Brexit

[Graham Breeze]

The essence of the FT article by the way was that the outlook and motivations of leave vs remain voters was leave voted for cultural and anti immigration reasons whilst remain voted for economic reasons. So arguments since from either side never really have any traction with the opposing view. And hence why never the Twain shall meet.

Also a lot of the leave voters being retired were not, in their minds, directly effected by the economy in any event. That too with the referendum taking place right at the height of a massive refugee crisis, heightening peoples concerns right at the wrong time over immigration

All the same the article goes on to say that a second referendum is absolutely the best next step before any Brexit gets finalised due to the growing stats and polls that say that remain would comfortably win this time. In other words the “will of the people” might well be different now and, in pushing through Brexit based on the will of the people nearly three years ago, the government would quite probably be going against “the will of the people” ��

Indeed.

Throughout this sorry saga I have been reminded of a book I knew in a previous existence called The Abilene Paradox(Professor Jerry Harvey, George Washington University) which informed some of my organization development work.

In essence the book is a parable about a group of people who agree to do something (drive a hundred miles on dusty roads to Abilene, Texas in a non-air-conditioned car in the heat of the summer sun) that no individual actually wishes to do but complies because they all think the others wish to make the trip. Ie managers often agree to act in a way contradictory to what they actually want to do or believe is right based on what they think others want to do.

The book was published in 1988. I still have it.

In the lemming myth I wonder if the odd lemming rushing towards the cliff edge ever said "are we sure this is the right way, fellas?"