Polly Vernon on Brexit
OF ALLTHE ghastly tendencies the BREXIT situation has unleashed within
us, our new inclination toward high-horse self-righteousness is my least fave. Spare me your high-minded insistence we must Leave, ‘lest we undermine the democracy upon which our entire country is built!’ Spare me your pious, patronising insistence Remain is the one truly evolved way, and those who voted against it ‘are merely hurting themselves!’ Spare me any rhetoric involving ‘young people’, ‘cliff-edges’, ‘Leave means Leave’ and/or ‘Project Fear’. And spare me your ‘People’s Vote’ chat – campaign for a second referendum by all means, but drop this tagline designed to make it sound more salt-of-the-earth meaningful and revolutionary than the original.
I voted Remain, and I’d do it again; but I will not be self-righteous about it. I can’t. I voted Remain not because I foresaw the sh**show currently unfurling in and around our Government; nor because I am inherently less racist than those who voted Leave. I voted Remain because I want my life to stay just as it is. My lovely life, in lovely London, with all the fancy coffee, Pilates and potential. With the sexily diverse multiculturalism I congratulate myself on enjoying so very much – not least because it doesn’t make me feel threatened, professionally. (I don’t think immigrants are coming for my job – I think bloggers are.) My life, which isn’t financially rich, precisely, but gosh! Is it comfortable! Fulfilled and cosy and largely unafraid, through work I adore; work which ensures (among other things) that I am always, always heard! My views, my ideas, my concerns: so bloody heard!
I voted Remain because I feel more ‘European’ than I do ‘English’ – but of course I do! I holiday in Andalusia, Sardinia, Paxos; I did a year abroad in France (still flatter myself I could ‘pass’ as Parisian). I’ve spent more time in Aix-enProvence than I have Boston, Lincolnshire – Britain’s most Brexit town. A lot more.
And I voted Remain because I don’t want any long-resident European citizens to be booted out of the UK in the event of no-deal – because four of ’em are my mates.
Basically: I voted Remain for a list of snobby/spoiled/self-serving reasons that don’t make me morally superior to anyone who voted Leave, which is why I wouldn’t dare act like it does. Nor should anyone. Nor should you. We don’t have much power left where Brexit is concerned (who knows who does, any more?). But what we do have is a chance to present our own position more honestly, less selfrighteously – and to perceive those who voted differently with more compassion.