Are the ultra-Remainers going mad?

A lot of strange stuff has been written about the referendum and its aftermath, so a writer really has to go some to stand out from the crowd. As was highlighted today by Walter Ellis (brilliant Reaction Remainer, who shows we are a broad church while generally being for enthusiastically getting on with Brexit), the case of Christopher Booker is most strange. Booker was, along with his associates, a robust voice for leaving the EU for many years. Now he writes it will be a disaster because we are leaving the customs union and because NO-ONE WILL LISTEN TO HIM AND HIS FRIENDS, or something. Let’s face it. There is a strand in the Eurosceptic movement that liked being a minority interest. There is a similarity there with music fans who like showing their alleged superiority by being into an obscure act. What they hate most is when other people start buying the records of their hitherto little-known favourites.

But on the other side of the fence, it’s getting stranger and stranger by the day. This week’s editorial, that is leader column, of that great old newspaper The Observer is quite simply one of the maddest things ever published in a serious newspaper. And believe me, when I say that, I’ve read a lot of mad stuff. I was a newspaper comment editor for several years, which means I had to read some of the stuff that didn’t get into the paper. I’ve seen all manner of journalistic horrors.

The Observer’s ultra-Remainer editorial on Sunday scoops the pot, even in the first paragraph:

“Like sheep…” it begins. Which instantly makes one think “uh-oh”. Use of sheep or sheeple? That’s classic pyjama-warrior ranting on the message boards at 3am and we’re only two words in.

“Like sheep the British people, regardless of whether they support Brexit, are being herded off a cliff, duped and misled by the most irresponsible, least trustworthy government in living memory.”

Are sheep really herded off cliffs? Is this a recognised phenomenon in agriculture and livestock husbandry? I suspect not. I fear the Observer leader writer is betraying a metropolitan ignorance of farming techniques. Perhaps the leader writer is an over-tired young parent, someone who never leaves North London and has been driven to distraction by watching with their young child too many episodes of Shaun the Sheep on CBeebies between attending anti-Brexit rallies in Islington. Note to leader writer: Shaun the Sheep is a light-hearted comedy drama aimed at children, not a documentary about Brexit.

Anyway… the Observer goes on.

“The moment when article 50 is triggered, signalling Britain’s irreversible decision to quit the EU, approaches inexorably. This week, on Black Wednesday, the UK will throw into jeopardy the achievements of 60 years of unparalleled European peace, security and prosperity from which it has greatly benefited. And for what?”

For what? Look, we went through all this in the referendum. The point is to be not in the EU and to be a self-governing country with control of our borders. That does not mean an end to immigration, it simply means the opportunity for control. Happily, we are not leaving Europe either, which has been around for thousands of years. To leave Europe is a geographic, culinary and cultural impossibility. We are leaving the EU which is a 60 year-old concept and a questionable set of political arrangements that, a majority of Britons decided, is not for us.

There was a huge argument about all this, you might have seen it, and then a simple vote on June 23rd 2016. One can say that the referendum result was misguided, or is to be regretted, but it happened. The UK is leaving the EU. There are a number of ways to do this, and the outcome depends on how the negotiations turn out. But at the end of it, we are leaving the EU.

All the evidence is that the majority of people in the country are realistic and accept this and want Theresa May to get on with it. She is 19 points ahead in the polls, and outside the ultra-Remainer lobby she is regarded as quite sensible and not overly ideological. Oh, and she was a Remain voter. In this way she steers a path through the middle.

Personally, I think Brexit is one of the most tremendous things to have happened for decades, but that’s just me and I generally avoid saying so to spare the bruised feelings of Remain friends, in the (vain it now seems) hope that moderate leavers and moderate remainers will work together to make the best of what comes next in the decades ahead.

It is the ultra-Remainers who seem increasingly possessed. The Observer editorial goes on to invoke Dunkirk. This is in line with the sad spectacle of Lord Heseltine saying the other day that Brexit hands the domination of Europe to Germany, a development which we fought wars to avoid. And so we come full circle. It is now angry ultra-Remainers banging on about the Second World War.

Then there was Saturday’s march through London, attended by tens of thousands of anti-Brexiteers, in which placards were waved calling those who voted for Brexit, often after much heart-searching, “loons” and idiots. That’ll work! That’ll win round people who voted for Brexit!

Revealingly, there were complaints from those on the march that their event was overlooked by the news media. No, marches happen all the time and unless they are enormous, such as when Blair took the UK into the Iraq War, they are not news. Really. “There was a small or medium-sized march” is not news. Never has been. Never will be. It fails a basic news test. If you disagree, then set up a “March TV” channel dedicated to covering marches and see how many viewers it gets and how much money you make. Clue: not a lot.

A lot of sensible Remainers are not taking part in the Remain extremist festival of ultra-liberal intolerance that is defined by weeping and wailing and downright snobbery. But a cadre of ultra-Remainers who only a few months ago prefaced everything with “respect” for the result, now talk openly of knackering the negotiations or setting conditions that amount to staying in the EU, or getting as near to continued membership as they can. The mask has slipped. They want to reverse the referendum.

I think they need a holiday. The South of France is nice? And Spain. And Greece. And Italy. Or Cornwall if the devaluation of the pound does your head in.