Brexit is fascism

The EU Referendum unleashed a torrent of emotion which took many by surprise. The level of nastiness from both sides has shocked and amazed people in equal measure. Alongside the population both the media and politicians also decided to weaponise language and propagate a series of tropes about the referendum.  

These were that the vote was close lacking democratic legitimacy and that leave voters were stupid, ignorant or racist / xenophobic. 

This insidious messaging has been run on loop for going on three years and been repeated in both Houses of Parliament throughout the media, much of academia and even by the European Commission and Parliament.

Over that time people have watched the result being undermined on a near daily basis. All driven because many in the establishment don’t like it, want to stop it but don’t have the guts to revoke Article 50 as they want to keep their jobs (Link).

Frustration has been building for some time but has started to boil over in recent months as it became clear that Parliament was not going to deliver on the referendum.

It became obvious when the Prime Minister unveiled her original deal which was designed to lock the UK into the EU’s orbit and was followed by Parliament headed by the Speaker unleashing a torrent of initiatives to frustrate leaving (Link). 

All the while parties and MPs kept mouthing the niceties about wanting to leave whilst convincing no one.

Take for example MPs grandstanding over the backstop whilst trying to use it as an excuse to stop Brexit. At no stage did all MPs stand together and demand that the EU and UK government change or remove it.

They haven’t as it’s rather convenient.

MPs latest wheeze recently came into view over the political declaration. Their blatant plan is to create a future relationship so close that the point of leaving will be questioned by everyone. This would naturally lead to demands for a second referendum. The population would be given the choice of remain vs remain lite (Link) and so likely vote fully remain.

This is still the plan but has been shaken by recent events.

The first was polling which showed a majority in favor of no deal in certain circumstances. This seems to have hardened in recent weeks as the shenanigans in Parliament have continued (Link).

This hardening is running counter to what the establishment clearly expected. The British public should be terrified of no deal after being fed a continuous cocktail of fear stories for three years. Obviously, the public is either bored of the stories, bored of Brexit or both.

Which brings us to the second event which is screwing with their plans. This was the launch of the Brexit party by Nigel Farage on Friday 12th April. Farage had made it clear for months that should the government and Parliament fail to deliver Brexit he would come back out of his self-imposed retirement post-referendum and take the fight to the main parties.

What probably shocked politicians across the board were the latest polls for the now likely EU Parliamentary elections in May.

Brexit Party 27%

Labour 22%

Conservative 15%

Lib Dem 9% 

UKIP 7% 

Change UK 6%

SNP 4%

YouGov Apr 16

Farage had been back less than a week, but his new party was already topping the polls and that is before they had even started campaigning.

This lack of Brexit regret and a willingness to support Farage's - the Brexit Party seems to have triggered much of the establishment. Many of whom had been subtly conflating support for Brexit with the far right for months but suddenly came into the open and started doing it publicly. 

Leading the charge was David Lammy who at the People's Vote march in London on 23rd March he said:

“I’m just looking over there at Winston Churchill, on 30 September 1938 he stood in Parliament and said we would not appease Hitler. I’m looking across to Nelson Mandela, who would not give in to apartheid. We say, we will not give into the ERG. Will not appease.”

Lammy then went on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday 14th April and, when confronted about his earlier comments stated:

“I would say that that wasn’t strong enough. In 1938 there were allies who hatched a plan for Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia, and Churchill said no, and he stood alone,”

He then went on to talk about Rees-Mogg posting a speech by the AfD in the Bundestag whilst repeating an unsubstantiated quote about the ERG referring to themselves as the Grand Wizards all whilst drawing direct WW2 and Nazi Germany comparisons.  

  

This conflation to the Nazis and fascism was then taken up by other sections of the media, political class and even academia

The Independent ran an article directly comparing the Brexit party and UKIP to Vox in Spain and Franco’s dictatorship, ending with a demand for the parties to be banned (Link).

“Spain knows full well the horrific consequences of fascism under Franco. They have done the right thing by preventing a dangerous far right party from getting a seat at election debates. It’s time we followed their lead.”

Molly Scott Cato the Green MEP for South West of England and Gibraltar

and former academic tweeted:

"Spain banned Vox. Why don't we do the same to Batten and Farage?

This is what experience of fascism teaches you, just as Germany doesn't allow referendums

In UK, BBC repeats Farage's incitement to political violence in hourly bulletins

#ResistFascism"

Whereas Angelia R. Wilson who is a Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester decided to retweet the below making sure that there was no confusion over what she thought:

The panic from the political class then shifted up a gear with the Evening Standard (Link) reporting that Labour had been told it had to support a second referendum as otherwise it would lose support of Remainers.

It’s worth pausing here and noting that the poll was commissioned by the Peoples vote (PV) campaign which is hardly independent. Also the PV poll indicated that Labour would still only come within a few points of the Brexit Party, so not even a slam dunk win. What appeared to be missing from the analysis was the loss of leave voters who would likely decamp if this happened.

Alongside this analysis was a quote by Margaret Beckett about Labour supporting a second referendum.

“It’s time to recognise that the best thing for both the country and the best thing for the Labour Party is to stand and fight the hard-Right by demanding a People’s Vote.”

So anyone who wants to leave the EU is now hard right, a Nazi and by extension a fascist.   

Let’s be under no illusion what that means. 

The Nazi Regime in its brief existence invaded Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Soviet Union, Anglo-Egyptian Egypt and Czechoslovakia. It also perpetrated the horror that was the Holocaust; the industrial murder of an estimated 17 million souls including Jews, Eastern Europeans, disabled, Jehovah’s witness, homosexuals to name but a few – you can read about their full crimes here (Link).

Frankly I am staggered anyone would dare draw that comparison however much they may disagree with someone's views. But also, how dare they debase a term which should be kept for some of the most revolting human beings alive and dead. By weaponsing it against those whose politics they don't like they cheapen it for when it is really needed to shame someone.

The strategy of the remain establishment is now clear. They have spent three years repeating the same old tropes about leave voters but to no effect. They have tried everything not to deliver Brexit and so the public has started voting with their feet. So politicians are attempting to smear any pro Brexit politicians and parties and by their association voters.

Personally, I can't believe the stupidity of the idea. At a time when trust in the main parties has collapsed due to them choosing to ignore the first referendum, do they think calling for a second referendum and then smearing 50% of the population is going to slow down the growth of the Brexit Party?

It is just going to reinforce leave voters’ views of most of the establishment. A view that has been shaped by being berated and insulted continuously since the referendum. Is calling someone a stupid, ignorant, racist, xenophobe, and by association, a far right, Nazi-loving fascist really going to change their view of Brexit and our political class? 

The equally depressing part is that the whole liberal establishment is acting shocked at the anger, disappointment and disenfranchisement of millions of leave supporters.

Why are they shocked?

If you insult someone enough, they will go elsewhere and that is what is happening. Perhaps they should be looking at their own behaviour but that would require a level of self-awareness that is clearly lacking from so many now.

George Galloway summed it up perfectly:

“Branding anyone to the “right” of you as “racist” even “fascist” is a significant reason for the alienation of many working class people from Labour, now overwhelmingly liberal metropolitan and university educated. A labour movement without workers is a non-sequitur. #Brexit”

Farage is going to clean up because he is the only one not insulting millions of people. The establishment have nothing else left.