The Clueless Voters Guide to the EU Referendum Written by a Clueless Idiot

So here we are, a day before the polls open and on the cusp of finding out the direction in which the public wishes to steer the nation, in or out? Leave or remain? At the time of writing my head is swimming; the debate so far on Britain's future in the European Bloc can be likened to keeping track of a chess tournament, a chess tournament taking place on a distant galaxy light-years from our own with play by play commentary broadcast through a rusty spaghetti tin connected via some string. I've spent the past few months pouring obsessively over any article or scrap piece of paper mentioning Brexit, even in passing, in order to obtain the cold hard facts and subject the debate to my own analysis so that come tomorrow, I can be sure that I will be making the best, most rational decision for our nation however, the deeper one delves into the politics of the debate here, the less capable one feels of making the right decision. Even the most politically minded amongst us could be forgiving for appearing slightly schizophrenic at changing opinion every five minutes.

Noam Chomsky once said: "The goal of advertising is to create misinformed consumers making irrational decisions."

This seems just as true, if not even more so, in politics. The debate on Britain's future in the European bloc has been marred with inconsistencies and contradictions on both sides making it difficult to know just what to believe and causing many voters to reject factual evidence and information outright in favour of their own biases, gut instincts and prejudices. This is nothing new, it's long been known that the majority of the population are set in their ways and beliefs and that no amount of debate will make them budge.

Unfortunately far too many politicians decide to use this cognitive blind-spot to their advantage when deciding what issues to focus their campaign on and as such has allowed for the Leave campaign to disintegrate into baseless fear-mongering preying on the public's concerns over immigration. Despite some strong economic arguments for leaving the EU, the main focal point has been immigration which seems completely misguided given that the vast majority of immigrants arriving on our shores are highly skilled and educated, higher immigration figures of skilled workers also indicates a steadily growing economy. You may be thinking about the recent warnings political figures have issued over the coming influx of Turkish immigrants and you would be quite right to have concerns over the safety and security of the British public with the current goings-on in Syria and atrocious acts committed in Europe still fresh in the public consciousness. It's common sense to want to separate those who seek to immigrate to contribute to society through work and paying taxes and those who are opposed to western way of life and may be detrimental to the health of the nation however to say that immigration is uncontrolled is totally misleading. We have more control over our borders than the Leave campaigners would like you to think and the whole argument stinks of thinly veiled xenophobia. Racism has no place within our borders therefore it should not occupy any space on the political agenda in this debate, extremism, whether Islamic or far-right, only serves to create intolerance, tension and hostility and unfortunately, all the signs seem to indicate that a vote to Leave will be a victory for extremist far-right views & ideology.

This is a great shame as in my opinion the UK would be much better off economically outside the EU, small businesses would be allowed to thrive without having to adhere to heavy-handed regulations tailor-made for big business and designed to minimise competition, it would allow us to take some power back from the money grabbing MEPs we have no say in electing and the lobbyists who court them in order to influence policy. A vote for Leave would be a step towards separating the world of politics from the world of corporations who exert a frightening level of control over decisions that affect the everyday, ordinary voter. The question we need to ask however, is this worth it if it means handing ammunition to right wing bigots and racists?

On the other side we have the typical Remain voter, the cautious and risk adverse individual who bought into David Cameron's rhetoric (however illogical it may be to allow a referendum to take place when you believe it would be catastrophic for trade and potentially cause a third world war if we leave the bloc.) and would never dream of making a decision which could in anyway inflict even the slightest amount of damage on the economy, this despite the fact that David Cameron is purported to be personally in favour of a Leave vote, obviously he is under pressure from the EU to steer the nation towards a remain outcome to such an extent that his future as PM could hang in the balance. Common sense has to prevail here, does it really seem realistic to you that the 5th biggest European economy will suddenly become an outcast? That the countries that rely on our custom will cease to do trade overnight? If anything, leaving the European Union will likely strengthen trade ties with the up and coming economic powerhouses like China, India and Japan.

Overall I lean towards leaving for purely economic reasons however, the campaign itself has too many negative trappings and racial connotations for my liking, I'd be willing to wager that the majority of those voting Leave are doing so due to some ridiculous fantasy of a white washed England, ironically they are probably more likely to have been in support of the UK's involvement in the Syrian Civil War and should therefore lose the right to complain about refugees. My biggest fear come polling day is that the decision will be made not from reasoning, not from fact but from prejudice, fear and hate, that is not democracy. Perhaps in future we can devise a system wherein the voter must prove that they possess some basic prerequisite knowledge of the key issues before being allowed to vote in order to ensure that common sense, logic and the truth prevail, otherwise the waters of this debate are just too murky for me.