#EUref: It's Polling Day

#EUref: It’s Polling Day

Well, it’s finally here, as if you needed reminding. Yes it’s finally polling day in the EU referendum and this is probably the most significant moment in British history many in this lifetime will ever be part of. It’s a vote that affects each and every one of us.

Respect

This is probably the most engaged I have seen the public when it comes to politics. Literally every single person I have spoken to has an opinion and view on it. As it happens, up north where my neck of the woods everyone appears to be voting out, but that’s by the by. What matters is that we all have an opinion, we all vote and that we respect each others decisions when it comes those opinions and votes.

It would be wrong to chastise and become angered and hateful towards one another just because of the way a person voted. I have seen passions run very high, almost too passionate, and the language become sour and offensive at times. Not just on the debates on TV, but between normal people on the streets and on social media.

Politics is important, it’s embedded in everything we do, but it should not be something we are negatively judged upon. I for example wouldn’t want to be viewed differently or negatively just because of the way I voted. In the same way I can respect the person who voted differently to me, it’s their opinion, it shouldn’t mean I should become hostile towards that person.

Pulling together

I have one major concern. This referendum has seen two campaigns that in my opinion have been very badly run. Both have filled with claims after claim, pretty much all without any proof or evidence to back their arguments up. If this was a test at school and they were asked to show their works to their answers, they would all fail miserably.

This referendum has exposed some very deep divisions within political parties and every day society. It has got fiery, intense and very personal at times and has shown us how fragile and fractured this country is right now.

No matter what the result, in or out, we have to try an pull ourselves together as a country. We have a lot of problems at home that need sorting. The economy was already on a slippery slope down long before the EU referendum effects started to take control. The NHS is under crippling pressure. Cuts to almost everything means we are all having to do more, cope more, on less. As a country we will have to pull together. Whether that can now happen, given the scale and effects of this referendum, I am not certain.

DGB Poll

You’ll have noticed that I have been running a pop-up poll on DGB for the past month. This was to try and gauge how the industry intended to vote. I ran a similar poll just as the referendum was announced. Both polls have shown the of those who voted, their intentions were to leave.

This is by no means an accurate poll on a national level, but underneath the rhetoric and opinions, I do believe it does give some small indication of what could come.

I’ll keep the poll live until 10pm, which is when the real life poll closes. It will be interesting to see how accurate the DGB poll was in comparison to the national vote.

Interestingly, Window News has been running a poll on their website also. They can boast that the online poll they ran during the 2015 General Election accurately predicted the final outcome where the plethora of opinion polls prior to the results were way off the mark. Their poll currently shows a decent vote to leave the EU. Will their online poll be on the money once again? Time will tell.

Either way, whatever happens, we have to pull together as a people and as a nation. This has been a battering and bruising experience. I worry though about the divisions it may have caused.