The Brexit Thread

[The Sisko]

The future of their economy may be in the  crapper, but at least they don’t have to endure Europe’s unwashed masses…even if they were doing a lot of the jobs Brits didn’t want. 

[China]

 

[China]

Higher cognitive ability linked to higher chance of having voted against Brexit

 

A new analysis suggests that a person with higher cognitive ability may have been more likely to vote "Remain" in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and that a spouse's cognitive skills may also be linked to Brexit voting decisions. Chris Dawson and Paul Baker of the University of Bath, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 22, 2023.

 

Having higher cognitive ability has previously been associated with a greater tendency to recognize and resist misinformation. Studies have also shown that the U.K. public received a large volume of misinformation about the referendum prior to voting for the U.K. to withdraw from the EU ("Brexit"). However, while a growing body of research has investigated potential links between people's Brexit votes and socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and psychological factors, less research has addressed the potential role of cognitive ability in their decisions.

 

Dawson and Baker analyzed data on 3,183 heterosexual U.K. couples collected as part of a large survey study called Understanding Society. They examined whether there were any links between participants' reporting that they had voted "Leave" or "Remain" and their cognitive ability—as measured by their performance on a variety of tasks. The researchers statistically accounted for other factors that could also be linked to voting decisions, such as socioeconomic and sociodemographic traits, political preferences, and a widely studied set of personality traits known as the Big Five.

 

The analysis revealed a strong statistical link between higher cognitive ability and having voted "Remain."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PleaseBlitz]

I don’t understand how British politics work, but it’s crazy to me that this is the first election since Brexit, yet the Conservatives have had 3 consecutive PMs, two of which were total clowns and failures. 
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/british-pm-rishi-sunak-call-election-conservatives-defeat-labour-rcna153661
 

Quote

LONDON — Rishi Sunak was midway through announcing an election he’s likely to lose in a country that often feels like it’s falling apart.

Then — in an apt metaphor for beleaguered Britain and its ruling Conservative Party — the prime minister was soaked by a deluge in the middle of his speech and drowned out by a nearby protester blasting the song “Things Can Only Get Better.”

 

Sunak began six weeks of campaigning Thursday after calling the surprise election to be held July 4. He and his party are deeply unpopular with the public, according to every major poll, so unless there is an unprecedented reversal in fortunes, they look set to be handed an electoral wipeout.

 

The Conservatives are blamed by many for a Britain widely seen as being in decline. 
 

Real wages have stagnated for well over a decade; health care waiting lists and house prices are soaring; sewage is being pumped into the rivers and sea; dysfunction blights everything from the country’s railways to its prisons; and Brexit — once the Conservatives’ cause célèbre — is now widely deemed such a failurethat most politicians prefer not to discuss it at all.

 

Because of election law, Sunak had to call the vote at some point this year. Even so, his decision to act immediately — while his party languishes a colossal 20 points behind the opposition Labour Party— has deeply angered many of his own lawmakers, now facing a landslide that would put many of them out of work.

 

Many observers are wondering: why now?

More at link. 

[The Evil Genius]

Somewhat odd though that the British Pound is much stronger against the US dollar than the Euro. Of course, maybe that's solely because the UK isn't using the Euro.