Brexit: The Remaining Problem

As Brexit starts to bite, the politics of it has come alive again. 

There are some clear signs that the British economy has started cooling. In a way, the experts were right: We have started paying the costs of Brexit. Indeed, they were wrong at the same time - the effects are slowly beginning to emerge, rather than appearing as a morning-after apocalypse. But it is inescapable that a long winter is around the corner.

This makes the politics of Brexit come alive again. The Remainers suddenly see a light, as the Leavers' claims are exposed as hoaxes and lies, and the economic effects of Brexit become clearer. Their moods are a combination of 'I-Told-You-So' and denial, as the weak and unstable government proves itself to be clueless about how to deal with Brexit. Suddenly, leaders who bailed out - David Miliband, for example - are back in conversation, urging the MPs to push for a second referendum; there is talk of leadership changes, and even of a new party of Remainers emerging. Liberal Democrats, a write-off after 2015, suddenly found themselves a purpose, and believe that they can be that party of Remainers. In summary, Brexit has made British politics interesting again.

Except one thing: Where are the Remainers?

All those people who voted to Remain in June 2016, yours truly included, have come to accept Brexit as a fact of life. They have not suddenly become xenophobic or protectionist, but the intervening months gave them more perspective than the simplistic referendum question David Cameron put forth. In a way, the Remainers have become Post-Brexit, and have come to question whether Remaining or Leaving the EU was actually the most important question.

I can, and shall, speak for myself, but I think these views are shared: Many Remainers no longer think that the Brexit was about some disgruntled voters breaking with the establishment, but that there are real issues we should think more deeply about. We have watched, in the meantime, the surreal Presidency of Trump, and another General Election, all of which indicated the end of politics as usual. We have realised that Cosmopolitanism, a nice, cosy ideal, has a downside: Globalisation's losers, obscured from view, have claimed the centre-stage and forced us to rethink what openness really means. The Brexiters' dislike for Syrian refugees was disgusting, but what came to light since is that the Remainers forgot their own backyard. 

This soft underbelly of the Liberal Internationalism now lay exposed. The Liberal Elite and the Professional Left have mixed up the Internationalism - the common cause of the working class - with the global flow of International Capital and pursuit of economic efficiency. This did not come from nowhere: The Liberal faith in progress, the Marxist assumption of Capitalism's forward march, the European belief of cultural superiority, blended together in this new slogan of unity of the world's elite. This has made the conservatives the keepers of the social, the religious leaders the last refuge of the dispossessed, and the nationalists the champion of the cultural. It needed the jarring experiences of a Brexit, and the rise of a Trump, for the illusion of openness in the Liberal edifice to break down.

In a classic role reversal now, the Remainers now find themselves not on the side of sympathy, but selfishness; enlisted not for the cause of openness - as they set out to do - but opportunism. The champions of the new remain - Blair, Miliband, the Lib Dems - are pushing an old envelop and asking a question - whether or not to remain in EU - that has been asked, and answered, already. They have not confronted the brave new Post-Brexit, Post-Trump questions, which will require new answers. Their arguments have no new ideas about how to address the challenges of deprivation and disaffection, no commitment to make globalisation work for everyone.The only thing they offer is a path back to a Golden Age that none of us can remember living in.

This is indeed the Remaining problem. One may not subscribe to the xenophobia and small-mindedness that Theresa May offers, but the opposite cause is equally bankrupt. The offer of 'Making Brexit work for everyone', the somewhat less sexy Corbyn slogan, may have more to it than we see. Indeed, the idealistic 'Making Globalisation work for everyone' is not on offer - at least, not from the current bunch of politicians.  So, despite all the talk, except for a few people worrying about visa queues (having lived most of my life with an Indian passport, this does not bother me much), the Remainers don't have much to go for them. That is, not until they get back to basics, and start asking the questions they should have confronted a long time ago.


 

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