The good old days*

Brexit coverage has lapsed still further as the Graun turns its attention to other moral panics -- climate, coronavirus, HS2,an altercation with a rapper at the NME awards...

I miss P Toynbee's rants, so I thought I would revisit one of her greatest hits from 21 Jun 2016, three days before the referendum vote:

This country is not the leave campaign’s ingrown place of phobias, conspiracies and fear of foreigners. Our generosity will defeat their meanness of spirit

The polls say the vote hangs in the balance. But I refuse to believe it. I don’t believe Britain will take leave of its senses and plunge down into the dark and rancid place the Brexiters would drag us.

She faced an obvious problem even then, further revealing the negative social distancing of npb politics:

Reasons for remaining may not all be so elevated. For better and sometimes for worse, we are a small-c conservative country by nature, no great risk-takers...nor was Britain much inspired by the fine ideals of a European Union either

She developed a theme that was to make her famous:

One oddity is that usually the old are national ballast, but this time they are the outers, and the anarchists and the young have the wisdom. 

Toynbee is old herself, of course, so this is vicarious distancing --we all like to be down wiv da kids on some issues at least

There are some famous jibes about Leavers, starting with a bit of dogwhistling:

We will never know if the death of Jo Cox swayed any votes or if a referendum tendency to revert to the status quo rescued us in the end. What stares people in the face is that voting for Faragism means getting Faragism – he who said it would be “legitimate” if people feel “voting doesn’t change anything then violence is the next step” as “our civilisation is under threat”. Whose civilisation? What of the extremism of Boris Johnson and Gove’s leave campaign warning that “murderers, terrorists and kidnappers from countries like Turkey could flock to Britain if it remains in the European Union”.

She predicts one of the issues that will lead to Leave,  but offers jolly old common sense in response:

Sovereignty sounds magical, divine, absolute and indivisible....[but]...We sacrifice it in the daily compromises of family [linking national and individual sovereignty as a break with classic liberal conceptions of the sovereign individual]...Democracy is one long surrender of sovereignty to the common good

Letting the electorate define the public good would be handy --but they need 'the wise' of course as well, those who see. It's still all classic JS Mill really. And the EU enshrines his liberalism, not neo liberalism

Those freedoms the EU promotes in this the most civilised, uncorrupt, [!] humane part of the world, protected by a court of human rights, [and regulated by the ECJ with which the ECHR was often confused -- even by me] with social security a founding instinct [!]...What insanity to wish to escape it – all for some phantom “sovereignty”.

Anticipatory millenialism with this:

There’s no hope of saving the planet without making rules together [but why only in  the EU?] against scorching ourselves to death.  

Threats of doom with this:

We will no longer be a United Kingdom, with Scotland gone and Ireland riven by a hard border...a City fast losing business to the EU, all our worst propensities would see us scratch a disreputable living as Europe’s off-shore tax haven [too late there], casino and obsequious harbour for the world’s brigands...The anti-politics, anti-human rights, anti-expert, know-nothing world of the new regime would be a post-reason place,

I don’t believe those politics of isolation will win on Thursday. I can’t and won’t [!] believe it – and if I’m wrong then being wrong is the least of the despair I shall feel. I believe we will remain...Britain will hold, just, to its better self.

I do miss her.