June 23rd 2016 saw the historical referendum vote by the people of the UK. The referendum saw a massive 72% turnout and 16.8 million votes needed for the winning side, with 308 of the 382 areas declaring their results.A t 4:39 am on the 24th of June 2016, David Dimbleby and the BBC announced that the people had spoken and decided 52% to 48% to leave the EU. There is now a lot of uncertainty ahead for every member of our society and the coming days will involve a lot of bickering, discussion, and decision making. All of that will be covered by the mainstream press endlessly I’m sure; we are here to find out how it affects vapers.

The answer is (I’ve been waiting weeks to say this): we just don’t know! Sorry- I couldn’t resist, but it’s true. It could take years to extract or repeal all the EU directives currently affecting our lives including the recent Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Right now, it’s all guesswork. David Cameron has always supported ecigs but now he’s on the verge of resignation. The front runner for the conservative leadership seems to be Boris Johnson and we don’t know his opinion on ecigs yet, but I’m sure he will be only too happy to tell us. And then there’s the House of Lords Regret motion still waiting to be discussed (recently postponed to the 4th of July). While we are still waiting for the waters to settle, let’s take a look the question:

“Did vapers affect the vote?”

Like all good media, the polls are the place to look for answers. Through forums, Twitter and Facebook vapers have been getting surveyed, along with the rest of the UK population. Vaper surveys were a little more specific though. Most of the questions were aimed towards vapers who had followed the TPD through the EU Parliament and one survey asked:

“As a vaper, would you be voting to leave the EU?”

151 vapers responded and 90% voted yes to leaving. Translating that to a national level, it would mean 2.6 million vapers voting out. If that number is accurate and the difference between the referendum leave and remain votes is 1,269,501, could this difference have affected the whole referendum outcome? Could it be that half of those 2.6 million vapers may have voted remain if it were not for the TPD?

Now I’m not saying the leave vote was all because of vapers, because everyone had their own reasons for voting how they did, but vapers have shown their determination and passion on many occasions recently and they come from all walks of life. Whatever the reasons for the leave vote, the decision has now been made, so it’s time to go forward and see what the future holds for us all. Just keep remembering: vaper power!

After 11 hours of referendum watching I’m now off to bed. Night night.