by Renie Anjeh
The blue-on-blue action, hyperbolic interventions, xenophobic dog-whistles, awkward alliances and uninformed celebrity endorsements are almost done. It is all going to be over in a few hours. Yes, today is the day. The day that we finally lance the boil. It is the day that we give the European question a clear answer. Today is referendum day.
I suspect that Britain will vote to remain in the European Union but there will be long-term repercussions for our body politic whichever way the country votes. A combination of hurt feelings, betrayed souls and damaged egos on the Conservative benches could bring forward David Cameron’s expiry date.
An ungovernable Conservative party could lead to the battle-scarred Prime Minister calling an early election. The consequences for the Labour party are not exactly clear but they are definitely not good. Part of the reason for this is because during this referendum there has been a revival of Labour Euroscepticism.
Although a minority of Labour politicians have endorsed Labour Leave, the pro-Brexit Labour group, they do speak for a significant proportion of Labour voters something which is a problem for the party leadership. These voters are at odds with Europeanism and globalisation and will not obey the party’s quinoa-eating, metropolitan wing. However, while there are perfectly reasonable left-wing reasons to be suspicious to be sceptical of the EU, backing Lexit is fundamentally flawed.
The main reason for this is because Lexit is not on the ballot paper.
