As I dust off the tumbleweeds gathered on my blog, I realise the extent to which I've stayed silent on the European Union Referendum is unusual for me. Cards on the table... I am an economic migrant. I live in Amsterdam. I have worked out of Paris for the last five years. I have always regarded Europe as what it has been for people of my generation... a space within which I can move, taking advantage of the opportunities on offer in whatever country those opportunities present.
As this campaign has unfolded over the last few months, I've become more and more concerned at the divisions and, for want of a better word, weaknesses it has exposed in the supposedly 'balanced' demographically selected audiences on the many debate programmes cluttering up our screens. These were exemplified earlier this week by an audience debate on the Victoria Derbyshire morning offering on BBC News 24. The idea was that a group of 'undecideds' would hear the 'facts' from both sides and then come down on one side or other. It was, in parts, possibly the most depressing piece of television I've recently witnessed. It wasn't even the ill informed shouting, or the misrepresentation of fact from both sides or even the total lack of courage in the mediation of the debate. The worst part was this.
"How are we supposed to make up our minds when no one is explaining it to us?" This abdication of intellect... of free will... of any sort of independent thought belies our status as a developed country when a proportion of our population expect to be spoon fed neutral balanced arguments by their televisions. This is not the 1980s. The internet is swimming with information if we care to look for it. Numerous explanations, for example of the difference between the EU, the EEC, the European Court of Human Rights that all get lumped together into a grey amorphous blob, particularly by Euro-Sceptics. If our citizens genuinely wanted to know or even cared what the facts were, we could spend the time finding out. But no, even many of those who campaigned to 'have their say' do not wish to inform their opinion if it costs any kind of effort on their part. They wait, entitled but impotent, for some other entity to tell them how to think. the only redeaming quality was that after witnessing the tone of the debate in the Brexit camp, a substantial number of the undecideds and even one or two from Brexit disavowed their original camp 'because of the tone and conduct of those on the leave side.' My only hesitation in welcoming this is that you should really not need to go on a TV debate to understand it.
I probably shouldn't be irritated by those who wait, professing their ignorance and supposedly, their power to change it of their own accord. They, at least know and have a level of comfort with their lack of qualification in the matter. Worse than that are those who espouse their dislike of the EU based on 'Too many foreigners'... based on 'We should do things for ourselves...' People who have no factual reference for their feelings other than a sense of unease at people who don't look like them or sound like them, longing for the misty eyed hangover of empire as if we are not living in a globalised, interconnected world where sovereignty is voluntarily pooled in numerous organisations, many established and championed by the British.
Hold on... I hear you say. You're starting to sound like an elitist. That is, I assume, the reason why when an educated person such as Victoria Derbyshire or David Cameron stays silent when, even on an organised debate programme, ill informed views are not challenged. As a nation, we like to borrow and import our culture from the USA, but I hope and pray that we do not seek to import the fear of education, the 'Ordinary Joe' syndrome that seeks to place the same validity on every opinion, regardless of what if anything underpins it. That hope is becoming forlorn. You see it - the huge reliance in the Vote Leave ranks upon their invisible army of 'Punters' or 'The Man in the Street', or his even more stunted cousin, the 'Man in the Pub'. As someone with an eye for and interest in language, sentences like 'Good, British common sense' stand out. They are strategic and they are aimed at validating and beguiling those who do not want to think for themselves.
Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying that he 'would not engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man'. Yet politicians and even the media pander to the 'Gillian Duffy's of this world, terrified of a 'gaff' where they actually say what they really think of the level of discourse. They will not answer narrow gut belief with fact, will not humiliate their opponent out of fear. Whilst 'bigot-gate' was not how Brown should have responded, and indeed would not have but for being overheard, we are in desperate need of people willing to ask a follow up question to a Gillian Duffy, to a man in the pub, and if necessary, show their one line gut beliefs for what they are - paper thin and influenced by personal prejudice and a simplicity of thought that does nobody in this country any credit. Were there to be a rematch televised debate between Duffy and Brown, we know how it would turn out.
As someone who works in education, it is worth looking at education statistics. According to Yougov, Only 15% of likely Brexit voters have anything more than a high school education. As a university lecturer I can certainly validate the notion that a degree is not in and of itself a sign of intellect, but it rarely hurts. Remain voters incidentally are more than twice as likely to be degree educated, but the real danger is not in academic education but in levels of information, and a cultural willingness not to be informed on any subject save what Kardashians are doing. As in America, there is a growing sense that the wilfully ignorant must be important. When measured on national census stats, less than 27% of Britons aged between 15 and 74 have a higher education and this number falls further when the 74+ group is added. We must be bolder in confronting this and not be shamed into believing that education is somehow an impediment to 'good British common sense'. Incidentally, this educational curve is exactly the same as those demographics more likely to express bigoted or racist views and vulnerability to the extreme right so whilst Brown may have been off the mark, his instincts also match the curve.
So while Oscar Wilde may sound clever, the line I prefer is actually from Coen Brothers movie, 'O Brother Whereart thou' .
Pete: Wait a minute. Who elected you leader of this outfit?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well Pete, I figured it should be the one of us with the capacity for abstract thought. But if that ain't the consensus view, then hell, let's put it to a vote.
'Hell, let's put it to a vote...' Those very words must be echoing around the educated brain of David Cameron right now. They may be the last ones he hears in his political life. The catch 22 is perfect. Having stoked anti-European sentiment for 30 years, the more modern part of the Tory party is now reliant upon people who despise it to keep the UK in Europe. The lack of any optimism brings the debate into a territory of 'The EU is a very frustrating organisation which I dislike but the risks of leaving are too great' vs 'The EU is a very frustrating organisation which I dislike and we should leave it.' If that's the choice, no wonder Brexit is winning. Leaving makes more sense if that is your choice. If I genuinely believed that to be the case, I'd vote leave too. But it isn't the case and here's why.
