Nick Cohen writes:

Britain is in a revolutionary crisis. Its economy, constitution, place in the international order and sense of who it is and what it can become will be battlefields at the next election. The high stakes alone will ensure that a red mist descends. To heighten the rage, the wilful failure of the Conservative government to prevent the corruptions of the electoral process brought by the age of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will sharpen every grievance.

Put yourself in the place of Britain’s competing factions and you get a fair idea of how angry and desperate all sides will become. The leaders of the Brexit movement must know they are on borrowed time. They may condemn liberals who have the bad taste to point out that Leave voters are dying and Remain-supporting teenagers are joining the electoral roll as each year passes. But the intelligent among them understand that demography is destiny and they have to get out of the EU while they can.

In any case, “Brexit” has never “meant Brexit” since 2016. In the words of one Telegraph columnist, it is a reaction against everything conservatives loathe: forcing “progressive liberalism down people’s throats”, “making patriotism a dirty word”, “branding decent folk racist” and, well, I’m sure you know the rest of the dirge. To see Boris Johnson out of office and Brexit lost would feel like a kind of death. The last, best chance of conservative England to reject the modern world would be gone.

Remainer opinion has also radicalised at revolutionary speed. The far-left leadership of the Labour party, who of all people ought to understand revolutions, look like old and tired men. They have refused to move with or even understand the runaway anger that the reaction against Brexit has generated. Remainers, too, feel that everything they love about their country is threatened by disgraceful people. They too know defeat will bring desolation. [Continue reading…]