Remain. Trapped.
At another time, in another place, voting to Leave the European Union might have been a step forward. It might have prompted a genuinely democratic mass-movement demanding change, rejecting the noxious logic of neo-liberalism, and implementing a new politics based on dignity, solidarity and respect.
But not tomorrow. Not in the UK, not in 2016.
To vote Leave, as their campaign slogan has it, is to ‘take back control.’ Take it back, and simultaneously hand it over to the most repugnant elements of the current political establishment.
The worst of the worst, led by the reptilian triumvirate of Boris, IDS and Gove, ably assisted by Farage and his feral band of Ukippers.
These feckless individuals will not preside over a period of genuine reform, in which worker’s rights and social welfare remain sacrosanct. They will not attempt to address ever-widening inequality. They will not lift a finger to help those most in need.
Instead, they will rebuild Britain in their own image. An elitist, individualist, inward-looking country, propped up by crude nationalism and a pathetic nostalgia for Empire.
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And they will act with impunity. Because we, the people, will have spoken. We will have given them an irrefutable mandate to put their repellent ideas and nefarious schemes into practice.
This is not Project Fear. This is a realistic projection of what will happen if we choose to leave.
#VoteRemain
But don’t be deceived by the media fanfare. As Paul Mason eloquently points out, this Referendum is not a revolt. It is a farce. Last nights’ debate could have come straight from an episode of Charlie Brooker’s unnervingly prescient TV satire, ‘Black Mirror’. A cheap game show where the contestants are politicians, shouting personal insults mixed with rhetoric composed almost entirely of buzzwords and headlines. The aim appeared to be to elicit the largest cheer from an audience of 10,000 people intent on clapping or jeering every thirty seconds. This was not a case of dumbing down the debate, but eliminating the last shreds of intellect that had survived thus far.
Apparently, this is how we do politics now.
A Rock and a Hard Place
Tomorrow, Britain has two options. Either Remain, and everything will continue exactly as before, without the merest hint of serious Reform. Or Leave, and the dystopian vision described above will become a reality.
To misquote a former Conservative Prime Minister, it appears that in this Referendum, as in war, there are no victors.
