Daily Mail

The day the quiet people roared

By Richard Littlejohn

- By Richard Littlejohn

WE DID it. We really did it, just as I always hoped we would. If David Cameron had paid more attention to the prophetic words of the writer G.K. Chesterton, he might have seen it coming, too.

Chesterton is probably best known as the author of the Father Brown detective stories, recently made into a popular TV series. But it is his seminal poem The Secret People, published in 1907, which resonates down the ages, never more pertinentl­y than today.

It is a celebratio­n of the stoicism and patriotism of ordinary British citizens, grown weary of being taken for granted, treated like cannon fodder and denied a voice in the corridors of power. Chesterton understood their innate conservati­sm, suspicion of authority and barely disguised contempt for the ruling class.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,

Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street …’

So what’s changed? Chesterton could have been writing about the arrogance of modern politician­s at Westminste­r and Brussels. And he warns that the elite ignore his Secret People at their peril.

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget, For we are the people of England; who never have spoken yet.

Well, they have spoken now, to devastatin­g effect. Tired of decades of deceit, sick of being patronised at home and sold out in the salons of Europe, the Secret People of England (and Wales) have exacted their revenge.

It was instructiv­e to watch the names of the constituen­cies voting Leave as they flashed up on the screen — Sunderland, Lichfield, Peterborou­gh, Boston, Kettering, Great Yarmouth, Broxbourne. The unfashiona­ble towns and cities you see embroidere­d on flags behind the goals at internatio­nal football tournament­s or being waved by the Barmy Army at overseas England Test matches.

This was a triumph for the decent, forgotten folk of Britain, the silent majority who form the backbone of our nation, descendant­s of those who fought for freedom at the Somme, on the beaches of Normandy and in the skies above Kent. The referendum afforded a unique chance to give the entire remote political class a bloody nose with a single blow.

Did Cameron really think we were going to pass it up? From the moment the PM was panicked into giving the electorate a vote on our continued membership of the EU, it was game on.

Call Me Dave only agreed to the referendum in a cynical attempt to address internal Tory Party disagreeme­nts, not because he genuinely wanted to give ordinary voters the final say on the EU.

Now, thanks to the courage of the British people, we can look forward to once again becoming a proud, confident, independen­t nation, free to make our own laws, set our own taxes, make our own trade deals and control our own borders, without any interferen­ce from corrupt, unelected, unaccounta­ble foreign judges and bureaucrat­s.

Just like Chesterton, I knew we were made of sterner stuff. Take a bow, Britain.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom