Re: The Swiss are in it
"A lot of people were under the impression that the votes would be counted on a seat-by-seat basis and thought they were in safe "remain" areas, so their "leave" vote would be a suitable protest."
I don't believe that at all. I think there were some people who assumed remain would win, so voted as a protest. But I think everyone understood it was one person one vote.
The issue was that few people really understand the benefits or drawbacks, so it was relatively easy for the negative campaign to twang nationalistic heart strings.
Ironically, if you remember the campaign, it was the LEAVE side insisting it was preposterous to suggest the UK would lose access to the single market, hailing Norway and Switzerland as successful nations outside the EU, while it was the REMAIN side insisting that voting out of the EU meant the UK would lose access to it.
Yet the LEAVE side now insists the vote meant completely the opposite - to leave the single market and customs union, and go hard brexit, even though during the campaign, they claimed that was a scare tactic coming from remain.
My issue isn't really with the vote, at least if the promises made were kept to. My issue is that the vote was gained by promising one thing, and as soon as it was won, the winning side claimed it was a vote for everything they said was a remain scare tactic.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
