Ella Whelan — her latest Brexit lies
@Ella_M_Whelan was appalling on Politics Live today (as was Nick Ferrari, predictably).
One of her tropes is “you people don’t understand the word democracy… Look, I’ve looked up the Latin derivation”. No — it’s her who needs to consult a dictionary, where she might find “parliamentary [democracy]” (which is what we have, i.e. parliament is sovereign), and “advisory [referendum]”.
She also produced, unchallenged, a blatant lie, claiming that immigration was not one of the main concerns of Brexit voters in opinion polls immediately after the referendum.
The Ashcroft poll clearly demonstrates that immigration was the second most important motivation for Brexit voters, after sovereignty.
In addition, while there are many racists (or nationalists with a racist flavour), they don’t necessarily self-diagnose or walk around wearing a label, as human nature is such that people with unpleasant characteristics may retain a very high opinion of their own virtue.
That is, when asked what mainly influenced their vote for Brexit, it’s quite possible that a racist would claim that it was sovereignty, even if immigration was the actual reason. Doesn’t that sound noble!
