St Andrew’s Prep’s mock EU referendum
Local MP Caroline Ansell attended the St Andrew’s Prep assembly today to give the Prep School children a very balanced talk on the historical EU referendum taking place throughout the course of the day. Mrs Ansell offered arguments for both the Remain and Leave campaigns.
Mrs Ansell covered the main topics of concern including, cost of EU membership, the number of EU migrants coming to the UK each year, trade and investment, the EU decision making process (sovereignty), jobs and security.
Following her talk, the Year 8 children stayed behind for a question and answer session when Mrs Ansell was challenged to answer questions as diverse as “What is the number of people required to count the ballot papers”?, “What is the point of letting countries in to the EU who do not contribute to its finances”? and “How quickly would the UK feel the impact of a Leave result?”
As the debate and result are considered by many to be among the most important in our lifetime, St Andrew’s Prep felt it important to give the children an opportunity to vote in a mock-referendum organised by Assistant Head, Paul Shouksmith. The results were: Remain: 66% and Leave 34%.
Mr Shouksmith said, “Today is a monumental day for our country which will shape the lives and future of our pupils, so we wanted them to have their say. The result has followed the most recent the opinion poll suggesting that the young would vote for Remain. It’ll be interesting to see how the country votes later today.”
