Change is afoot.
Brexit has acted as the catalyst to the summer’s political rollercoaster and its shockwaves will be felt for years to come. Who could have predicted such an enormous referendum turnout? 71.8% of UK citizens came out in their swarms to vote in the landmark polls which saw the Leave campaign beat Remain by a margin of 52% to 48%.
Even if you lived on a farm in the Outer Hebrides it would have been impossible to escape EU Referendum fever. The full brunt of the media in its vastness covered every second of the referendum. You would have thought 71.8% was a low turnout based on how the media presented the referendum in the run up to the date but in truth we’ve never seen so much of the electorate get involved.
Brexit has acted as the catalyst to the summer’s political rollercoaster and its shockwaves will be felt for years to come. Who could have predicted such an enormous referendum turnout? 71.8% of UK citizens came out in their swarms to vote in the landmark polls which saw the Leave campaign beat Remain by a margin of 52% to 48%.
Even if you lived on a farm in the Outer Hebrides it would have been impossible to escape EU Referendum fever. The full brunt of the media in its vastness covered every second of the referendum. You would have thought 71.8% was a low turnout based on how the media presented the referendum in the run up to the date but in truth we’ve never seen so much of the electorate get involved.
Regardless of your perspective on the outcome of the campaign, one thing is undeniably true: the EU Referendum conjured the most widespread uptake in politics in recent memory. There are so many different statistics, facts and beliefs that determined which way each individual would vote, it’s a real shame that it came down to a Yes or a No vote. Of course, politics shouldn’t be painted as black or white. Take Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as an example - UKIP and Conservative respectively, with somewhat differing political opinions and both major figureheads of the two Leave campaigns. Leaving the EU may have been the only political topic they agreed upon.
Unsurprisingly, the student demographic voted overwhelmingly for Remain. But interestingly, the 64% of students that turned out to vote would have been only infants when Tony Blair was elected in 1997, another landmark election result which stemmed from mass political involvement across the population.
In the weeks following the result, there has been widespread animosity from both sides. Many Remain voters took to social media to express their outright disgust, and labelled Leave voters as racist and xenophobic. Of course, the biggest topic of contention which seemed to divide debate was immigration, but labelling 52% of the voting population as xenophobic really isn’t the way to address those with a different viewpoint, and almost certainly isn’t true.
Elections are divisive by their very nature, and it’s why they’re so necessary to political reform. Many people simply don’t speak out enough about their political views, and it’s no surprise that they don’t, with fear of being labelled racist. Even the polls on the day got the result wrong, which indicates there may be an element of truth to the statement that many were embarrassed to speak up about their leave vote in fear of being singled out.
At a time like this, we should be addressing and seeking to reach mutual political conclusion to the issues which divide opinion, not dividing the nation even further with such blanket terms for one another.
It begs the question: were there other ways of voting which would have changed the outcome of the referendum? Population data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that if 73% of young voters had voted Remain, the UK would have remained in the EU. In the end approximately 75% of the 64% of 18-24 year olds who went to vote (significantly higher than the originally reported figures suggesting a low turnout among young voters) backed the Remain camp and were unable to prevent the Leave campaign triumphing.
Should the UK Adopt Mandatory Voting?
Twenty-two other countries currently enforce compulsory voting laws for citizens over the age of 18 including Argentina, Australia, Belgium and Brazil. Punishments for failing to vote include: disenfranchising the offending person, fines, and even an informal, unrecognised penalty called an ‘innocuous sanction’ where non-voters are shunned economically and may find it difficult to find work within certain sectors.
What About Electronic Voting?
In recent years, electronic voting or the use of an interactive voting system have been adopted to increase voter engagement and attentiveness in polls and live debates. Other benefits include the absence of social desirability bias - the desire to answer questions in a way that would paint someone in a socially acceptable light. As votes are recorded through an electronic device with the idea that anonymity produces more honest results, surely we’d gain more revealing political insights?
With such a volatile economic and political climate, there’s no better time to reform the political system, including the ways in which we vote.
We’ve had the resignation of David Cameron and the departure of 20 shadow cabinet members following the outcome of the referendum. There have been calls for Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition, to resign. UKIP leader Nigel Farage has resigned; Boris Johnson dropped out of the running for next Conservative leader (which Theresa May ended up winning, unopposed). It’s all happened in a matter of weeks, with no public involvement, bar the referendum. Where’s the democratic and forward way of thinking we so desperately need in 2016?
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