Dr Richard North, he of the EU Referendum blog (HERE), has sparked a bit of a storm on twitter responding to someone who tweeted about stopping Brexit. Dr North sometimes appears like an evil and slightly eccentric genius on Brexit and seemed to be threatening civil war if anyone managed to stop Brexit. One imagines him sitting in a swivel chair in his garret in Bradford stroking a white cat as he taps out his twitter messages.
On the EU he strikes an incongruous position. He often praises Barnier and the EU for the clarity of their position and logical negotiating stance while he remorselessy attacks what he thinks (rightly) is the most incompetent government we have ever had. But he is then absolutely adamant that we must leave, under any circumstances, and put ourselves firmly under the control of the blundering idiots in Whitehall. It really doesn't make sense to me. Also his Flexcit plan is just as much fantasy as all the other plans.
Be that as it may, when the writer Will Black tweeted that stopping Brexit would be the UK's biggest achievement since defeating the Nazis, North took to issuing threats:
If you actually get close to stopping Brexit (not that you will), you will find you have a bigger battle on your hands than the nation had with Hitler. You will spark a civil war, the like of which will rip the country apart.— Richard North (@RichardAENorth) November 30, 2018
This is how the ultra Brexiteers behave isn't it. North doesn't think he is one but being self aware isn't one of his strengths either. He is the fanatic's fanatic.
All the years we had to listen politely to the lies and half-truths of Farage, Johnson and the rest of the irrational foam-at-the-mouth Colonel Blimps and assorted EU haters and accept it was how democracy worked.
Now the leave camp have the upper hand by dint of a totally corrupt referendum campaign and the slightest hint of opposition is greeted with threats of civil war that will 'rip the country apart'. I assume he has already stockpiled a range of brown shirts in various sizes ready for the revolution.
This morning in an attempt to row back from his outburst the day before, he attacks his erstwhile colleagues in UKIP (HERE) for recruiting Tony Robinson (aka Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon) and other unsavoury characters, but while I abhor the whole lot I don't remember any of them threatening us with civil war.
The problem with the Norths is that they don't really have the support they think. The extremists on either side of the Brexit argument are relatively small in number. I am thinking of people like us, peaceful democratic marchers on the one side and Brexiteers like him on the other. In between is the vast majority of the population who don't really know what they voted to leave behind in 2016 and have even less idea what future they voted to join. Most leavers just want the government to get on with 'it'.
Whatever 'it' is.
Would they be angry if 'it' wasn't delivered? Some probably would. Would they embark on a civil war? I honestly don't think 'it' is that important to the great majority. And in any event if we allow such threats to deflect us we are not living in a democracy are we?
Nobody is proposing to overturn the 2016 referendum by civil disorder. We are only asking for a second referendum something Dr North's Flexcit plan expressly (page 5) allows for:
"Subject to a referendum to approve the initial exit agreement, the basic withdrawal framework could be in place within two years of starting negotiations".
Unfortunately, Flexcit doesn't make clear what would happen if the electorate didn't approve the exit agreement. Of course not, it would make the next 402 pages redundant wouldn't it?
