Oxford University Geographer Danny Dorling brought his trademark verve and charisma to the Hay Festival, with reflections on the Brexit vote and the reasons behind it. The Leave vote had, he said, been driven by “poor Tories”, people who live in places that have seen life stagnate since the 2008 financial crisis. The strongest Remainers, on the other hand, lived in places which had no boarded-up shops on the High Street.
Brexit, he said, will cost the rich far more than the poor, simply because only they have the money to pay for it. This should bring inequality down in a way that is normally only achievable in war time. “Brexit is much much better than a war,” he said. “Brexit will bring us together but not in a way that will make us happy.”
He said the way Brexit was dominating the news agenda meant we were missing a genuine health crisis in the country. Infant mortality had risen for two years in a row, and life expectancy had only been kept from falling by the continued immigration of healthy foreigners. "Lots of things are going wrong. This country is having the biggest crisis in health since the bombing in the Second World War,” he said.
And this health crisis was inseparable from inequality, and the Brexit vote. Leave voters were people who wanted a better future for their grandchildren. “Half our kids in Britain had no holiday last year, no holiday at all. That is the kind of country we have become, despite having the highest employment level ever,” he said. “There is a great future ahead for this country, that's not me being optimistic. When you are the most unequal country in Europe, the only way open is improvement."