Remain vs Brexit has become a left-wing vs right-wing issue

Yes - there are right-wing people who voted remain and left-wing people who voted Brexit. However, I think that remain vs brexit has ultimately become a left-wing vs right-wing issue.

I think a lot of people in both camps don't give a hoot about the EU - they see it as a way to oppose people on the opposing side of the political spectrum. I think a lot of remainers see it as a way of opposing UKIP and Tories rather than actually being passionate about the UK staying in the EU. The same goes for Brexiteers. It's not a coincidence that remain has such a left-wing contingent and Brexit has such a right-wing contingent.

Reply 1

Drewski

Except, it hasn't really.

The main party on the right wants out.
The main party on the left wants out.

Reply 2

JamesN88

Original post by Iridocyclitis

It's more a case of hardliners vs moderates. The Tory right/UKIP and the Socialist old-timers mostly support leave and the centre-left and centre-right mostly support remain.

Reply 3

ladretard

think you mean educated vs uneducated

Reply 4

Sarahsez

So over 50 percent people in the UK are right wing?

Reply 5

username1177050

whilst it may seem that way when you average it out, you would be surprised. some of the hardest left leaning people i know at uni advocate a left wing exit from the eu, for different reasons than the right granted, but its certainly not true across the board. Many on the extreme left believe socialist ideals are more easily implemented via isolation from Europe rather than as a part of it

Reply 6

username471863

My most left-wing friends (as in Socialists and Corbynites) all voted Leave, that's why it surprises me when the Remain camp are treated as exclusively left-wing. Most of us probably vary between centre-left, centre and centre-right. I voted Remain because I saw more opportunity with the EU than without it. In terms of travel, career opportunities, business and so forth, I personally benefit more from being an EU citizen, as do the rest of my family. Of course there are people who don't feel the same and believe that they will be better off without the EU, I get that. But for some of us it had nothing to do with political affiliation.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 7

Chief Wiggum

Yes it does seem to have become that in the media.

But I would normally vote right-wing, and yet I supported Remain in the referendum.

Reply 8

limetang

Not really, and to think it is shows a lack of knowledge of the history of Euroscepticism in this country. Euroscepticism in the UK has its origins deeply within the socialist wing of the labour party. Alan Sked, the founder of UKIP was left wing, at one point in his political career he stood for election as a candidate for what was then the liberal party. Right wing Euroscepticism is a relatively recent phenomenon. People on the left and right both have reasons for wanting to leave the EU. It is not in any sense a left/right issue.

Reply 9

anarchism101

I'd say it's more like right vs centre. On both sides, the left have been too ambiguous and unenthusiastic to make much of an impression.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 10

james813

Original post by Iridocyclitis

The left have traditionally supported leave, as did most working class Labour supporters. Brexit is about regaining a nation with democratic control over laws, borders, fish stocks. Then we can have real debates about everything.
Left & right wing really is outdated, people care more about common sense solutions.

Reply 11

shawn_o1

Extreme left/right are for brexit; "non-extreme" left/right i.e. "extreme centre" want to support a bureaucracy that is clearly intent on creating a Federal Republic of Europe without their people's consent.

Reply 12

Dodgypirate

Original post by shawn_o1

What about the other people?

Reply 13

999tigger

Really dont think it is. There are strong remain and leave factions in both main parties.
We are leaving.

So if anything its just moved on a bit tosoft/ hard brexit and tbh it will just be a compromise, but we will get less than we wanted from the EU but most of the freedom Brexiteers wanted for the UK governing itself.

Reply 14

shawn_o1

Original post by Dodgypirate

What about the other people?

They're the ones who didn't vote :tongue:

(can't or won't, no difference)

Reply 15

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by james813

Left & right wing really is outdated, people care more about common sense solutions.

I read that in the pub land lords voice.

Reply 16

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by anarchism101

I'd say it's more like right vs centre. On both sides, the left have been too ambiguous and unenthusiastic to make much of an impression.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Its also because the right likes to refer to the centre as left wing and it is the right that has the most vocal shouty voice and gets loads of BBC air time etc. Farage being like the most prominent person on Question Time.

Reply 17

Arran90

A simplistic view is that the left and the right supported Leave but the political centre supported Remain.

Leave:
Nationalist right
Far right
Right-wing Conservative
UKIP
Old Labour economic faction of the Labour Party
Much of the far left, although apart from Scargill and his gang they are late at getting onto the anti-EU bandwagon
George Galloway

Remain:
Mainstream Conservative
Mainstream Labour
Progressive left faction of the Labour Party
Lib-Dems
Green Party
Some far left outfits

A few quotes from a Muslim Case for Brexit

http://www.amuslimcaseforbrexit.org.uk/

"There is a common theory that opponents of the EU are miserable, right-wing, xenophobic, inwards-looking, isolationists who are living in the past, and that supporters of the EU are happy, tolerant, broad-minded, multicultural, outwards looking, progressive people with vision for the future. Nothing could be further from the truth. My experience of pro-EU types is that, more often than not, they are blinkered individuals who struggle to see beyond the frontiers of Europe, European cultures, European languages, and European politics, into the wider world out there. They tend to view anything non-European as secondary to anything European and see the future of Britain in a stronger relationship with European countries and their peoples than non-European countries and their peoples."

"It is unfortunate that this referendum is likely to descend into political football along the lines that anti-EU is the prerogative of the political right, racists, and xenophobes because such people are amongst the most vocal opponents of the EU whilst the ‘progressives’ and political centre-left are overwhelmingly pro-EU. The mainstream media chooses the figureheads for the leave the EU and remain in the EU camps, which is very effective at shaping public opinion on the subject."

Reply 18

VeniViciVidi

Original post by Drewski

Except, it hasn't really.

The main party on the right wants out.
The main party on the left wants out.

To add to this, a left-wing/right-wing political model doesn't explain a lot. It is better to view the whole affair through nationalism vs. globalism.

Reply 19

Arran90

Original post by VeniViciVidi

To add to this, a left-wing/right-wing political model doesn't explain a lot. It is better to view the whole affair through nationalism vs. globalism.

That's my theory. As the 21st century unfolds people will no longer look at politics in terms of left and right (British) or liberal and conservative (American) but in terms of localist / nationalist and globalist. The media and the education system will struggle to keep up as they will continue to adhere to obsolescent ideologies for their own convenience.