Two great articles in The Guardian/Observer this weekend. The first by Nick Cohen (HERE) and the second by Andrew Rawnsley (HERE). I expect you've already seen them but if not, I encourage you to read them both. They're well written, much better than this blog, and although they're on slightly different topics they are connected by the moment and the fact that Brexit seems to be a rapidly failing project, the consequences of which can't be foreseen or underestimated.
Nick Cohen is always worth reading on Brexit but this week his efforts are directed at those who claim a second referendum would be a danger to democracy. Quoting Farage, "There will be a backlash the likes of which the political classes in this country simply cannot understand," Cohen warns that when it all goes wrong the people are not going to blame themselves. In this regard Farage should be the biggest advocate of a people's vote, as a way of dissipating blame, otherwise he may be in serious trouble in a year or two and lucky to flee the country disguised as Blind Pew from Treasure Island.
Nick Cohen is always worth reading on Brexit but this week his efforts are directed at those who claim a second referendum would be a danger to democracy. Quoting Farage, "There will be a backlash the likes of which the political classes in this country simply cannot understand," Cohen warns that when it all goes wrong the people are not going to blame themselves. In this regard Farage should be the biggest advocate of a people's vote, as a way of dissipating blame, otherwise he may be in serious trouble in a year or two and lucky to flee the country disguised as Blind Pew from Treasure Island.
Cohen's article is titled: Citing ‘the people’s will’ won’t save our leaders in a post-Brexit carnage
Rawnsley makes several different points. Some of which I have made myself on this blog although not half as well. That Brexit's toxic impact will be with us for years and Brexiteers are beginning to set up some Aunt Sallys to blame. Among them will be "quisling civil servants, the treacherous Treasury, recalcitrant Remoaners, meddling judges and bullies in Brussels". Note Brexit and the Brexiteers are not on the list, how could they be?
He also likens Brexit to communism and the communists who for years kept up the pretence that all would be well - eventually: "In this, the Brexiters remind me of the Marxists during the days of the Soviet Union and the excuses they would trot out to explain why the USSR had not turned out to be the workers’ paradise promised by old Karl’s theories"
He says, as I have, that the problem with Brexit is not the negotiators but the task itself. The problem with Brexit is Brexit - or the Brexiteers, but they will never accept blame.
"If there were a blindingly superior negotiating strategy, and the secret of it was known to Boris Johnson or to David Davis, you might think they would have shared it with the rest of the cabinet when one held the great office of foreign secretary and the other was in the influential role of Brexit secretary. Those positions are now held by Jeremy Hunt, a self-proclaimed convert to Brexit, and Dominic Raab, a protege of Mr Davis and always a believer. They have done no better than their predecessors at illuminating the path to El Dorado."
I point to these articles because they seemed to anticipate two other items that I read yesterday. The first is this article (HERE) that appeared in The Sunday Telegraph, written by Dia Chakravarty with the title (no kidding): "Brexit's a mess, but it's not just Remainers who are to blame." Note - Not just remainers! She grudgingly concedes that Brexiteers might also have a bit of responsibility too. Did Rawnsley have her in mind? She obviously lacks a bit of self awareness. One sometimes feels like an innocent bystander witnessing a road traffic accident and being arrested for - well onlooking.
She ends:
"The 2016 vote was an opportunity for an out-of-touch Establishment to reform and deliver change in order to ensure its own survival. That opportunity has been all but squandered by a crop of politicians who failed to rise to the occasion". See, nothing at all wrong with Brexit, the problem was in the execution - by those recalcitrant remoaners presumably.
And secondly on the question of democracy and a second vote, I turn to none other than Dr Richard North of EU Referendum blog fame. Dr North does not blame remainers, he is equally excoriating about more or less everybody. As a dedicated soft leaver who daily forecasts disaster if we leave without a deal or on a Canada +++ deal he cannot stomach the idea of a second vote under any circumstances whatsoever. Over the cliff we must go.
To counter criticism of the 2016 referendum he denies we have democracy in Britain and harks back to 1975 with (as far as I can see zero evidence) serious allegations of what the legal profession often refer to as "whataboutery".
Witness this exchange from yesterday with one of his long suffering readers:
Allen Shone
"Why should anyone have any faith in democracy or politicians when it is known Brexit was bought and won on the backs of knowingly lying and cheating. Regardless of the fact whether Leave.EU changed anyone's mind by lying, fraud makes this entire farce void.
"If I was fully aware, back in those days without the Internet, about those aspects there is no excuse for anyone else (particularly members of Parliament) to be ignorant about them".
Dr Richard North > Allen Shone
"Why should you have faith in the functioning of something [democracy] that currently doesn't exist in this country - or, at best, exists in a very weak, attenuated form?
"As for the angst about the 2016 referendum, this might be more credible if people showed similar concern over the lack of "democracy" in the 1975 referendum - which was very obviously rigged - and the imposition of successive European treaties without the consent of the people. This makes the concern about the 2016 referendum rather selective".
She ends:
"The 2016 vote was an opportunity for an out-of-touch Establishment to reform and deliver change in order to ensure its own survival. That opportunity has been all but squandered by a crop of politicians who failed to rise to the occasion". See, nothing at all wrong with Brexit, the problem was in the execution - by those recalcitrant remoaners presumably.
And secondly on the question of democracy and a second vote, I turn to none other than Dr Richard North of EU Referendum blog fame. Dr North does not blame remainers, he is equally excoriating about more or less everybody. As a dedicated soft leaver who daily forecasts disaster if we leave without a deal or on a Canada +++ deal he cannot stomach the idea of a second vote under any circumstances whatsoever. Over the cliff we must go.
To counter criticism of the 2016 referendum he denies we have democracy in Britain and harks back to 1975 with (as far as I can see zero evidence) serious allegations of what the legal profession often refer to as "whataboutery".
Witness this exchange from yesterday with one of his long suffering readers:
Allen Shone
"Why should anyone have any faith in democracy or politicians when it is known Brexit was bought and won on the backs of knowingly lying and cheating. Regardless of the fact whether Leave.EU changed anyone's mind by lying, fraud makes this entire farce void.
"If I was fully aware, back in those days without the Internet, about those aspects there is no excuse for anyone else (particularly members of Parliament) to be ignorant about them".
Dr Richard North > Allen Shone
"Why should you have faith in the functioning of something [democracy] that currently doesn't exist in this country - or, at best, exists in a very weak, attenuated form?
"As for the angst about the 2016 referendum, this might be more credible if people showed similar concern over the lack of "democracy" in the 1975 referendum - which was very obviously rigged - and the imposition of successive European treaties without the consent of the people. This makes the concern about the 2016 referendum rather selective".
So that's it. We don't have a fully functioning democracy and the 1975 referendum was rigged (and 'obviously' too, apparently) but the result of the 2016 referendum must be respected even if we have to suffer earthquakes, a plague of locusts, the killing of the first born and Armageddon for a few years. In Northworld two wrongs do make a right. Nick Cohen must have had him in mind when he wrote, "Now, they believe “the people” will greet economic hardship and a long, slow national decline with a stiff upper lip and rousing cheer".
Let us hope Brexiteers are sure about Brexit and the benign reaction of the British people - for their sake. Personally, I'm not convinced.
