BREXIT: A PERFECT STORM
I
 |
| Corbyn who sabotaged the remain campaign |
The case for remain was poorly made, this was a consequence
of several factors, one of which, incidentally, was the deliberate undermining
of the Remain camp by Jeremy Corbyn and a small coterie around him. This does
not explain the lacklustre campaign. At heart was the simple fact that the case
for remaining in the EU was so glaringly obvious, rational and in the country’s
best interests, that making it proved a mountain to climb. It is much harder to
summon up the energy and intellectual rigour to persuade people that jumping
off a cliff into the spray covered rocks below is not a good idea, than it is
to make a more difficult and nuanced case.
Rational arguments, as the rational minded are oft having to
relearn, rarely make themselves. The forces that shape our world are complex,
subjective, random and ‘irrational.’ One only need examine one’s own inner and
outer life to see how this is; sensible eating, regular exercise, not
overworking, and finding enough quite time for meditation and reflection, all
are elements which, if combined, are likely to improve quality of life. Most
‘rational’ people are aware of this. Yet how many follow this formula?
II.
Right wing reactionaries, monarchists, the Church,
aristocracy and landowning gentry were all terrified of the extension of the
franchise until they realised that people could be easily manipulated into
voting against their best interests. Indeed, the appeals of patriotism,
nationalism and the institution of monarchy[1]
turned out to be much more powerful than they had hitherto realised. They
ceased to fear ‘the mob’ when they recognised that it could be brought onside,
indeed bought on side. The
20th Century was evidence of the ability of relatively small number
of people to manipulate and control the lives of millions. Moreover, it turned
out that sometimes appeals for sacrifice exert a greater pull than promises of
jam and apple pie. As Orwell reflected, - and it repays a lengthy quote.
"…Progressive" thought, has
assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security, and
avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for
patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children
playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a
substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do. Hitler,
because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows
that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours,
hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least
intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flag
and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and
Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life.
The same is probably true of Stalin’s militarised version of Socialism. All
three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable
burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a grudging
way, have said to people "I offer you a good time," Hitler has said
to them "I offer you struggle, danger and death," and as a result a
whole nation flings itself at his feet.
From a review
of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, New English Weekly (21 March 1940). Selected
Essays, Journalism and Letters Volume 2 My Country Left or Right p27.
Now most people voting to leave the EU were voting with the
expectation, if not for an improvement, at least that no decline in their
living standards would result. They were misled, and they were misled, lied to, by people with a much clearer
idea of the consequence of leaving, not just the political union, but the
single market. The duplicity, dishonesty
and cynicism of the Leave campaign was and is truly breath-taking. Still they
had their work cut out given the strength and logic of the Remain case and it
is likely they would not have won were it not for the ground having been so
well prepared in advance. For years, the Murdoch and Rothermere press had been
pouring out anti EU propaganda, whilst refusing to draw attention to the
benefits of membership. Though even outside the far right Eurosceptic press few
were making the positive case for our membership effectively. Many, including
myself, were surprised and shocked that Leave, with all the attendant
consequences, had won. We should not have been. 
For alongside this hostile propaganda and the indifference
of so much of the left to the progressive and enlightened elements of the
European project, another much more corrosive force was at work. This was the
growing gap between policy makers and the metropolitan intelligentsia, from
which they are drawn, and working class communities, particularly, though far
from exclusively, in the north. The degree to which the so called ‘politically
correct’ cultural phenomenon actually impinged on such communities can be exaggerated,
what they did experience however was the sense that the their concerns, from
the impact of mass migration, to the threat of Islamism were not only ignored,
but we’re despised, ridiculed and labelled racist. Only Dacre, and political
demagogues of the right, like Farage, appeared to be listening.
In this developing drama, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as
leader of the Labour party, represented the point in which the Party finally
severed the link between the membership and working class voters. The scene was
set for a perfect storm. We live in the wreckage created.
