And so begins the backlash to the backlash. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, it is clearer than ever before that the tide is turning. Poll after poll shows both that regret at leaving the EU is on the rise and that a majority of people would vote to return tomorrow if a fresh vote were held. And that started long before the madness that is Donald Trump’s attack on Iran and increasing swipes at Britain showed how lonely life is outside the bloc.
Which is why the gears are slowly grinding among the Brexiteers and their media as they prepare to fight once again for their cherished political project. Hence articles such as that in today’s Times, by Juliet Samuel, headlined “I was a Remainer – this is why I was wrong”, a piece of writing of such bonkers historical whataboutery it may as well be OJ Simpson’s If I Did It.
In a full-page column, Samuel – recruited from the Telegraph in 2023 to replace David Aaronovitch, in a core support alienation recruitment move only rivalled in recent times by Tottenham Hotspur – recounts her decision to vote to remain, surveys the UK’s current political and economic situation and decides: I was wrong – this was a brilliant decision all along!
“Labour, already exhausted, is rattling around in the back of the broom cupboard for the old biscuit tin labelled ‘closer ties with Europe’,” she mocks. “The arrogance shown by the reverse-Brexit crew did not help their cause. But more important was the realisation that the country was not doing all right. Wages were stagnant, whole regions were in decay and we were (and are) propping up a broken model using low interest rates, debt, cheap imports and ever-greater influxes of immigration.” And how’s that working out for you now, Juliet?
Another extract – one shared enthusiastically on social media by Times leader writer Sebastian Payne, for those not behind the paywall, adding that “everything that has happened since confirms we made the right decision to Leave”, says that: “Brexit sceptics ask for the alternative. We should look to our Covid-era vaccine task force.
“Putting aside the argument about whether the task force could have existed without Brexit (technically yes, but politically it was unlikely), its success in procuring the best vaccines faster than almost any rival proved that you don’t need scale and procedure.”
But you don’t get to put aside whether the task force could have existed without Brexit, when you yourself have all but conceded what we all have long known to be true: that the very fact the approval was permitted under European law in the dog days of Britain’s transition period proved that it could have. Is that all you’ve got? A regurgitated nigh six-year-old Boris Johnson lie?
The reaction to Keir Starmer’s reset and increasing public appetite for rebuilding relations with Brussels shows the difficulties the Brexiteers now have in opposing it, even apart from the fact that their newspapers now sell even fewer copies, and to even older people, than they did 10 years ago.
In 2016 we Remainers were defending the status quo. The Brexiteers could, and did, promise anything and everything, because they were selling us something we hadn’t seen and couldn’t touch.
As we now fight to rebuild those relationships, and put ourselves at the heart of a new Europe, the problem the Brexiteers have is that 10 years ago they sold us a new car on vibes alone. Except we’ve now had a decade to road-test it, and it’s not the Rolls-Royce promised, it’s Fred Flintstone’s, it’s knackered, we’re sick of sticking our feet through the floor and running and we’re not buying it again. Sorry Juliet, but you were right first time, and we all know it.
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