EU referendum ballot paper

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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby Workingman » 26 Jan 2016, 23:30

If people cannot understand the question being asked of them then they should not have the option to have an opinion.

Dyslexia and dyspraxia are now recognised as disabilities and allowances are made for their misunderstandings.

Let's not try to put everyone in those categories, eh? Some people are thick.
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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby Suff » 28 Jan 2016, 17:58

The entire thing about the wording was, to me, deliberately designed for one reason and one reason only. To stave off the claims that the ballot paper was unfair to either of the groups.

The more words, the more people have to read, the more likely the wrong result will be produced.

Even the wording is archaic. I can just see me saying to my Grandchildren "I want you to Remain here". Yes, likely. We use Stay in almost all circumstances. Remain, remains, remaining are used in places where stay won't work. Just look at this link. We don't use remain in our vocabulary unless stay is not the correct term and this was in books. Books retain older words ten times longer than the spoken vocabulary.

Just think about how you use the language. When it is finished only that will Remain. When he is finished he will Stay there until I come. Using remain in the first context is correct and stay is totally wrong. You can use remain in the second context but we normally use stay. People with less vocabulary will use stay and not remain.

To me, using remain where stay works is not using the common vocabulary. In this instance that is not what should be done.

I put it in my last post.

Today Britain is a member of the EU; do you want to:

Leave
Stay.

Absolutely brass tacks, simple, virtually no words, using the words and vocabulary that is used on a daily basis.

Anything else is words for no purpose. Or words to excuse actions. Go re-read the wordy BS in the proposed ballot paper and then read what I have just written. Why put any more in there?
There are 10 types of people in the world:
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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby TheOstrich » 28 Jan 2016, 19:53

Suff wrote:I put it in my last post.

Today Britain is a member of the EU; do you want to:

Leave
Stay.


I would have preferred:

Should we leave the EU?

Yes
Hell, Yeah!!


Even the average Daily Fail reader would understand that .... :mrgreen:
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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby Suff » 29 Jan 2016, 07:57

It would do for me too. Sadly, I think that some might find it a tad unreasonable. ....
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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby Workingman » 29 Jan 2016, 23:27

TheOstrich wrote:I would have preferred:

Should we leave the EU?

Yes
Hell, Yeah!!

Or:
Should we leave the EU?
Ye.
No.

How difficult can we make simple question?
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Re: EU referendum ballot paper

Postby Suff » 30 Jan 2016, 11:00

That is the fundamental point to me. It is a basic, simple question which politics is adding legs and tails to.

I prefer my version because then it is not a Yes/No question in which people could later say "I didn't know that Yes meant leave". The whole debate is about whether we leave. So why have any other answer than leave or stay?

So, in that light,

Should the UK leave the EU.

Leave
Stay

It ticks every box. UK, EU, Leave, Stay.. Shorter to say Leave than Stay In. No point in saying stay in, doing nothing will ensure that. We're not really debating whether we should stay in, we are debating whether we should leave or not. We don't have to debate staying in we're already in, we only have to compare staying in which is all the debate that is required on that. It's not like we're debating joining...
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