Yahoo News Bill Clinton: ‘People who voted for Brexit are not fully aware of what they voted for’
Bill Clinton is the latest person to risk the wrath of Brexiteers by claiming they were not fully aware of what they were voting for.
The former US President, who was being honoured by Dublin City University for his work on peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, suggested that some Brexit voters may only just be realising the impact of the loss of access to the EU Customs.
Mimicking a Leave voter, he said: “I’m sorry we can’t stay together, we had a disagreement.
“Oh my God, I didn’t know I was going to lose that customs thing and all these economic benefits. Why didn’t anyone tell me that?”
Mr Clinton also warned that the Brexit vote was about people thinking differences are more important that what they have in common.
He added: “Now there are lots of people who think they are less human.
“Now given the economic inequalities and the rapid pace of social change and all the upheaval that’s going on… people are reassessing whether what we have in common is more important than our differences.
“A lot of people begged to differ.
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“That’s really what the Brexit vote is all about.”
Mr Clinton added: “All partnerships that are community-based are held together not because everybody agrees with everybody else, not because we don’t still have our particular identities, but because co-operation is better than conflict or isolation in any environment in which you must be in touch with others.
“It’s a simple proposition. But we are re-litigating it now.”
Mr Clinton said this happened in the Brexit vote but also in elections in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.
He said: “In every place there was a nationalist party that said the other is dragging us down. We can’t accommodate all this diversity.
“The world is now in a conflict whether we should stop our mingling with others at the tribal level or whether communities are better; whether diverse groups make better decisions and create wealth and life and opportunity or homogenous ones do as they don’t push us so hard and we feel more secure.
“We can’t get away from each other so we should look at our neighbours without regard to their race, religion, their orientation or whatever.”
Mr Clinton described the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement as a “wonderful blinding moment of bigness”.
He said: ”The children of God and humans chose community.
“Nobody abandoned their tribe, they just lived in the same neighbourhood.
“We must make that choice again. How we think will determine what we do with every other challenge facing us. It is the most important thing.”
