WhatUKthinks has added a new poll (HERE), No 52 in the series: In hindsight do you think the decision to leave the EU was right or wrong? It shows a 4% lead for WRONG and marks the 9th straight poll where WRONG had a clear lead, and the 13th since RIGHT was ahead. This is a complete reversal of the first polls, which started in August 2016.
Out of the first 25 polls, RIGHT was in the lead 22 times. But out the last 25 polls WRONG has led 15 times. As I have said previously, Brexit problems have not yet filtered down to the street level in a tangible and obviously Brexit-linked way. Inflation has soared and growth is down but these are nebulous concepts to most people and it won't affect them in any direct way for a while, but they will.
So, I do not expect RIGHT to ever be in the lead again.
And by an odd quirk, the figures were released on the same day that Farage and Banks seemed to suggest a second referendum (HERE).
My first reaction was to think they, and probably some of the other Brexiteers, are starting to get cold feet. They lied and lied during the campaign never believing for a moment leave would actually win - just like Trump. It came as a big shock and probably at first they were elated. But as the problems began to stack up and it became clear that what they had claimed for Brexit will never actually come about, I think they are getting nervous.
With more than half the electorate believing the decision was wrong and 60-70% thinking we're going to get a bad deal against 15-20% who think we'll get a good one, they are perhaps getting worried they will shoulder the blame - unless people have another vote. That way they can either get the original decision confirmed, in which case they are vindicated, or get it rejected. Without another referendum there is a big danger that when Brexit is a disaster, Farage, Banks, Johnson, Gove and a few other high profile leave backers will take full responsibility, - or in Blair's words - own Brexit 100%. Imagine the opprobrium.
Farage says Clegg, Blair and other prominent remainers won't stop whining and whingeing and moaning (say that again!) but coming from Farage this is surely a lesson in hypocrisy. Words like pot, kettle and black spring to mind. Is there any man alive that has whingeing and whined and moaned more about Europe than Nigel Farage? I don't think so. He has made a life out of it.
Think about this, had the result been a close one for remain, he could have continued his career, swanning back and forth to Brussels without doing anything more serious that insulting Johnny Foreigner whilst drawing a fat salary and all the expenses you can manage. It would have suited him far more. Now he has the prospect of being without a job in a year's time. A second referendum would give him secure employment until he retires on an EU pension. This would be a price worth paying to get a second referendum.
