The build-up to last week’s Brexit summit of ministers at Chequers featured exactly the kind of elite and commentariat behaviour that many people connect to the decision to leave the EU in the first place.
The government is still floundering two years on from the referendum, unable to get a consistent grip on complexities and conflicting opinions. Friday’s agreement may seem to clarify key aspirations for now, but there’s no guarantee it’ll stand up to pressures from within the Conservative Party. So the UK’s most important political process in decades is not really driven by our collective interests, but by the internal struggles of a party elite combined with the instincts of that party and Theresa May to cling to power and the impression that they are on top of things.
The cabinet infighting became at least as big a story as the whys and wherefores of Brexit, not least because it’s easier to explain. It also better fits the soap opera/reality TV spectacle that establishment media seems drawn to. In an especially surreal turn, the Mail On Sunday had a picture of warring cabinet members mocked up in the style of Fornite, the video game craze they have anguished about elsewhere.
While well-paid members of the chattering classes endlessly obsessed about Brexit and Tory jostling, much less attention went towards just how remote and un-inclusive the supposed decision making has become, or the vulgar and petty dynamics driving it. At the time of writing, David Davis has resigned as Brexit Secretary, fuelling another few days of fevered speculation – “who’s in, who’s out and who’s stabbed who” – divorced from the material interests of most British people.
The same Westminster and media bubble that Westminster and the media told us we disliked, is as inflated as ever. The circus never left town, though the politicians will be off on holiday soon, and the press “silly season” will commence. There’ll be very little time to figure things out when the political routine resumes in September. The political and media establishment did a very poor job of explaining things before the referendum and haven’t done much to catch up since. For example, it was only late last year before it dawned on many of them that the Irish Border was a problematic issue.
There are many valid and debatable reasons for wanting various shades of Brexit or no Brexit at all, but it’s far less debatable than navigating the process has been an unedifying mess all round. Yet those responsible are likely to retain cushy positions regardless of the outcome, and they’ll probably keep telling us how populist all this is.
Stephen Durrant
