Who's In Control?

June 23^rd. 

It ain't so far away, now. The EU referendum approaches, and from here it looks very much like nobody in Britain is pulling their fingers out to make the case for the UK staying in the EU.

They (the Out campaign) have Boris, Gove and Duncan-Smith, Farage, George Galloway - like or loathe them, high-profile and influential politicians one and all - most of the Tory front and back bench, and most of the rabid rightwing press. Bear this in mind, people voting for Brexit: these lunatics and sycophants are the unbearable people you are standing with!

And those main players campaigning for Britain to remain? Cameron and Osbourne. The two politicians front centre of the campaign to remain are right now about as popular as an offshore tax advisor.

Who else? Corbyn and Labour – the party and the leader that could make such a difference here? Warm but generally disinterested support at best, so much so that a pretty huge 40% of people polled have no idea where Corbyn stands on the issue. In fact, Corbyn has previously been a pretty ardent Eurosceptic, having voted against EC membership in the 1975 referendum, the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. Labour are officially in favour of staying, but can we expect the party to grow a backbone and put their collective shoulder to the Remain campaign. I certainly hope so, but, sadly, I suspect not.

Nobody will rightly trust the Lib Dems for a long, long time, and by bringing their toxic brand to the Remain campaign will likely damage it in much the way their support poisoned the Yes campaign in the 2011 AV referendum. And while the Greens are the only UK Parliamentary party unashamedly making the case to remain, their influence is limited.

Leaving the EU would be a disaster for the UK. But because an utter lack of support for the Remain campaign by non-odious politicians, my fear is that we are about to sleepwalk through the EXIT door in a cloud of 'meh'.

The people that want us out are ferocious in their decision and belief, and will march determinedly in unison to the voting booth in June. But those who want us to remain, or who are generally happy with the status quo, are those least likely to vote. With the country seized by a collective apathy, turnout is unlikely to be particularly high at the referendum. Which would mean that the UK could be about to catastrophically leave the EU on the say of a tiny minority of misinformed, lied to, or swivel-eyed Tory and UKIP voters.

Daily Mail readers, basically.

So, Britain, is this who you want deciding our future? Ridiculous, isn't it? For goodness sake, sort it out, yeah?