So where did Paul McCartney land on Brexit?
The former Beatle told The Washington Post that, in the end, he couldn’t decide whether the United Kingdom should stay or go. Sounding more torn about his decision than outspoken, McCartney said he couldn’t get to the polls to vote on whether to remain or leave the European Union because of his ongoing tour.
But he said that even if he had been in town, he likely wouldn’t have voted anyway.
“I think like a lot of people, I was very confused,” McCartney said on Monday from a tour stop in Denmark.
“I was actually doing concerts and I physically couldn’t get to it,” he said from his current European tour, which moves to the US next month. “But even if I had have been able to, I was so confused. You were hearing what seemed to be good arguments on both sides.”
The turmoil in England and elsewhere has been well-documented since Britain voted to leave the EU by 52-to-48 per cent last week. There appears to be a similar split among celebrities: Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and actor Michael Caine spoke in favour of leaving the EU; Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr have criticised the vote and Prime Minister David Cameron. John Oliver also strongly urged his fellow Brits to remain on Last Week Tonight as he called England the “birthplace of the Beatles and yet very much the world’s Ringo.”
Despite saying he wouldn’t have voted, “I think I would have come down on the remain side because people like the Governor of the Bank of England, a lot of financial experts, were saying that,” McCartney said. “I think the strongest argument that I heard, a friend of mine who was a political journalist said, [is that people] shouldn’t forget this is the longest sustained peace in Europe.”
