Many Remainers believe a second referendum will be the silver bullet that solves everything by sending the issue of Brexit back into the abyss. But unless we can convince a good percentage of the disenfranchised working class who voted Leave, a second vote could stoke up far greater problems than we have now.
We would have to win big. Not just a few percentage over the Brexiteers, but by a substantial margin that communicates to the country and the powers that be that we want to stay in Europe. But are we that confident that we’ll win by that much? We all thought we’d win by a comfortable margin last time.
If we don’t win big then the issue will never die, the Brexiteers will never accept it and the people who have been ignored for years will once again see it as elites stamping over their want and needs.
People who have been ignored by successive governments for 20-30 years, who still need to make a choice between buying their kid a pair of shoes or dinner for the evening, are not going to be won over by liberal arguments about how life is great under the EU.
We’re still talking about education, culture, peace, prosperity when at heart Brexit for a lot of people is a bread and butter issue.
These are the people who will be told that they are seen as nothing more than thick racist thugs whose opinions count for nothing. And just think, there are worse people than Farage out there. Real fascist authoritarian monsters who will enjoy nothing more than exploit a ‘crisis’ in democracy.
We need to tread carefully if we’re to achieve what we want. Nightmares can be created despite the very best of intentions.
Michael Denham
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