I spend a lot of time on social media listening to earnest Remainers and Rejoiners. They are all good people and mean well. They mostly don’t want to upset others and that’s a strength.  But it also has a serious downside.  I remind them (often with social disapproval) that we, the Remainers, lost three elections and a referendum by being nice and playing fair. Before you jump to any conclusions, I’m not suggesting that we should be horrible or play unfair here. But we must better the far-right rather than copying them or, worse still, amplifying their cause by sharing their stuff with disgust. I regularly hear these excuses for doing nothing about Rejoining the EU. They are all invalid, bar the last one.

Fear of the Grim Reapers, Grifters and GB News

Things people say include “If we or Labour mention Rejoin, Nigel will get elected” and “The Daily Mail won’t like it/me/us“. Organising your strategy by constantly being in response mode to Nigel Farage is rather like trying to drive a car by constantly looking through the rear view mirror. The Daily Mail et al. don’t like anything that Keir Starmer’s Government do and they react just as strongly to the miniscule items (e.g. a youth mobility scheme) as the big ones (e.g. rejoining the EU). Might as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb … in accountancy terms, Starmer’s outlook on the EU is a sunk cost as it is well known that he believes that Brexit was a mistake. The ’embedded commands’ of the Remainers typically come wrapped in statements like this:

“Keir is still a remainer at heart, he just needs to be cautious“.

“We must avoid pandering to the metropolitan liberal elite as the Far Right media will slaughter us”.

“We can “make Brexit work” without rejoining anything“.

“We only have to worry about the red wall as liberal minded pro-Europeans will always vote for us“. Just a reminder, the red wall did not vote for Labour in 2024. Labour have a job of mass Brexorcism to do with this group.

“Ultra-Remainers”, the “rejoin or nothing brigade” are naïve and deluded“. Read our White Paper and mail it to MPs, influencers and media people. Brexit isn’t working. It can never work.

Respectfully, I say, horseshit. I realise this gets me the reputation of being the Nigel Farage of Remain, but the truth hurts.

False Gods

Things this group of people say include “We must wait until 2035. Keir is playing the long game“, “Brexit is done“. Strangely, the farmer’s wife Liz Webster says this on BBC Radio 4 in order to pursue her farmers before Brexit agenda alongside Farage and Clarkson. Given her media reach, it is a dangerous and incorrect narrative. I know that Jon Danzig falls into this category as well, along with some of the larger so called Remainer groups such as The European Movement. Given their reach, all this does is feed people “learned helplessness”. As ex MEP Michael Hindley says, we need to be in the business of installing a sense of hope in the Rejoin community.

Other objections relate to flawed ideas about democracy: “It would be anti-democratic to Rejoin“. “We would need another referendum“. All these objections are addressed in the White Paper.

Body parts

Perhaps due to 8 years of psychic bullying by Johnson, Mogg, Braverman, Truss, Farage, Jenrick, Badenoch et al, Remainers are happy to accept ‘crumbs from the table’. Yet these will not deal with the underlying problems of Brexit. They say things like this, often believing that if we make a small ask (a) The Daily Excess won’t notice it (THEY DO) and (b) that this will lead to rejoining by stealth. They seem to forget that journalists notice if Keir Starmer wears new socks, let alone if he sends people to Brussels for ‘talks’. Here are some of the increments they mention:

“No, we must get carnets for musicians“.

“No, we must back the farmers“.

“No to rejoin, we must join the Single Market“.

“No, we must restore Freedom of Movement for young people“

We address the problem of logical incrementalism in the White Paper. Expect better!!

Gantt chart problems

Without ever producing a Gantt chart or analysis of strategy or politics, I find that people have many different ‘orders and sequences’ as to what is the right way to go about Rejoining the EU. This itself is a function of the lack of leadership and strategy from the movement as a whole and our ‘Indonesian’ organisation structure. Things like:

“We must fight Elon Musk first“.

“We must get the economy back on track first“.

“We must get democratic reform first“.

“We need to tackle the ‘bread and butter’ issues in Britain first“.
All are dealt with in the paper. Download it. There are as many formulations of what we should or must do about Brexit as there are protagonist. I call it ‘musturbation’.

Pure excuses

“It’s Sunday. We can’t ask to Rejoin on a Sunday. Or any other day ...”

“We (I) will look silly if the EU say no“.

“I’m quite busy this year … and the next ...”

“The month has an R in it“.

“Nobody’s interested in the EU anymore“.
“The EU don’t want us back“.
“We can “make Brexit work” without rejoining anything“.
“We can’t do it as it would mean Schengen and the Euro“.
“Cameron told us it was a “once in a generation decision” so we have to wait another 20 years“.

“The cat died“. That’s clearly the best excuse !!

With thanks to Paul Cawthorne for his help with this. Please read our White Paper and sign the petition.