Facts or Feelings, Facts and Feelings? The Post‐Democracy Narrative in the Brexit Debate

Abstract

This article begins with the widely asked question, which arose after the European Union (EU) Referendum in the UK; how do we explain that people's views and opinions so drastically diverge from experts? We consider the recurring narrative that the outcome of the Referendum portrays a post‐factual democracy in which people who voted for the UK to leave the EU no longer trust the facts‐based arguments of experts, but rather vote for politicians who represent an outcome which they feel is more desirable to them. We propose that this narrative is simplistic and that we must seek to explore the way both sides of the debate used, and failed to use, facts and feelings to support their arguments.