The great moving-on

More encouraging signs from one of el Gurdinano's leading zeitgeist surfers S Moore. 

The new climate change protest movements have challenged me...I live with an eco-warrior – albeit one who, like many teenagers, never switches the lights out.... They remind us that Brexit is one issue among many

Meanwhile less adept surfers  the Times stick to an old favourite theme, one of prime interest to this blog -- what is the case for Remain, should any new referendum appear?

  the nascent Remain campaign is miles off the pace. It’s not just disunited; it isn’t even sure who it’s supposed to be addressing....[never was,and cannot be,because it is entirely a matter of discrimination against Leavers]...

Some Tories wanting to join PV/Remain have encountered the floating nature of cultural identity politics. Remainers are equally likely to be aggressively anti-Tory, generational, pro trans and so on. Identity politics allows no compromises

Huw Merriman, so far the only Leave-supporting Tory MP who backs another plebiscite, identifies one of the group’s flaws. He put his government job on the line to join a People’s Vote rally earlier this month, only to endure a succession of opposition MPs denouncing his party from the podium with cheap political points. ...“There are more MPs like me on my side of the Commons but the People’s Vote campaign needs to change if it is to find us.” Key figures in the People’s Vote acknowledge the need to broaden their support.... [One Remainer has charted] the course ahead. It sails through “respectful engagement” of Brexit voters to “national healing” in a smooth, stately fashion.

 NO doubt cries of betrayal and sell-out will ensue. And there is still a problem:

immigration: then Remain Mk 2 hits the iceberg that sank the original. Cooper admits: “To get a People’s Vote off the ground there has to be some acknowledgement of the fears of many who voted to leave about uncontrolled immigration.” The solution? The referendum would be “an opportunity” for the UK and EU to “come up with some way of managing immigration better without compromising on the core freedoms [of the movement of capital, goods, services and labour].”...It’s hard not to read that sentence without hearing the simultaneous thuds of European leaders’ heads on desks and Nigel Farage slapping down a drained celebratory pint. 

Remain’s 2016 campaign was criticised for not having a positive, emotionally resonant message....floating voters then seemed more susceptible to messages about their individual welfare than their identity as Europeans, which is why there was such a relentless focus on the impact of Brexit on household finances in so-called Project Fear.

So back to the usual issues:

a second Remain campaign must find an “emotional connection” with Leave voters. Wondering aloud what it might be, he identifies voters’ unease that Britain’s standing in the world has been hit by Brexit. [However] The Leavers’ “Tell them again” slogan is so powerful that it could even win over some who voted Remain last time. Its message — if politicians get away with ignoring the will of 17.4 million voters, what else might they do? — boils down to a question of democratic principle....So what can neutralise it? The People’s Vote is mulling “Now we know”, a slogan designed to attract Leave voters while gently inviting them to consider the unexpected complexity and cost of quitting the EU. [Bridget Phillipson, a Labour MP helping the People’s Vote says]...It’s not that voters were misled, it’s just no one had any real idea what it would entail.” It’s a start, but one wonders if organisations like the People’s Vote would do better if they employed a few former Leavers in key positions and moved their headquarters out of Remain-voting London.

But there is hope:

any alternative to staying in the EU would have to be properly defined, trade-offs and all.[and Remain would not have to discuss the future of the EU?]...Second, Farage’s likely success in the Euro-elections will make it all-but-impossible to sideline him again.... Farage mops up the 25 per cent who are hardcore Brexiteers but is toxic to floating voters...perhaps most significant, is the passage of time. Last week’s Easter recess allowed the country to taste a “post-Brexit” future. The alacrity with which it fell on other topics reveals a deep yearning to change the subject

Overall:

What could beat “Tell them again”? Perhaps something that captures the sense that after three years of wrangling it’s time to move on. How about “Just make it stop”?

How positive and emotional is that!