All credit to Newsnight for their voter panel on how Brexit is going last night. I feared the worse, given the travesty of previous voter panels on Newsnight, but this was a well-chosen, varied panel of voters from a city (Sheffield) which voted 51-49 to leave the EU. They were all suitably labelled too, presumably for the sake of transparency, on how they voted in the referendum and their declared party allegiances:
Ben - Leave (Liberal Democrat)
Gillian - Remain (Conservative)
Michael - Leave (Labour)
Roger - Remain (Labour)
Sonia - Remain (Labour)
Janetta - Leave (Conservative)
Carole - Leave (Conservative)
Albert - Leave (Labour)
Richard - floating
It was a lively, interesting discussion, full of surprises.
[REPOSTED FROM THE OTHER THREAD AS NOW ON TOPIC!) -
ReplyDeleteI have been very critical of the BBC Newsnight panel of "ordinary voters" convened during the EU Referendum campaign, because of (a) its obvious ethnic imbalance and (b) the fact that the "representative" panel voted 9-1 to REMAIN! lol So much for an allegedly representative panel chosen by an experienced and reputable polling company.
However there was another Panel last night from Sheffield I think discussing Brexit with Evan Davies. Perhaps Newsnight were trying to make amends for that appalling referendum panel, but this panel was remarkable for the good sense on display, refusal to be cowed by the continuing Project Fear (as assiduously promoted by the BBC) and generally pro-Brexit or "let's get on with it" attitude.
Was it a fluke? If anything I would say pro-Brexitness on display was probably a little over the top in determining the mood of the country. But I am not going to complain about that given the 9,745 instances of BBC Bias towards Remain! :)
It was a pleasure for once to see the country I actually know and love reflected on the BBC - good humour, resilience, politeness and determination.