Newcastle High Level bridge / Brexit reflection (#1212)

Intercity bus to Sunderland (about 30 minutes southeast of Newcastle) entering the single lane roadway on the High Level bridge.

This particular bus provides a good opportunity to reflect, again, on the Brexit vote. Sunderland was a supporter of the Leave campaign (61%); Newcastle voted to Remain, but by a very slim margin (50.7%). Based on my limited observations and a conversation on the train, I'm actually surprised that Newcastle voted to Remain..

On the way to Newcastle, I had a very long conversation with a college student who talked about the end of the coal industry in the area and how that had created an overall depressed economy in the general area, and that government seemed to be unconcerned about the fate of those areas -- thus the Leave vote (he was a Remain voter). In Newcastle itself, while the quayside areas along the Tyne looked prosperous (typically associated with Remain voting), the inner city parts that I stumbled upon looked much less successful (typically associated with Leave voting).

Though the Sunderland vote was apparently influenced towards Leave by the actions of a Nissan plant that is there, it's surprising that Newcastle didn't end up on the Leave vote as well. Based just on very rough impressions, one hypothesis would be that the inner-city redevelopment along the Tyne played a part in Newcastle voters having a more positive perspective regarding the EU. Somehow, though, that didn't extend just across the river where Gateshead voted even more strongly than Sunderland to leave (70.6%). It would be interesting to know whether Newcastle alone was benefited by the redevelopment.

Source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/local-news/gateshead-eu-referendum-results-your-11504693

(Part of a documentation of 2018 exploration/reflection on Brexit and populist movements in Europe, keyword Europe2018)