The hypocrisy of the pro-Brexit media - and how it will destroy Brexit itself in the end
The most hilarious thing in British politics at the moment, by some ways, is watching the sections of our media that are all in behind Brexit (most of it, in other words, despite the delusions of some Brexiters) twist themselves into knots arguing that the Labour Party shouldn’t be allowed to bullshit about Brexit in the same way that the Conservative Party has for the past who knows how many years. It’s as if they are particularly annoyed at their own propaganda machine turning around and eating them alive. It’s not fair, dammit, they exclaim. This is our territory.
A great example came in the form of an article in the Telegraph this week that had the headline, “David Lammy can’t have his Brexit cake and eat it too”. The article takes apart most of the pro-Brexit arguments utilised by Boris Johnson over the years; the fabled “cakeism”. It argues that Lammy can’t claim to be able to create better relations with the EU unless he's prepared to re-enter the institutions of the European Union. This is true. But the Leave campaign told us in 2016 that we could leave the EU and still have all the advantages of being inside of it still. What then is the difference between lying - or the very least being very wrong - about this in 2016 and being economical with the truth about it in 2023? The stuff we were told in 2016 was much worse since it got us into this mess in the first place, whereas at least the bullshit being peddled by Labour at the moment I can construe as trying to rebuild from the hole we’re in now.
The article even dares to touch directly on this at one point:
“It could even be said that (Lammy) would like to have his cake and eat it, which is precisely the charge that Labour levelled at Boris Johnson during the Brexit negotiations, when, supposedly, he wanted the benefits of the EU without the responsibility of membership.”
Uh, yes, that’s completely true. Of course, if you follow the logic here, you can only conclude that Boris Johnson and the Leave campaign were wrong or dishonest when all of that stuff about about having our cake and eating it too was said, so in slamming Lammy for doing the same thing, the article undermines the entire basis for why we left the EU in the first place and indeed, Brexit as a project.
I bring this up because we’re going to see a lot more of this kind of thing if Labour form the next government - right-wing Brexiters complaining about things they cheered on when the Tories were the ones saying and doing them. It will be a ridiculous and silly sight - and none of them will notice what they are doing in the slightest. This is one of the reasons I think the British right will become anti-Brexit at some point in the next five to ten years, slowly but surely. Not only does Brexit not make any sense from a traditional centre-right way of thinking about the world, partisanship will erode their support of the project as a Labour government takes it over. The right-wing Brexiters will tear down all of the arguments they built up themselves when they were pretty much identically put forward by Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. In trying to pick apart the Labour government’s Brexit policy, they will destroy Brexit itself. And given the stuff I’m reading already, I don’t think they will even be all that conscious of what they are doing, at least at first.
An argument may be put forward by some here is that this will be balanced out on the left when a Labour government is trying to “make Brexit work”. That once it is Labour who are in charge of Brexit, the left will quickly become reflexively more pro-Brexit.
I don’t think so. This just isn’t how left-wing politics work. Whenever a left-wing government gets into power, everyone on the left spends all of their time bitching about how it isn’t left-wing enough or isn’t doing something it obviously should be doing. Brexit will perfectly slot into this hole, particularly given how inept it seems like Labour policy towards the EU will actually be in practice. Nothing is going to improve, in other words, so no one on the left will be forced to re-evaluate anything. Instead, anti-Brexit feeling will continue on its current course: growing on both the left and right of British politics at a steady but notable pace.
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Great points as usual.....little doubt it will be the Tories who take us back in, I keep making this point in the comments section of the DT, it really winds up the readers............but the penny will drop.
Another big worry for the Tories now is if Core inflation continues to drop in the Eurozone and doesn't here, Ukraine and a Pandemic won't disguise that one.
I have not heard anything from and about ERG. Do they still exists?