Cancelling Brexit might spark a hard right backlash. But delivering Brexit definitely will

[Soph0571]

Referendums have a nasty habit of emboldening those whose views are least moderate, as Scotland discovered in 2014 and the whole of the UK found two years later. (The AV referendum radicalised nobody, of course, but only because nobody much cared in the first place.) The 2016 referendum may have killed Ukip – but it also shattered long-standing taboos against full-blown public bigotry. If we hold another, there must be at least chance it’ll make the latter problem worse, while giving hard right parties the grievance they need to become a force once again. And, really, would you bet against a far right backlash at this point in history?
--------------
The bottom line is, it’s hard to see any plausible scenario that won’t disappoint Brexiteers, and lead to cries of betrayal. They were promised an impossible combination, of more money and fewer immigrants, greater influence and greater control. But they can’t have all those things: real life requires compromise, and utopia does not exist. When that penny drops, they’re going to be angry – and some of them are going to lash out.

So, yes: cancelling Brexit might trigger a hard right backlash. But I can see no way that delivering it won’t do the same. The only difference is, we’ll have less stuff when it happens.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/06/cancelling-brexit-might-spark-hard-right-backlash-delivering-brexit

Much more at the link.... very interesting analysis - to sum up the whole article....we are all going to hell in a handbasket!

[Denzil_DC]

1. I can think of no other group in our society that politicians would admit to running scared of.

If politicians are cravenly going to point to the prospect of civil unrest, well, this country's not been slow to clamp down on that in the past.

If it's the prospect of electoral gains for the "hard right", then it's up to politicians to start doing their jobs and quit pandering to extremist views, rather than parroting that "they have a point" and vying with each other to see how far and how fast they can follow them down the various rabbit holes.

So what's the idea? - Give the "hard right" whatever they want, then they'll just pipe down and be satisfied? They won't be empowered and carry on demanding more and more and more? Really?

As the article so rightly points out, what may well empower the "hard right" is when they and the less "hard" who've fallen into step behind them finally realize that all the ills cynical bastards like Farage and his fellow travellers in the mainstream parties have been blaming on immigrants and the EU end up not being their fault at all.

Then what?