The Magic Mirror of Brexit

The Magic Mirror of Brexit

Reflecting on the UK’s December 2019 General Election, one thing above all others has been made clear to me. It is how few voters changed their minds about Brexit  in the 3 ½ years since the Referendum, in spite of the impassioned efforts of politicians and activists.

Why is this? Surely, one thought, as the contours of the possible Brexit landscapes became clearer over the months, there would be major reconsiderations (as proponents of a second Referendum argued). After all, as John Maynard Keynes said: “when the facts change, I change my mind”. 

I realise now that Brexit is, and always has been, a magic mirror. It shows different things to different sorts of people. There are thus many sorts of Brexit, and arguments engendered by one vision may have absolutely no purchase on those who see another. If anything, those arguments hardened minds on the other side.

Those feel strongly for or against Brexit fall into several types, whose memberships often overlap. But the two groups that were critical for the Election were: on the Leave side, mainly older working class voters; and on the Remain side, mainly younger metropolitan white collar workers.

What did the Brexit mirror reveal to each?

The Leavers looked in and saw: politicians in Westminster, and by extension Brussels, who had ignored them, a patriotism that had been downgraded, an identity that had, by some, been scorned. They also saw unscrupulous invitations to xenophobia and nationalism, the peddling of bogus myths about the Nation and the bogey of the EU.

What these Leavers didn’t see is what the Brexit mirror showed the Remainers.

These saw closeness between European nations, the breaking down of borders, integrated economies, cultural and scientific cooperation and an identity that was European as much as British.

Also the Mirror showed the Leavers that, although their votes had prevailed in the Referendum over three years previously, the Brexit outcome was still in doubt..

When the December election was called, politicians looked into the various mirrors and made their pitches. Both Leave voters and Leave politicians saw an image of an added hateful category in their mirror – the Referendum nay-sayers and prevaricators; the perfidious Revokers or Second Referendum-ers, out to frustrate the Leave result. (The image did not extend to the reasons for those obstructions – they were in the other Mirror.)

Hence the simplicity of the conservative strategy: Get Brexit Done. Here was clarity, and continuity with the themes and psychology of the Referendum.

The Remainers looked into their Mirror and saw: Hard Brexit damage, cultural shrivelling and the triumph of narrow nationalism. Unfortunately, they also saw extra images – complicated and maybe contradictory: Revocation, Second Referendum, Soft Brexit.

But nobody else was looking in their Mirror. Those who gazed in the other had, in this election, the crucial votes.

Dec 2019