Lord Sumption was a Supreme Court judge. He can hardly be described as from the hard left, or even the soft left. In the 1970s he was an advisor to the ascetic Keith Joseph the man behind much of Thatcherism and known later as the 'mad monk'. He has also been a regular contributor of articles for The Sunday Telegraph. Lord Sumption has written a book: Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics. Someone recently tweeted a video of him reading an extract from it:
These are his words:Lord Sumption - The 52% feel entitled to speak for the whole nation... & this is the tacit assumption of every minister. This is the authentic language of totalitarianism... it is the lowest point to which a political community can sink short of actual violence. pic.twitter.com/pE422Hsv8C— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) December 26, 2019
"A referendum obstructs compromise, by producing a result in which 52% of voters feel entitled to speak for the whole nation, and 48% do not matter at all. This is, after all, the tacit assumption of every minister who declares that 'the British people' has approved this or that measure, as if only the majority were part of 'the British people'. It is the mentality which has created an unwarranted sense of entitlement among the sort of people who denounce those who disagree with them as 'enemies', 'traitors', 'saboteurs' or even 'Nazis. This is the authentic language of totalitarianism. It is the lowest point to which a political community can sink short of actual violence"
Let me say I haven't read the book myself but the extract is an interesting one because I have been reading another book this Christmas, which, if it's about anything is about totalitarianism: Life and fate by Vasily Grossman (thoroughly recommended by the way), a story written with the battle of Stalingrad during 1942 as the backdrop.
Brexit sits somewhere between the antisemitism of Hitler and Soviet communism. Of course I'm not suggesting for a second it is remotely comparable, or anything like comparable, with the horror and suffering of either but it does combine elements of both. Down the centuries, innocent, hard working Jews were ready made for every despot from Herod onwards. If the life of a nation was undergoing a prolonged tough patch who better to blame but a stateless group of people living and working in the community, but somehow not thought to be part of it.
So it was with the EU and EU citizens who came to the UK for all kinds of reasons, not just economic.
And in the early years of communism, before everybody except the Chinese and the Cubans realised it was a terrible mistake, the struggle was between factions. Each had a different interpretation of Marx and Lenin's teaching. It took years and the needless death of millions to realise that none of the interpretations were any good. Unreliable or suspect elements who deviated from the Stalinist ideal were singled out for ten years in the Gulag or a bullet in the back of the head.
Being a wrecker was bad but failing to denounce wreckers was even worse.
Are there not similarities here with Brexit?
Johnson's purge of the Conservative parliamentary ranks and his demand that not only cabinet ministers but also all Tory MPs sign a pledge to support his deal smacks of the Soviet purges of the 1930s. Johnson was said to have shed tears when the twenty moderate rebels lost the whip. I suppose even Stalin had a few regrets when close allies from the revolution went to the firing squad in 1937-8.
Many ordinary Russians had a blind faith in communism, enough to overlook the violent suppression of rights, the corruption and food shortages and defend both Stalin and Stalinism.
So it is with Brexit. Leave voters and Brexiteers have a mystifying faith in our post Brexit future which is not supported by any credible evidence. Even a serious economic downturn will be defended as a necessary step on the path to national 'renewal'. In Soviet Russia no suffering was thought to be too much to achieve "socialism in one country". The collapse of the whole rotten edifice took 70 years and even now its kleptocratic legacy lingers on.
Perhaps it is this very lack of solid evidence for Brexit, justification for antisemitism, for communism and even for Christianity and other religions that eventually leads to accusations of being unbelievers and then to oppression and violence?
If you don't 'believe' there must be something wrong with you. You are an enemy of the people, a wrecker or a saboteur.
I am not suggesting for a second our lives are going to be crushed by Brexit under Boris Johnson but like other people in other countries during the last century, half the British population has fallen under a disastrous spell and we must make sure they realise it sooner rather than later.
