Simple solutions, complex problems.

Populism is a dirty word

I did not vote for Brexit. I didn’t vote against it either, because in fact I didn’t vote at all.

Instead, on the evening of the 23rd June 2016 I could be found drinking pints of Guinness in Harrow on The Hill.

A large cascading failure of the London Underground had marooned me in that hinterland, half way between the City and my polling station.

Brexit had been the only topic of conversation for months. TV, Radio, Internet. All outlets and all sides had fed us a diet of argument and conflict and blame. Truth? I knew only one thing; that leaving the EU was going to mean a lost decade.

A change as large as Britain leaving the EU would very clearly take up all our time. I felt like the build up had already consumed far too many resources as it was.

I never understood the idea that we could address our serious domestic issues by creating another one many times larger than any of them. It seemed like an act of self sabotage.

Regardless, the vote was on.

Brexit stood out clearly to me as a minefield of unintended consequences. So many details to be across and so much investment required. Probably we would not be worse off in the very long term, but there was no evidence that we’d be better off either.

The Conservative Cameron government of the time did not seem to be of a good enough calibre to deliver a Brexit. I always felt that DC was someone who wanted to Prime Minister rather that someone who wanted to help.

It surely had to be avoided.

I felt far more strongly about the impact of the change, than I did about either principle of leaving or remaining. I intended to vote remain in order to avoid the change.

We ended up leaving of course. 52% of the vote went that way. I often wonder if such a monumental change should have required a much larger majority.

Eight years later, it turns out I was wrong about that lost decade. It looks much more likely to be closer to two decades.

Personally I have yet to experience any benefit of the move. Only inconvenience and expense have come my way. The complex domestic issues we had in 2016 still exist, that should be no surprise.

If anything, time and inaction and perhaps Brexit itself has made many of them worse.

Only simple problems have simple solutions. People who try to present otherwise should be held at arms length.

Populism. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.