The EU is an astonishing piece of political and progressive optimism. Big politics in a political environment of retail offers and self interest. In a landscape where your choices are the narrowing centre of focus groups or rising extremes on either side, this is an optimistic, ambitious notion that says we can all share in the possibilities of a whole continent - the biggest and most economically powerful continent in the world, and by the way, almost half made up of southern and ex eastern block countries that are still developing. In other words... there will be growth, because modernising, however slowly, is what Europe does. Come to France, come to Amsterdam, to Germany - look at the infrastructure. In a world where no system is perfect the economic, social, cultural and lifestyle possibilities are mind-blowing. Yes, there are layers of government, elected and nominated by our elected national governments but that is to be expected in a union where pooled and nationalised sovereignty must be held in balance. A greater sense of balance, proportionality and representation would certainly benefit our own hugely undemocratic electoral system. The European system with its proportions and factions is far more representative than the politics of our own country where only two English parties are granted meaningful representation in Parliament and Scotland comes out as a one party state. It is the project of those who love and live for politics. In Britain, interest in politics has always come a poor second to what drives our politicians red or blue - naked interest in the consolidation of their own power.
It is also a bear pit. It is a competitive, combative never ending arm wrestle for power and while we moan and threaten to take our ball and go home because the 'mean Europeans keep outvoting us' it is still against all odds and logic, a battle of power we are winning. Why? Because we have the world's first and second language. As much as they would dislike hearing it, levels of English in Europe are on the rise generation to generation. Slowly... very slowly, our language is shaping the continent and we have the opportunity to drive this process further, to lead, unhandicapped by 30 years of conservative distrust that has tied our hands behind our back. We could truly own the place. That's why I vote to remain - because I work alongside Europeans in Europe and partake of the wonderfully varied culture and shared culture alike. Europe is not just for a holiday. It is the biggest political long game in town and it is slowly creating a consolidation of shared power built on genuine democratic principles. That is why it is complex and multi layered. Autocracy and fascism are simple for a reason. It is where we live and our rights as EU citizens offer us unrestricted access to a union of some of the oldest countries and civilisations in the world. Europe, and indeed the world is filled with opportunity if we give our citizens the tools they will need to grasp it.
Which brings me back to the Man in the Pub and let me put it in very unacademic terms. If the Man in the Pub is the one in five Brits who leave school without useable GCSEs... If he dwells on defiantly in his small town, expecting that a job will magically be created for him to match his level of skill, motivation and education... If the only language he speaks is English and barely even that... If he believes that unskilled immigrants are taking his job even though they don't have the advantage of his native language or his good free education and he feels powerless to stop them... If he has opinions on the EU and the world but doesn't bother to find out the facts and worst of all, if he still believes all these things without the partial excuse of being over 60... then we, as a nation should not be allowing his opinions to dictate how our country is run.
Why?
Because the Man in the Pub is f****d.
If not by Eastern Europeans then by the Chinese, or the Indians, the Brazilians, the Turks or even his own countrymen and women who are more hungry to better themselves and see that the world we have created is a competition and the competition will only become more fierce as the years pass. And if other humans don't get him, automation will, Uber will, technology will render him obsolete. The man in the pub does not want change unless it is a direct benefit to him. He fears it because he does not believe he has the capacity to adapt. He doesn't want to adapt. He wants the world to spin toward him. He does not want to be forced to compete and begs for the 'red tape' he despises in the EU to protect him in the UK from the unskilled hoards who are an existential threat... because in spite of what the Daily Mail tells him, those who come to the UK do come to work. They do learn English and they do compete, keeping their business costs low in a way that any Conservative leaning small businessman would approve of... but for the fact that they're not from his country.
The most important fact the Man in the Pub should consider is this. Those leading and championing Brexit are not the man in the pub, though they may occasionally frequent one to hold up a British brewed ale for the camera. The Brexiters do not care about the Man in the Pub. They are using his lack of meaningful engagement and limited education on the issues for their own gain, pandering to his patriotism and natural distrust of anything outside his own limited experience and if they win, then the Britain they create will not benefit him. He will suffer for the ease with which he can be manipulated and take the fall regardless as the true politics of the Brexiters asserts itself in power. He will find his benefits cut, his services privatised, taxes lowered for those more wealthy than him... those who 'create wealth'. He will not see his industries or job protected because that is not the politics of those who champion Brexit. His access to education will be more severely limited as the costs of University are increased and his children will not enjoy the freedoms he himself had... and spurned. Their world will be smaller and their opportunities fewer because small mindedness was allowed to win the day.
So to the Man in the Pub, and those who champion Brexit, I beg only this. Look at the leaders of this movement. If you read only one thing, read about their politics, their positions on the big issues, the NHS, taxation, education... Don't expect anyone else to do that work for you and don't trust anyone who wants to spoon-feed you. (I include myself in this) Look at the Britain they would create if you empower them by granting them victory. Look at who shares their opinions. It is more than possible to want to vote for Brexit without being racist, but know that the racists are voting with you and you with them. Know that their reasons whilst not your reasons are being empowered by your complicity. And to those men and woman who do not see themselves as represented by the march of the Brexiteers. It's time we stopped pandering, stopped allowing and condoning ignorance.
It's time to take back the pub.
