Land of (no) hope and (former) glory.

There are some interesting updates at the foot of this.  (I would have put in a link here but that bit of HTML no longer works in Blogger: apparently ity is a known problem, but their doesn't seem to be a known solution!)

I will start by noting that I used to really like the Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 until I saw Maggie Thatcher singing it after the sinking of the General Belgrano.  Since then it makes me chunder.

How could a country have come to such a stupid decision as to leave Europe?  The following graphics come from the Guardian website.

The map says it all, with yellow being sensible and blue being Nigel Farage's preference.  Cornwall is grey as they haven't decided yet - probably still looking for the 'secession' option.


Why is this so?  Again the Guardian is helpful.


The first two graphs show opposite trends - which is fortunate as they cover opposite ends of the educational spectrum.


 In looking at the second of those graphs you may recall The Donald's comment "We love the undereducated."  In both cases it means the group in question are daft enough to fall for the smoke and mirrors on offer from The Donald in the US or Farage and The Boris in the UK.

I hope that "more highly educated" and "higher income" are correlated so it isn't a great surprise to find that the graph below is consistent with the two above.

 I'd be surprised if this showed a statistically significant trend.
However the following day a YouGov poll (I can't get a link to the results on You Gov - presumably that is paywalled - so have snipped a table from the Canberra Times) showed a very definite pattern.
So not only do I have my former countrypersons to worry about, but also my generation!

I have fiddled with the next one as the colours used by the Guardian didn't show up at all well, especially the pale yellow (for a narrow 'remain' vote).  Possibly the result of my effort overemphasises the number of  units with a relatively high % of migrants.  The title has also  taken some damage in the process but it reads "% residents not born in the UK".
Basically it shows how the xenophobes took over the "Leave" campaign.  This reminds me of how the lovely Pauline Hanson got elected on a racist vote from Ipswich (Qld not Suffolk UK - although looking at the map above there ain't much difference) when there was hardly a non-British migrant in her electorate.

As I commented in a different context recently "The problem with idiot proofing is that they keep inventing bigger idiots."

I am thinking of taking my UK passport (expired since 1970) in to the UK High Commission and igniting it in protest.  (The big problem with that is that the Poms are located next door to the Chinese Embassy and the latter may think it is some weird escalation by Falun Gong and thus over-react.)

Updates

Commentary in the New Statesman!
The second go petition!  It was meant as insurance by the 'Leave ' mob.

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