I don't think many Brexiters have switched sides either, but then again they're not going to if all they read is how stupid and racist they are. I'm afraid the tactics of many Remainers indicate they may not be quite as bright as they think they are, unfortunately. If people who care about remaining concentrated more on the economic damage it will do to jobs and standard of living, and less on categorising and insulting their opponents, they might actually get somewhere.
Sorry, just following on from what I said before: again, I think the economic harm argument has been tried to a very significant degree and has had almost no traction.
Above I said nothing would work. And I still suspect that is the case. But the thing that hasnt really been attempted to any significant degree, either before or since the vote, was laying out the positive case for the EU. So not "leaving = economic damage", but more "look at what the EU has actually done for you" or "these are the things that the EU can do for you in the years ahead".
There has been a bit, to be fair, and it always gets shot down. What I have noticed has invariably (and rightly) been about workers' rights, and the comeback is always that the UK gave X, Y and Z rights to workers, maternity leave or whatever, without any EU decree coming down. Occasionally "your kids want to have the choice to live and work in Europe," but then I get the sense that most people in the UK think they dont want to go and work in Europe anyway because they dont speak European.
I think the main reason this argument has been largely ignored (and for the millionth time on here I again emphasise that I voted remain and would do so again) is that it is so hard to make. And that says a lot in itself. It is really hard to make a positive case for Europe. What does the future of Europe look like, honestly? Uncontrolled immigration, quota systems to relieve the pressure on Greece and Spain, continued in-fighting between the North and South over austerity, fudged and unworkable compromises. Even I can see that - and I am ready to sign up for it. But what positive? Remainers can call bullshit but at least Brexit have a compelling vision: freedom to do business with the faster growing parts of the world, which will supercharge and reinvigorate our economy and fuel emerging markets-level growth. Who cares that it makes no sense to forgo trade with your neighbours to do more with people 5000 miles away. Who cares that in order to do that trade we will have to relax standards and expose consumers to things that the EU has judged unsafe? That's just naysaying. At least there is a vision. I just dont think Remain has a vision like that. the EU isnt going anywhere. And if it is, it isnt in the UK's gift to paint that picture because it depends on Germany, mainly, and to some extent France, to accept that the EU needs fundamental, root and branch reform. Given the deal they offered before the vote it seems doubtful they will reform a single leaf, let alone roots or branches.
So to come full circle (and apologies if this is all over the place, this is a stream of consciousness) when I say nothing would work, I think I mean nothing
coming from inside the UK will work. What would work would be a willingness on the EU side to reform itself - coupled with some evidence it was actually capable of doing so. Part of which would doubtless be about immigration and freedom of movement, but part of which would probably be about its dysfunctional decision-making processes.
In the absence of that it is much easier to say "if we leave we will lose jobs," "if we leave we will be poorer", "if we leave the Tories will liberalise the economy to the extent that zero hours contracts will become the norm." But as I said, people seem impervious to those arguments.
Thanks. I know the information is available, I'm saying Remain should have been drilling down into it, what companies, where, whose jobs and shoving it down people's throats.