Daragh Brophy reports from Glasgow -
HEAVY RAIN AND thunder across the southeast of England led to concerns about turnout for the ‘Brexit’ referendum earlier – but there were no such worries in Paisley, to the west of Glasgow, at rush hour this evening as TheJournal.ie dropped by the main polling station.
Warm and sunny, it may have been – but it was hardly ‘rush hour’ in terms of voting traffic, from what we could observe.
Footfall was intermittent at best, as we searched for voters to chat to at around 5pm. And while traffic picked up somewhat within the hour – still, locals didn’t appear to be beating a path to the door of the council offices.
The differences between the two sides in the debate appear less marked in Scotland, compared to England, some commentators have noted. And while recent UK-wide polls show it’s simply too close to call on whether the country stays in the EU, or calls it a day – a series of surveys north of the border has shown a clear majority in favour of Remain, in Scotland.
That pattern was mirrored in the cross-section of voters we talked to (or attempted to) in Paisley this evening.
A succession of Remain voters were more than happy to share their thoughts on the referendum – those on the Leave side, a little less so (more on that later).
Interestingly, of those casting their ballots to stay in the EU – all gave different reasons for doing so.
Sporting a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club t-shirt and chatting with a friend, in the shade of the building, Dominic Gibson said he was voting to Remain as “it just seems like the right thing to do”.
But he’s been studying the arguments closely too.
“I would probably have been Remain without thinking but then you sort of think – ‘you should think before you vote’.
You see people getting interviewed and you understand ‘right, that doesn’t hold up – this holds up’ … different arguments.
Firmly in the Remain camp, David and Tom said there were a long list of reasons to stay in Europe.
“We’ve had peace in Europe since the Second World War,” Tom observed, worthily. The second half of his argument was perhaps a little less high-minded…
“If you look at the lineup in the exit campaign they’re just people that you’d never, never trust. Dodgy, hyper-dodgy.”
I just think that it’s the worst thing for us to have these hardline right-wingers doing away with European workers’ rights. These are hard, hard fought and earned rights that are just going to be trashed. Next we’ll be looking at slave labour and poor houses, if Boris gets his way.
David added:
There are so many rights that people are protected through, from Europe: gay rights, pay, work… Protection against bigotry.
A broader trend?
Dominic, the first voter we spoke to, had said the majority of his social media feed showed a clear Remain trend – but that it was closer to 50-50 where he worked.
Similarly, David said that while support for Leave was not insignificant, the majority of younger people wanted to stay in.
The younger you get the more people are for Europe. The older you get… it’s as if these old people [on the Leave side] are looking back at the halcyon days of when you could be racist and homophobic. They’ll be gone in ten years.
Amid the dyed-in-the-wool Remainers, there are plenty of voters who’d just, on balance, rather keep things pretty much as they are, rather than take a plunge into the unknown.
George, a student originally from London, said he wanted to stay in the union “for selfish reasons, really” so he could study and travel freely on the continent.
Rhonda and Carl, a young couple on their way to the gym, simply didn’t want to risk a Leave vote. It wasn’t a particularly difficult decision to make, they added.
Finally (from the Remain camp) June Bardon said she’d been “humming and hawing” about which way to go, until the last week or so.
“It sounds terrible but there was a lot of information and it was quite confusing.
For me a lot of it was from talking to my customers. I do massage and yoga… I’ve some customers who work for some quite big businesses, and they’re seeing the trouble it’s going to cause.
Job security was a big factor, she said. “And to keep businesses in the country.”
Whether or not more Leave voters would have stopped to chat if we’d stayed at the polling station for longer – at this stage we’ll never know.
Not that they were necessarily reluctant to admit their preference…
“It was Leave for me,” an older man in an unseasonably heavy anorak acknowledged – declining to say anything much else.
A smiling Gregor King, fresh from voting Leave, was more forthcoming. He voted to leave the EU for the same reason he voted to leave the UK two years ago, he explained.
“Decisions are being made outside our country to benefit.. who?
Not us anyway.
That said, he’s pretty sure the decision will be to stay in Europe. Whatever happens, though, he’s not really all that concerned.
“I’ve just got an inkling that people are scared of change. It’s the same reason, I think, we stayed in the UK.
I don’t think it’s going to change my life much either way - whatever the result. I’m still going to get up in the morning and go to work.
There was a train to catch, and it was almost time to go – but another couple looked like they might be willing to talk. Unfortunately, they then decided they weren’t.
TheJournal.ie: Ah, why not?
Woman from couple: You’re fine.
TheJournal.ie: Can you give me a hint?
Woman: I’m away!
I’m putting her in the Leave column.
By the looks of it, they’re short of people.
(Follow Daragh Brophy in Scotland via Twitter here – and keep up to date with all the latest on Brexit overnight via our liveblog).
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