One of the most infuriating things about covering this interminable Brexit shambles is the stultifying 'groupthink' that infests the Remain movement.
It's impossible to count the number of times I've been insuted and accused of being a Brexiteer for questioning the strategy of investing so much time and effort in demanding an incredibly risky "another roll of the dice" referendum with the Tories still in power, and nothing whatever having been done to clamp down on electoral cheats, political liars, and social media dark ads since Remain lost the previous referendum in 2016.
Despite all the smears and abuse from the 'groupthink' mob I actually hold a significantly firmer stance against the Brexit chaos than a lot of them seem to, believing that Article 50 should be revoked (as per the ECJ ruling that the UK can revoke it at any time) and that another referendum should only ever be held under a specific set of circumstances:
1. The Brexiteers must come up with a detailed manifesto detailing how they would seek to implement Brexit (Single Market? Customs Union? Protection of workers' rights? Protection of environmental laws? Consumer protections? Security co-operation? Negotiating objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Plans for the Irish border issue. What if Scotland vote's against it again? ...) that they can be held to account on.
2. Electoral laws must be strengthened to clamp down on electoral cheats and liars with substantial fines, bars from political office, and jail terms for the worst offenders.
3. New regulations must be introduced to clamp down on social media dark ads.The problem of course is that the trendy Remainer 'groupthink' is to continue demanding another referendum now, so my views that the absolute priority should be preventing a catastrophic "no deal" meltdown, and that another referendum with undefined options on the ballot is an insanely risky strategy are considered unacceptable thought crime by a significant swathe of Remainers, who spit hate at me and even accuse me of being a Brexiteer because I won't mindlessly go along with the insanely risky gamble that they insist is the best approach.
However with the impending prospect of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, surely it would be sensible for these another referendum now advocates to accept that their dream of a do-or-die, clash of civilisations culture war of another referendum is becoming vanishingly unlikely, and stop throwing even more energy and resources into demanding something that's just not going to happen?
But "sensible" just isn't in a lot of these people's natures.
From their spreading of delusional fantasies that pre-2016 Britain was some kind of magnificent utopia, to spitting hate at people who are even more sceptical about Brexit than they are for the heresy of thinking that an "another roll of the dice" referendum with the Tories still in charge is actually a terribly risky idea; from refusing to critique austerity and its living standards-trashing role in causing the Brexit backlash in the first place, to arrogantly sneering at left-behind communities like Morecambe; a lot of this behaviour is strategically inept, dangerously counter-productive, and about as far from "sensible" as it's possible to get.
And "sensible" simply doesn't take into account the sunk costs fallacy either.
In order to switch from Another referendum now to Revoke Article 50 and no more undefined options on ballots ever they'd have to admit that huge amounts of the time and effort they expended on their People's Vote hysteria were essentially wasted, when they should have seen sense months ago and switched to Revoke Article 50 after it become absolutely obvious that Theresa May and the Tories had made an absolute mess of the Brexit negotiations.
Even though the looming spectre of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister by default means their another referendum now objective is further away than it's ever been, the temptation for them will obviously to continue chucking away even more time, effort, and resources rather than admit that it was a mistake, and move on to a more coherent and less risky strategy.
You only need to look at how the Brexiteers have worked tirelessly to move away from the "we can be like Norway" and "only a madman would quit the Single Market" positioning of the 2016 referendum to the "no deal" militancy of today to understand that Brexit-sceptics need to adopt an equally firm position in response in the face of this ever intensifying ideological fanaticism.
If you're absolutely set against any kind of Brexit compromise as a strategy to ensure that a ruinous "no deal" meltdown can't happen, then you really need to take something solid into the culture war you're determined to provoke, rather than some pathetic wishy-washy "let's play again in the rigged game we lost at last time" nonsense.
Brexit-sceptics shouldn't be demanding a re-roll of the dice under the exact same circumstances they lost the last time, they should be demanding revocation of Article 50 because of the unbelievably shambolic mess the Brexiteers have made of their own damned project, and stipulations to ensure that any future referendums are conducted fairly, and with clearly defined options rather than vague objectives on the ballot.
Anything less is just doomed-to-fail weakness in the face of the extreme ideological militancy of "no deal" fanaticism.
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