Its perfectly understandable that the privileged in this country will do whatever it takes to retain that status, even to the detriment of the country as a whole.
You've reminded me of a clip from a Channel 4 documentary, 'Inside the American Embassy' from 2018 (
Twitter). In it some American policy wonks predicted what Brexit would do to the economy: (
'the economy is going to tank', 'inflation went up from 0.5% to 3%...and that's not inflation from a growing, bubbly economy, that's inflation from an outside shock. That's the worst kind of inflation. That's going to be a problem').
So far, so true. But here's the key quote:
'If the economy sinks...for the people that voted to leave, they are terrified, because this is something they've been fighting to achieve for almost 40 years. I mean, it's a generational struggle. They've now won, and they're absolutely terrified that it's going to be snatched away from them.'
Who sold us Brexit? A sliver of the public-school educated, traditional ruling classes (Farage, Rees-Mogg, Lord Pearson, Reckless), some of whom lived their early lives in British Imperialism and who are still consumed by an imperial imaginary (Hannan, Douglas Carswell). For these folk, one aim of Brexit was to restore the 'freedom' of UK parliament, which, given their accompanying politics, was always code for restoring the status of UK ruling classes, no matter the effect on the country as a whole.
And now - just as the Americans foresaw - inflation, cost of living and other longstanding challenges that were not fixed by Brexit terrify the hawkers of Brexit: the political problems of that victory threaten to snatch it away from them. The voters who supported Brexit are also terrified: some shared the goals of the privileged Brexiters, but others voted to stick two fingers up to the political system, and they don't want a return to the
status quo ante either because, even before austerity and the 2008 financial crisis, that was
a slow humiliation. The unifying theme for Brexit voters was that Brexit promised change. That hope of change has diminished, but they still insist on pursuit of Brexit. They want their country back, and no-one is proposing alternatives that will substitute for that fantasy. As Adam Curtis noted twenty years ago, our neoliberal politicians have given up promising solutions; the most they will offer is to manage things more efficiently ('Make Brexit work'). The untenable must be maintained, as
the song goes.