That’s right -- it too is precisely what any decent sociologist or social researcher would do, if they haven’t been doing it for years already, as some of us have. That’s how we know [see the Lord Ashcroft findings for example] about the fine detail of the widespread alienation and can see that what people themselves say show its causes don’t lie in the EU but in successive government policies under the control of UK governments – who could deal with them if they wished, independently of the EU. Leaving the EU won’t address the justifiable alienation and current government policies may exacerbate it. That’s why listening to all the people doesn’t automatically lead to Brexit.

I don’t think anyone has said anything about controlling the information the public receive; quite the reverse. The public needed more information so that they could test the reliability of what the biased propaganda was telling them. I’m trying to make a point about openness and the value of information from all sources, with which it looks as if you would agree. Are you perhaps responding to some other polemical thread?

John VW.

www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/j.veit-wilson/

Sounds a bit of a closed loop to me. It would surely be better to get out and about and find out what people are thinking rather than try to control the information they receive.