Ignorance Beyond Belief (But maybe not)

Tuesday 28th June

We have had a stream of people in the Café since the vote on Thursday.  Most are appalled at the result, especially those choosing to live and work in France – but a few have been outers.  Civilised conversations ensued.  But today I was confronted by the most appalling Ignorance.

Just as I was closing up a couple, new to us, came in for lunch.  I served them and as there was nobody else in the Café I sat at another table.  The man asked me what I thought about the referendum and if I thought the result would affect us here in the Café.  At this point I had no idea how he had voted, but careful not to offend I told him that I had personally voted to remain, but that I expected things to calm down and that in the long run I thought not that much would change.

He then told me that he, along with everyone else he knew had voted to leave.  He was here on holiday and lived in rural Shropshire.  He said he had voted because of Immigrants.  I asked him if there were many where he lived.  Refusing to answer, he then went into a bit of a tirade about how Immigrants were given a council house as soon as they arrived and claimed benefits straight away.  He ended his little speech by saying that in no way was he a racist, but he f…ing hated Muslims and that was why he had voted out.

Phew.

I took a deep breath and said that very few Muslims arrived from Europe, and that leaving the EU would have very little effect on the number of Muslims in the country.  He told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about because I was over here and not in England.  I decided to leave it at that.  There is no engaging with such Ignorance.  I am not assuming that all or even many others who voted to leave were so stupid – and though saddened and ashamed of my fellow Briton’s Ignorance, I am not that surprised.