Referendumb

I'm ashamed: ashamed of our collective decision to leave the EU and even more of the "debate" we had in the run-up, so full of hate and lies. But I'm personally most ashamed that I spent last Friday bitterly bad-mouthing democracy. As if the majority of people doing the voting were somehow unworthy because they didn't see it my way.

The problem (now I've come back to my senses) is not of course with democracy. It is with time and attention poverty. I realised this when I found myself thinking Monday would be a bit late to post a reaction to Friday's news. As if the passing of three days would render that seismic moment old news. As if we should be on to the next thing now: the plummeting pound, the admissions of misinformation, the petition for a new referendum.

And these things do need thinking about. But we still need to mull over the big moments, and slowly digest them; getting beyond initial reactions. The problem is not that people are selfish, ignorant, or desperate (though some are), the problem is that people have no time to think, and indeed there is little cultural value for coming to a considered conclusion. Unsustainable claims about releasing funds or regaining some mythical state of unilateral sovereignty could only ever make much impact in a competition between sound-bites. In a considered, thoughtful discussion, they rapidly unravel.

The trouble with promoting everyone's right to be heard, is that we devalue expertise and have to do our own thoughtful research, on everything. Constantly breaking news, social media updates and incoming mail need prioritising for scarce attention. The process of choosing what we attend to in itself takes up attention. News media have to fight for our attention, and turn up the drama leaving us punch-drunk.

The pre-referendum media coverage was weeks long, but not weeks deep. Much of it was a series of stand-alone, off-the-peg, mini-stances - to be consumed in a moment. Vivid, attention-grabbing elements which implied the underlying situation was similarly simple and clear cut.

Nowhere is this fast-news, fast-opinion culture more dangerous than when making long term decisions, with decades of implications hanging on them. I have no idea how to slow down discussion to the point where an actual conversation develops instead of just waving a series of emblematic events across a battleground. I do know that on this occasion, we did it wrong and we need to work out how to do this kind of thing better in future.

And it will take a lot of thought.

UPDATE: or, possibly, just this: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2016-17/278 (well, you never know). Find out more about the campaign at https://www.change.org/p/restore-truthful-politics-create-an-independent-office-to-monitor-political-campaigns