As the tide turned significantly inside the Labour Party towards a more full-throttled support for a second referendum, I remained sceptical. Not for the end goal. I’d dearly love us, as a country, to find a way out of this mess and remain inside the EU. However, I haven’t seen one single serious example of how we would really win that campaign. It doesn’t feel like any of the lessons have been learned from 2016, and as a result I think – even if a second referendum is secured – we risk heading towards an even bigger, more damaging and catastrophic defeat.
My Remoaner friends keep shaking their heads when I say this, and ask: “well, what is to be done?” So here’s my starting point. Five ideas to help win the campaign second time around.
1. No EU flags. Not ever. Not only is it vaguely ridiculous to most people in the country to march under a banner representing a trading block, John Hume’s dad is as right today, as he was back on the streets of Northern Ireland. You can’t eat a flag. That is to say, real politics is about people and living standards – not waving flags at one another. And, really if you absolutely have to, at least make sure it has a bloody dragon on it. No other flag need apply.
2. Get off your intellectual high horse. Probably the single most stupid thing I’ve seen from Remain supporters, and there’s a healthy competition, was the Brains for Remain open letter from university academics across the country. Talk about elitist self-aggrandising bollocks. And with apologies to the few exceptions in my life, but very few of the smartest people I’ve met are academics. In fact very few of them went to university at all. Brains for Remain. Jesus wept.
3. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Or at least a few dozen. Your command and control centralised campaign will not work in a country that is completely divided – not just by Brexit – but huge societal and economic flux. If an MP, MSP or AM with a decent majority in a once marginal seat tells you that you need to campaign on schools and hospitals, then you bloody well campaign on schools and hospitals, not macro-economic forecasts, no matter how pretty the graph, or scary the numbers. Voters choose the topic of conversation, not campaigns. Good politicians know this, and they know their patch. Trust them.
4. Be brutal. When you mock up that campaign ad and it makes you wince a little and you can only really look at it through a squint, in fear that your very soul is about to implode… then maybe, just maybe you are on the right track. If you thought Vote Leave was bad last time, they’ll be coming at you twice as strong this time round. The rhetoric will be repulsive. The lies will be monstrous. The media and the punters will absolutely love it. Nuanced arguments about the Customs Union won’t cut it.
5. Think about the one single campaign message you want in wavering voters’ heads as they cast their vote. And it shouldn’t be anything with the word “Remain” in it. Likewise “People’s Vote” or “Final Say”. If it’s anything about Britain, you’ll alienate lots of Welsh, Scots and half of Northern Ireland. The simple campaign message you want in people’s heads is this: “They lied to you.” You can argue with me if you like, but you’re wrong. They lied to you. They. Lied. To. You. They lied. To you.