They Got It Wrong: Swarms of Global Chatterers Misread Brexit
- Those who predicted badly include the wealthy and well-read
- A disbelief that independence would outweigh prosperity
Riots during anti-immigrants march organized by far right activists and Lechia Gdansk football club fans in Gdansk, on November 22, 2015. It came to scuffles with police, several people were detained. The demonstrators shouted xenophobic and racist slogans against followers of Islam, also trampled flag of the European Union
Photographer: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
A global cohort said before Thursday’s Brexit vote that Britain was unlikely to pull out of the European Union, the post-World War II international project that brought an unprecedented era of prosperity and peace. Yet some were led astray by the belief that free trade’s money and material goods outweighed nationalism and the tug of nostalgia.
Among those who were wrong about Brexit before the vote: