Paphos Life

Hi Jules

Yes my children are old enough to vote and so are two of my grandchildren. My son aged 40 voted to leave, he has a degree. My daughter aged 50, voted to leave, she too has a degree. My granddaughter voted to leave, my grandson voted remain, neither of them have a degree.

Ipso facto, statistics mean nothing. No-one asked me or my husband when we voted if we have degrees, and I don't know of anyone who voted being asked, so how on earth did they find the figures that they have produced, In scotch mist I guess !

Jackie

Exactly Jackie, there will always be anomalies

In fact, I laughed out loud when I read Hudswell's comment about statistics......

When I worked in the Lord Chancellors Dept in the time before computers had arrived (up to the mid 80s and before moving over to County Court work) our weekly "stats" to the Home Office were based around coloured cards (approx. A5 size) with perforated holes around the outside and an object like a very slim BBQ skewer.

Each time we dealt with a Crown Court case file, we had to clip out the relevant "hole" for each different part of the case card (ie, Trial, Sentence, Appeal and the Results Custodial etc, ages of defendant, legally aided - and so it continued). The cards were kept to one side for us to perform the final "count" at the end of each week.

This involved sticking the BBQ skewer through the holes and counting the ones which dropped out each time.....

In the manual on how to perform this extremely important information which was fed through to the higher echelons in the Government - there was one small phrase which always irked me and it was this: "if for any reason you cannot locate the relevant card, please click any card at random"

Jules

Sheer madness when the Government are supposed to rely on the results.

Jackie

Firefly wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:49 pm Hi Jules

Yes my children are old enough to vote and so are two of my grandchildren. My son aged 40 voted to leave, he has a degree. My daughter aged 50, voted to leave, she too has a degree. My granddaughter voted to leave, my grandson voted remain, neither of them have a degree.

Ipso facto, statistics mean nothing. No-one asked me or my husband when we voted if we have degrees, and I don't know of anyone who voted being asked, so how on earth did they find the figures that they have produced, In scotch mist I guess !

Jackie

Sampling. Not everyone gets asked. Accuracy? Varies, but as good as you'll get on any topic.

I think it too simplistic to judge educational attainment as to the reason why Brexit happened. I would argue that
De-industrialisation/Globalisation played it's part in the vote.
You only have to look around large swathes of the North / Wales where once vibrant & prosperous communities lived & worked to see the consequences of globalisation...I will add the ' Rust Belt ' in America to the mix for the same reasons.
The policies of Government ( on all sides of the political spectrum ) chose, in their wisdom to focus mainly on London & the South East for investment/Infrastructure projects to boost the precious services sector whilst underinvesting in the North & elsewhere that had been affected by the closure of many industries that had been the lifeblood of those communities.
Though I voted Remain, I can fully understand the reason why they chose Brexit, the proliferation of low paid Agency Zero Hour Contracts that have replaced the more secure & permanent positions of work is, in my opinion, a disgrace.
Therefore, I would suggest that they had just had enough of a ' London centric ' Government & decided to give them a kick up the ' Jacksy '

Cogs123 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:30 pm I think it too simplistic to judge educational attainment as to the reason why Brexit happened. I would argue that
De-industrialisation/Globalisation played it's part in the vote.

I think you're right, and in more ways than one.

I was having a discussion with an acquaintance of mine [degree educated] who was explaining how his principles forced him to vote Leave. I pointed out that, whilst not wishing to impugn his integrity, I would have thought that the fact he was a barrister specializing in EU employment law might have had a slightly larger effect than he was giving it credit for.

Most people who have degrees tend to go into second order economic jobs, where they are not directly effected by trade. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, practically any job which requires an arts degree, etc., all tend to be only indirectly involved in economic activity. In fact a lot of their jobs are directly reliant on government legislation or funding in one way or another. Even graduates who do go straight into business tend to head for large corporates who welcome regulation to protect them from market destabilization. So if your job effectively requires large quantities of government intervention you are obviously going to vote for whatever guarantees more [or certainly not less] of it.

Those that go straight into commerce without bothering with a degree tend to be small or medium businesses in direct contact with their revenue generating customer base who have been most directly effected or even watched their businesses get destroyed by government regulation, EU customs tariffs and ever increasing globalisation, like the UK fishing industry, high street individual shops, niche importers/exporters, etc, effectively squeezing off the actual wealth generators.

Its also why the UK is 2 trillion in debt

Yes Pete, the disenfranchised decided to burst their protectionist bubble...lets hope the hard lesson they have learnt through Brexit will, in future, determine policies which serve all areas in the UK & not just the favoured few.