It lies in the normies.
Picture the scene. We're in the Tory communications bunker. Someone's come up with a half-decent speech, the central thesis of which is that the young will be the most screwed over by a vote to leave the EU. Up goes the cry: who can we get to deliver this fabulous lecture? Who among the Tory ranks is the most down with the kids, the least likely to instantly cause the target audience to sneer and switch off? Boris, someone shouts, the person responsible immediately taken into the next room and shot. No one can come up with a name that doesn't seem inherently ridiculous. Then someone has a brainwave.
And so it came to pass that education secretary Nicky Morgan gave a lecture to the younglins that contradicted every tenet of the Tory grand plan for election victory. If the Brexiters get their way there's a risk of a "lost generation", the Tory party's answer to an unasked question said. Never mind that Tory policy writ large is to soak the upper middle, the well off and pensioners and don't worry if everyone else sinks, it'll be leave, the uncertainty and the likely years of negotiation that'll do for the generation of "Instagram, easyJet and eBay". In a further flourish of remarkable audacity, Morgan, the troll pencil topper for the 2010s, outlined how not voting can lead to a whole demographic being effectively dismissed. As if this wasn't precisely what the Tory leadership has done, only to suddenly realise their favoured groups are the ones most heavily leaning against the exit and if only temporarily, they need the young.
If I could be bothered, we could take a trip down cutting off your nose to spite your face street. We could agonise over all the variables of voting for or against the Cameron clique on this measure, but let's face it: whichever way the EU vote ends up going, the young are going to be taking it hard and fast. Sure, it's beyond question that leaving the EU would make life even less tolerable than it already is for the sprogs, for the reasons Morgan lists. Equally, let's not pretend that under Morgan's benevolence everything will be so much the better, that more young people will move into jobs befitting their skills, that more will be able to own their home, that more will be so much as able to afford the ever increasing rents in our buy to let paradise when so many Tory policies are focused on making life all the sweeter for the aforementioned groups. We could get started on the insanity of forcing all schools to become academies and the effect that could have on the next generation if we wanted, but there aren't enough hours in the day.
According to Jackie Ashley, the remain campaign is failing. This rather depends on what the remain campaign's goal is. If the goal is to try to make a positive case for the EU, then yes, it certainly is failing. If on the other hand the goal is to bore everyone senseless, to the point where only the most pro and anti can be bothered to turn out come June 23rd, then both the remain and leave campaigns are succeeding admirably. Both sides accuse the other of being negative, with many toys chucked out of prams on Monday after the leavers had the audacity to bring crims from other EU countries who came here and committed further offences into it, without it apparently occurring to those commenting that both sides are equally guilty for the reason that conjuring up fears works. This was never going to be a rerun of the Scottish independence referendum where one side made a case which for its numerous faults inspired the naive, the credulous and the dreamers to its cause, while the other, more realistic but deathly dull side won the vote but lost the argument. Both sides in this case are dominated by pumping great bells who have nothing but contempt for every one of us.
What continues to baffle is quite why Ashley and others are so insistent that Labour should involve itself in this tussle of the flyweights, or what it would be meant to achieve. No matter how inspiring or popular a personality, you cannot get an audience to be interested in something that simply doesn't move them. No one other than politicos is discussing the referendum for two reasons: firstly that it's still 3 months away; and second that it's still an abstract subject. Immigration we can never shut the hell up about, but despite the connection with the EU and immigration, the two in this case are failing to mix. Nor is the EU, important as it is, going to stir both the heart and mind as much as nationality, patriotism and the sense of belonging always will. For all the attempts by the leave mob to give the impression that we can't do anything without Brussels interfering, that we can't make our own laws or take a dump without falling foul of an EU directive, the vast majority have the sense to know such claims are nonsense, no matter how many times they are repeated.
None of this is to say that nearer the time the leavers won't have a good few weeks where it looks as though they could be on the brink. They probably will, helped by an overall Europhobic press already dedicating itself to splashing on anti-EU stories day after day. This idea of Ashley's however, that Michael Gove has made a yet to be answered case on sovereignty, or that the business names backing out are "impressive" is a complete joke. The result of referendum after referendum, both here and from abroad suggest that votes against the status quo position are rarely successful. It won't be support from the babbies among us that decides the result, but rather those who were never interested in the debate in the first place and find the way things are currently to be tolerable. Praise them, for they will be the saviours, not the left, not the young, not Labour. Here's to the normies.
