One of the weirdest things about twitter, a social media place I have turned into an echo chamber, is when you get ripped into by people whose views you share. I refer, inevitably, to Brexit, or fucking Brexit as many people call it. I am the first to admit that Brexit was a huge mistake on every level and that there are no benefits to anyone except the very wealthy who are now more easily able to avoid paying taxes. And one day, I sincerely believe, we will rejoin the EU and we’ll all live happily after. For now, that dream is just that. The polls suggest leavers have realised their error and now want to go back. Quite honestly, I don’t believe the polls and, for the foreseeable future, we need to put Brexit behind us.
Those who attack Keir Starmer for accepting the inevitability of Brexit are misguided. They’re not necessarily wrong but in the real world, away from upper class academics and smart ass lawyers, the last thing people want is more interminable banging on about the most divisive event of the 21st century. Starmer is right: there is no case for rejoining the EU and Labour would be punished heavily at the next election if they framed as another Brexit election, as happened in 2019. What we need is a better deal for the UK, its people and its businesses, and it’s surely there for the taking.
Of course, I haven’t changed my mind on the fundamental freedoms we have lost, like free movement. It turns out that immigration, a key reason many voted to leave Europe, has doubled in the last decade, with people now coming from Pakistan, Nigeria and India to replace those from mainland Europe. And leaving the single market and customs union, which the voices of the far right promised would never happen, was madness, but it, as they say, is what it is.
I’ve been told all kinds of stuff on twitter, as if I’m some kind of halfwit who doesn’t understand the damage Brexit has caused. If Nigel Farage had been attacking me, it couldn’t have been more vitriolic, but the middle class – and I am sorry to use this word – commentariat, who wouldn’t know a working class person if they pissed down his leg, treat even Remoaners like me as if we were simpletons, just like all Leavers. It’s total nonsense.
Only when and if actual Leavers change their minds or, given the main demographic who voted Leave, die can we seriously think about joining our place back on the top table in Europe, with all the soft and hard power that brings. In the meantime, we make do and mend, we do our best in the world in which we live and not the one we want to be in.
You can never win the argument against the Remainer hardliners, who will never accept and, I’m afraid, how Brexit came about and why this is not the right time to make it the big issue in the national debate. People are far more concerned about paying their utility bills, getting treated in hospital and simply getting by than they are about our place in Europe.
So in truth, the slogan really is, Make Brexit Work, which of course is only possible to a point. But that point is far more relevant than Starmer banging on about Brexit again and seeing Labour crash and burn as it did in 2019.
Most of all, we need to stop patronising people, telling them how dim they were to vote for Brexit and so on. By all means, debate the issue, although I feel that’s the last thing most people want to do. We only left Europe a couple of years ago, despite the fact that the referendum happened in 2016. That’s a pin prick in history.
The only thing that matters in politics is getting the Tories out and getting Labour to sort out 12 years of destruction and incompetence. In the grand scheme of things, Brexit can wait.
