One of the immediate responses to the referendum result on Friday morning was a petition to overturn the result which with three million signatures at the time of writing is the biggest to date on the government’s parliamentary website. In the streets and shops of Bath over the weekend, where the Remain campaign had been in a majority of nearly 60%, voices of discontent were raised not just with the result but with the referendum itself, and no doubt similar views have been prominent in other urban centres up and down the country. In London, where over three quarters voted for continued EU membership, there have been various social media campaigns to overturn or work around withdrawal, and plans to hold protests in Trafalgar Square. MP David Lammy has called on parliament to block any Brexit move.
These expressions of shock, anger and grief are understandable given the significance of Friday’s decision. Moreover, the binary nature of any referendum means that the losing side inevitably feels aggrieved, which is why they often feel like a phase in a political campaign rather than its resolution. Such feelings have been heightened by the confusion evident in the campaign, which managed to polarise opinions without raising the exceptionally low level of knowledge among British voters about what the EU actually is or does.
Rather than seeking to block the decision, however, pro-EU campaigners in the UK would do well to focus on the reasons for their allegiance and the implications of post-Brexit Britain for those issues, for a couple of reasons at least. First, annulling a popular vote does not seem to be the best way of addressing the powerful argument of Brexit campaigners about the need to regain popular control of decision-making. It would surely be more likely to stoke anti-elitist rejectionism.
The European Union itself has failed to find a way of responding to popular euroscepticism other than by calling for more integration, on one hand, and branding sceptics as nationalists on the other. Meanwhile, growing public fears and concernsprovide a fertile breeding ground for radical right-wing populism. Rejecting Friday’s vote would fall into the same trap, from which so far the EU leaders do not seem capable of extricating themselves.
Second, the Conservative party psychodrama which has paralysed the country for the last six months looks set to continue until the end of the year when a general election is reportedly planned. The largely right-wing press will be dominated by this battle, leaving the issues which voters actually care about to wither away or to be distorted by the lens of party competition. Only by refocusing on the concerns expressed in the EU referendum can the UK start to have a conversation about what kind of society it wants, what public services it wants and how they can be funded, how the country can distribute the fruits of economic development to build cohesive communities, and how it can generate a public discourse that is not about hate but about mutual acceptance and support. It is a good thing that we have started to talk to each other but the terms of the debate need to change for the better, on all sides.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has suggested that a general election could continue the debate on what kind of relationship the UK wants with the EU post-referendum (another reason for the EU to conduct its negotiations with the UK in a calm rather than knee-jerk fashion). Rebuilding centrist and progressive parties may help to steer Britain out of its current miasma of distrust and find a way of renewing relationships with our European neighbours.
Susan Milner is Reader in European Studies at the University of Bath.
Image: Luke Tanis
