The tyranny of the Brexit minority cripples the UK
The Lowdown on the power of conservative cancel culture
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The supposed “special relationship” between the UK and the US has once again turned out to be as great a fantasy as the imaginary “Anglosphere.” A beaten Downing Street admitted yesterday that, despite all its hopes, Donald Trump will almost certainly not spare the UK from his tariffs.
It’s hardly a surprise. Trump doesn’t promise special deals to anyone, and he wouldn’t keep his promises even if he did. We must wait until tomorrow to find out how bad the hit to the UK economy, the US economy and, indeed, the world economy will be.
But already we ought to be seeing the failure to win over Trump as a clarifying moment. The great bet the UK made after the Second World War was that we could best defend ourselves by hugging the Yanks close and sticking to the alliance with the United States.
Since Donald Trump returned to power, that bet is off.
Indeed, all bets are off.
To make matters worse, the Conservatives and Farage took us out of the European Union. They threw up a barrier between the UK and our European allies which now threatens our security as well as our prosperity.
Insofar as they thought it through at all, they believed that they were not weakening national defence because an American-led Nato would always be there to protect Europe.
And now no one can be sure of that.
Surely it is time to admit that Brexit was a terrible mistake and move back towards Europe? According to YouGov research carried out earlier this year, 55 per cent of Brits now think Brexit was the wrong decision. Can’t we at least start thinking about, if not rejoining, then at least forging a deep trade and defence pact with the EU to help us through this crisis?
We cannot do so because of the underestimated power of fanatical minorities. On the right of British politics, it is taboo to admit that there is the tiniest problem with Brexit.
Like a guilty family secret, no conservative wants to wash the right’s dirty laundry in public by acknowledging that the right made a catastrophic error in 2016.
Conservatives talk with justice about the cancel culture of the left. But they have their own heresy hunters and censors. Consider this: not one Conservative or Faragist politician has recanted. Correct me if I am wrong, but I cannot think of one right-wing pundit who has admitted that they made a mistake either. I don’t believe that they would be able to carry on working at the Times or the Telegraph if they did.
The policing of right-wing opinion, and the fear it generates, is having a disastrous effect on the UK’s future.
Opponents of the EU may be in a minority now. But minorities can still have huge power – particularly in our first-past-the-post system where a party can win a crushing majority on a minority of the vote. (In our current Parliament, Labour won two-thirds of the seats on just one-third of the votes cast!)
The EU will not waste time on intensive negotiations for a better deal if they think a Conservative/Faragist coalition will come to power and tear it up.
As Professor Chris Grey said in the latest edition of my Lowdon podcast, until support for Brexit becomes a fringe position held by a handful of cranks and fools, the EU will not waste its time with the UK.
I wanted to talk to Chris because he is one of the best commentators on post-Brexit Britain. He is an Emeritus Professor of Organization Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, and was previously a Professor at Cambridge University and Warwick University. But for our purposes he is the author of the widely admired Brexit and Beyond newsletter, one of the most perceptive commentaries on the state of Britain you can find.
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