Guardian opts for calm over media confection (!)

R Behr reported his own heart attack in the Gruan and came near to blaming Brexit. He has recovered and  should really be sitting in his backyard reading something light like 50 Shades of Grey (well, perhaps not that). Yet the anti-Johnson diatribe seems as splenetic as ever (are spleens somehow connected to hearts? I've never been sure). The main bit of interest amid the personalised rant is about Brexit:

Johnson believes in a third way between orthodox Thatcherism, which mutated into hardline Brexitism [!], and the more paternalist, interventionist tradition sustained in recent years by Tory remainers, with Michael Heseltine as their figurehead. With typical solipsism, the current leader pitches himself as the incarnation of this hybrid idea.[ see 'pragmatism' below]

Given the Government is in power for a while, Behr pins hopes on a Tory revolt:

the salient question is what might cause a few dozen Conservatives to rebel. Precedent suggests hardline Eurosceptics will break first, which is why Johnson sustains his anti-Brussels rhetoric at campaign pitch.

But would he want this sort of revolt which might lead to more compromises with Eurosceptics ? Behr overcomes contradictions by heading for the abstract: it is a matter of principle, maybe even morals:

A new generation of Tories will have to discover the independence of mind and insurrectionary spirit necessary to restore sovereignty to the House of Commons....The EU itself will be less compliant and there are other players in this drama beyond Westminster. Scotland is not susceptible to Johnsonian wit. [the Scots will inavde?] Nor is the global economy....

Supporting the wisdom of the global economy now!

[There is no] new flaw in the structures of democratic accountability but it is newly hazardous after the steadying [!] voices of convention and protocol shouted themselves hoarse over Brexit, then fell silent

Well -- indeed. We can see the sense there.

S Moore is pretty rational by comparison:

The hashtag #thick trended on Twitter. If, I wondered, after four years, the thick people won, how thick do you have to be lose?

I continue to think that, like many things, a good chunk of Brexit is media confection. Most people have lives. Don’t @ me about the chunk that isn’t – the unsettled status of so many....When I looked at the media, I did feel things – rage, mostly. Sorry, but I don’t want the likes of Ian McEwan complaining he is now one of the “left-behinds”. If any of this was a revolt against the elite, it hasn’t worked. The elites just won’t stop eliting [staggering insight, for virtue-signallers everywhere].

[She consults her friends, as do all good Graun journalists] 

“I feel European,” they say – but Europe has not gone away. No one says: “I am feeling really EU-ish,” do they?...[the current protest -- as in the Guardina-- is] a movement led by white middle-class blokes [and P Toynbee]  – the self-appointed leaders of the remain/People’s Vote crew ... Are all these people gonna [demotic to be down wit da kids, or poor speech recognition]  strop till they drop?

What can people who think Brexit is a terrible mistake do – just hope for failure? Or maybe understand their own, which takes guts? The union-jack waistcoats are as idiotic as the blue and yellow faces [let's be nice and liberal, middle-ground.Let the npb tell you what to do] . These people could surely find common ground in a dressing-up box.

[Should opposition be confined to] 

criticising every move that Boris Johnson makes as he enters the fantasy free-trade nirvana? This is not a strategy. There has to be some attempt at consensus around certain areas.

There has been so much sentimental tosh from both sides, from Auld Lang Syne to projections on to the white cliffs of Dover. All of this has left me cold. You can tell me I am heartless, but as politics is once more happening, pragmatism is called for: around education, the NHS, the devastating cuts to local councils...Without strategy and hope, the left are becoming the left behinds.

And Jayanetti:

The unexciting truth is this. Britain voted to leave the EU, driven by concerns over immigration, sovereignty, and disaffection among some with the establishment. The Tories won a majority based on delivering Brexit and not being Jeremy Corbyn. Values influenced this – broad brush values that have been part of public opinion for decades....People’s attitude to Brexit naturally influences their view of the process of leaving the EU. But outside that, most of the weekly storms and skirmishes that are chalked up to the culture war should instead be understood as rants by bigots and bores. Casting them as some kind of profound conflict makes British society seem more intractably divided than it is, while giving the tedious whingers a political elevation they do not merit.

I don't Tweet so I haven't followed the latest, but I had a quick look at #thick (and then erased all traces of my presence -- I hope). Most of the top comments seemed to be hostile a la Moore. Some of the original ones seemed to be showing pictures of fat white blokes members with swastika tatts or gullible plonkers interviewed by media smartasses.  

I am sure there is much material for this blog in social media --but how depressing a task it would be to follow it!