etc. The middle class business owners in those areas would have nothing to gain from Brexit if they employ the fruit pickers, rely on the staff, etc.

Not every pro-leave person is a UKIP voter. Also, look at the UKIP votes in the last general election and you will see the places with high numbers of votes are in Labour strongholds and not just "middle class, white and middle aged/elderly" areas.

I just think it's an odd approach to show contempt towards the working classes in rural communities rather than make more of an effort to get them on side, especially when leave/remain is at 50/50 in most recent polls...

No we won't leave, in fact as a betting man (as you may have gathered) I have a bet for as much as I can comfortably afford, to that effect. I'll make a couple of hundred quid out of it, nailed on. I was just pointing out how dumb the OP's comment on a 70/30 vote for in was.

I agree with her comment on a "neverendum" though. I am a leave voter and will never give up the cause. We care a lot more, and will eventually prevail, what is there to get excited about on the remain side? More mass migration which the EU can't cope with? A broken Euro leading to a bankrupt, unemployed Southern Europe? Years of economic stagnation compared to the rest of the world? More navel gazing from the unelected Eurocrats? More political integration from the Eurozone with us having EVEN less of a say in the big decisions?

Exciting, huh? Doesn't a vote to remain get you hard?