Another odd quirk of modern life, on both sides of the Atlantic, is that history is being written by the losers. Not saying that's good, nor bad, nor that I understand it, and I'm only using the word "losers" because the cliche is that history is written by the winners. But in the US, the president won the election but the narrative seems to have turned against him (I know), while in the UK, there was another piece at the weekend laying out what "the brexiteers" have been saying, the better to disagree with them. It seems to be assumed that Leave voters were deceived, et cetera, and it's not for me to point out that such assumptions were what got us into this situation in the first place. Not listening to voters, and so on.
It's significant in politics, if there's a nickname that sticks. "The brexiteers" is neat. I'd say, for what it's worth, that the EU's negotiators and assorted public speakers are winning the "propaganda war" (emphasis on the inverted commas), while our lot seem to be just muddling around. But what we do seem to be having is a debate about our relationship with the EU. Which is a good thing, right?
Or maybe this is about something more than the rights and wrongs of a specific turning point in the political life of the nation. Why such a polarisation? Why don't we move on into the negotiation about the future relationship? Every new day is the breaking of yesterday's status quo and we can't stay in 2016 forever.
It's significant in politics, if there's a nickname that sticks. "The brexiteers" is neat. I'd say, for what it's worth, that the EU's negotiators and assorted public speakers are winning the "propaganda war" (emphasis on the inverted commas), while our lot seem to be just muddling around. But what we do seem to be having is a debate about our relationship with the EU. Which is a good thing, right?
Or maybe this is about something more than the rights and wrongs of a specific turning point in the political life of the nation. Why such a polarisation? Why don't we move on into the negotiation about the future relationship? Every new day is the breaking of yesterday's status quo and we can't stay in 2016 forever.
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