Letters | Yes, the British fell for fake news, but not on Brexit

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A man holds a dog wearing a pro-Brexit sign on January 31, the day the UK formally left the European Union. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:15am, 22 Apr 2020Updated: 8:15am, 22 Apr 2020

I refer to the letter from P.Y. Chan of Ontario (“Democracy in Hong Kong: seven reasons to beware of fake news” April 19), who alleges the British people voted for Brexit because they were subjected to fake news and lacked the information “to make a well-considered decision”.

Mr Chan is correct in his first assertion. The British people were indeed subjected to fake news, but in 1975 when they first were persuaded to join what they were incorrectly told was an economic trading bloc, not the political entity the European Union has morphed into.

As for lack of information, every household in the United Kingdom received a leaflet from government, laying out the supposed massive economic consequences if the country voted to leave the EU. The president of the United States was even rolled out to state how leaving would result in the UK being placed at the back of the queue in its trading relationship with the US.

Nevertheless, most of the population voted to regain sovereignty, to have laws passed by their own parliament and for the country to make its own way in the world.

Now as the EU starts to unravel, as its inability to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic unfolds and as its aim to destroy the native state is laid bare, history will surely show the decision of the UK to leave the EU was prescient.