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Eurosceptics are stupider than those against Brexit - BBC does not challenge ludicrous claim

Tom Winnifrith
Thursday 24 March 2016

If you want to leave the EU it is just because you are not as clever as those folks who want to stay in. It is easy. There was I thinking that I could be descriobed as at least averagely smart with my Oxford Degree as could Pixie Lott with her straight A's at GCSE. But it appars not. We are thick because we back Brexit and the BBC sees no reason to challenge this extraordinary assertion.

It was made by voting expert John Curtice of Strathclyde University who was asked why small businessmen tend to be more Eurosceptic than those running big businesses. His first answer was slightly correct "because generally they do not enjoy the export advantages of the EU but still have to comply with all the rules and regulations."

Sort of Prof. With a trade deficit with the EU one suspects that Brexit or not the EU will still trade with us after June 23 it would be suicide not to. The point about daft red tape is that its cost is far easier to manage if you are a big business and so can spread the cost of getting in compliance consultants, hiring HR staff etc etc over many profit centres than it is if if you have just one profit centre. Regulation tends to squeeze out small players so allowing bigger players to gain market share. So that is why big companies are less hostile to the EU than smaller companies.

But Curtice - a public sector man all his life - prattles on "there is also an educational aspect to this. There is a strong link between educational attainment and the Remain side. Big businesses tend to employ graduates while entrepreneurs are less likely to be graduates so small businesses tend to be less supportive."

Yes those running big businesses tend to be super managers, ie folks who did not risk their own capital but after University just cimbed up the greasy corporate pole. More folks who set up their own businesses went to the Univerity of life". But in setting up their own businesses, in risking their own capital to create jobs and welath for all and succeeding against the odds they show another innate intelligence which many university cossetted folk do not possess.

The implication is that smarter folk oppose Brexit. The BBC did not challenge this for a second. So far 34 FTSE 100 Companies have backed Brexit. Or ather the graduates who run them have. 66 have not. Are those graduates less intelligent or perhaps they are smart enough to know not to piss off may off their customers or mabe they back Brexit? The fact is that graduate or no graduate we all speak out of self interest and it serves some big businesses well to have the EU putting their smaller competitors out of business.

What's the point of arguing? Prof Curtice reckons I am just thick and the BBC is not challenging him. Perhaps I should just listen to someone clever like Tony Blair and do what he tells me? Okay Tony who should we invade next?

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About Tom Winnifrith
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Tom Winnifrith is the editor of TomWinnifrith.com. When he is not harvesting olives in Greece, he is (planning to) raise goats in Wales.
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