Dreams of a People's Vote (still)*

W Hutton in the Observer today outlines his case:

I marched for a “people’s vote”. I co-wrote a book making the case for one, a case that included a massive programme of reform [oh that minor detail] . I have argued for it in many public meetings [strange why no-one has voted for it then] . Britain can and must be a member of this club of like-minded European states at the global standard-setting centre [that is all global capitalism does -- set common standards] of the world’s largest free-trading network [for members only]. It transcends the World Trade Organization in importance and reach, confirmed on Friday by the Japan-EU trade deal...For the EU is the enabler of prosperity and guarantor of peace in [northern] Europe. It is the friend of every principal economic interest group [every principal one? where is global finance?] – from farmers to magic circle law firms, from university lecturers to trade unionists. The British are culturally and philosophically Europeans [so why would that change?], even though too many still believe in the myth of our Dunkirk spirit exceptionalism [as ever, no rational case for Brexit]

 Hutton had a dream...

One day, I have no doubt, a second public vote will reverse Brexit. Minds will be changed by the lived experience of the economic stagnation ahead – already darkening as investment in the car industry has plunged 80% over the past three years, with turmoil in aerospace and aviation – and by growing awareness that the country was sold a lie by a bunch of vainglorious, ex-public-school boys.[This was the hope of Project Fear all along, of course -- and the contempt for classes above and below remains strong]...The prospect that this second vote might be this year, as seemed a likely possibility only weeks ago, still exists, but it is receding.

Remainers will bang on and on:

The deal will be a suppurating sore at the heart of British politics for years. Remainers will morph into Returners (I will be one), insistent that Leave sold the country a lie and that committing to Europe while reforming at home is the precondition to break out of the low growth, high inequality, low trade economy and noxiously riven society the Brexit Tory party will deliver. Leavers, backed by their hysterical, obsessive media, will insist that only the cleanest of breaks will deliver the impossible sunlit uplands of the hyper-Thatcherite world they want to construct, while blaming every reverse on pernicious Europeans.

We can rely on demographics as well as working-class experience and contempt for nobs:

Eventually, a government of the centre and left will emerge that will settle the issue and we will rejoin the EU, validated by a second public vote. Today’s young [ah yes] , a working class that has learned through experience what works [ and what puts you out of work]  and millions of naturalised EU citizens [a kind of Remainer fifth column?] will build on the existing Remain vote to create an overwhelming majority – with imperial, Thatcherite fantasies left as the preserve only of the Spectator-reading classes. The only question is whether it will take two or 10 years....The cultural, economic and popular base for Brexit does not exist [compared to the young, working class reformers and naturalised EU citizens?]  Populism, as Donald Trump is discovering, does not survive long when extravagant promises turn into real hardship. It was only callow, second-rate political leadership, along with the malevolent genius of Nigel Farage [don't forget the dark arts of Vote Leave] exploiting fears of immigration, which delivered the transient Brexit majority. The reality will out.

The EU, by contrast, is nothing but helpful:

MPs and trade union leaders involved in this betrayal should reflect on the recent proposals of the German coal exit commission. To compensate regions and towns facing the loss of mining in 2038 as the country moves to meet its climate change goals, Germany is to launch a €40bn 20-year programme of economic regeneration, a Marshall plan for its old industrial regions.[And Greece?]

Then there is the march of progress to wash away old ideas -- and help a new centre party (purely by chance):

 Will the Corbyn faction now controlling the Labour party, so endemically hostile to Europe as part of its 19th-century socialist worldview, ever rise to this challenge? We now know it can’t. The mission is to persuade a majority of the British that their best interests lie in Europe and for that either the Labour party has to be reclaimed – or a new party born.

Feb 14th seems to be the birthday, all Remainers agree, assuming May wins the vote