And so it came to pass that education secretary Nicky Morgan gave a lecture to the younglins that contradicted every tenet of the Tory grand plan for election victory. If the Brexiters get their way there's a risk of a "lost generation", the Tory party's answer to an unasked question said. Never mind that Tory policy writ large is to soak the upper middle, the well off and pensioners and don't worry if everyone else sinks, it'll be leave, the uncertainty and the likely years of negotiation that'll do for the generation of "Instagram, easyJet and eBay". In a further flourish of remarkable audacity, Morgan, the troll pencil topper for the 2010s, outlined how not voting can lead to a whole demographic being effectively dismissed. As if this wasn't precisely what the Tory leadership has done, only to suddenly realise their favoured groups are the ones most heavily leaning against the exit and if only temporarily, they need the young.
If I could be bothered, we could take a trip down cutting off your nose to spite your face street. We could agonise over all the variables of voting for or against the Cameron clique on this measure, but let's face it: whichever way the EU vote ends up going, the young are going to be taking it hard and fast. Sure, it's beyond question that leaving the EU would make life even less tolerable than it already is for the sprogs, for the reasons Morgan lists. Equally, let's not pretend that under Morgan's benevolence everything will be so much the better, that more young people will move into jobs befitting their skills, that more will be able to own their home, that more will be so much as able to afford the ever increasing rents in our buy to let paradise when so many Tory policies are focused on making life all the sweeter for the aforementioned groups. We could get started on the insanity of forcing all schools to become academies and the effect that could have on the next generation if we wanted, but there aren't enough hours in the day.
According to Jackie Ashley, the remain campaign is failing. This rather depends on what the remain campaign's goal is. If the goal is to try to make a positive case for the EU, then yes, it certainly is failing. If on the other hand the goal is to bore everyone senseless, to the point where only the most pro and anti can be bothered to turn out come June 23rd, then both the remain and leave campaigns are succeeding admirably. Both sides accuse the other of being negative, with many toys chucked out of prams on Monday after the leavers had the audacity to bring crims from other EU countries who came here and committed further offences into it, without it apparently occurring to those commenting that both sides are equally guilty for the reason that conjuring up fears works. This was never going to be a rerun of the Scottish independence referendum where one side made a case which for its numerous faults inspired the naive, the credulous and the dreamers to its cause, while the other, more realistic but deathly dull side won the vote but lost the argument. Both sides in this case are dominated by pumping great bells who have nothing but contempt for every one of us.
What continues to baffle is quite why Ashley and others are so insistent that Labour should involve itself in this tussle of the flyweights, or what it would be meant to achieve. No matter how inspiring or popular a personality, you cannot get an audience to be interested in something that simply doesn't move them. No one other than politicos is discussing the referendum for two reasons: firstly that it's still 3 months away; and second that it's still an abstract subject. Immigration we can never shut the hell up about, but despite the connection with the EU and immigration, the two in this case are failing to mix. Nor is the EU, important as it is, going to stir both the heart and mind as much as nationality, patriotism and the sense of belonging always will. For all the attempts by the leave mob to give the impression that we can't do anything without Brussels interfering, that we can't make our own laws or take a dump without falling foul of an EU directive, the vast majority have the sense to know such claims are nonsense, no matter how many times they are repeated.
None of this is to say that nearer the time the leavers won't have a good few weeks where it looks as though they could be on the brink. They probably will, helped by an overall Europhobic press already dedicating itself to splashing on anti-EU stories day after day. This idea of Ashley's however, that Michael Gove has made a yet to be answered case on sovereignty, or that the business names backing out are "impressive" is a complete joke. The result of referendum after referendum, both here and from abroad suggest that votes against the status quo position are rarely successful. It won't be support from the babbies among us that decides the result, but rather those who were never interested in the debate in the first place and find the way things are currently to be tolerable. Praise them, for they will be the saviours, not the left, not the young, not Labour. Here's to the normies.
Labels: EU referendum, European Union, Jackie Ashley, Labour, Nicky Morgan, politics, Tories
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