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The five stages of Brexit grief

It’s been more than three years since the Brexit referendum, and we’re only a day away from actually leaving the EU, but it appears that some of the UK’s residents are still struggling to come to terms with the country’s exit from the European Union.

Today, the pollster YouGov released a survey of Remain voters in the UK, in which it asked which of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) closest described how they feel about the EU referendum result.

The options ranged from the rather sanguine, ‘I have come to terms with the fact that the UK will leave the EU’, to full-throated denial, asking the survey participants if they didn’t believe ‘people in the UK really wanted to leave the EU’.

Unfortunately though, it appears fewer than one third of the respondents have finally reached ‘acceptance’ of the result, with a remarkable 63 per cent still in either denial, anger, bargaining or depression:


Happily, the number of people in denial and angry has reduced in the three years since the vote, although the number of people depressed about the situation has increased over the same period. Mr S can only hope that ‘acceptance’ becomes more widespread after 1 February…

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Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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