Leave ended up getting the benefit from Project Fear. Unintended, like, but it’s certainly not the first time that someone achieved the exact opposite effect to the one that was intended, not even the first time in the context of this debate. Blair and Mandelson arguably kicked the final phase of our relationship with the EU off with their partisan plan to “send search parties out for immigrants”. The intent? To secure Labour voters for generations. Oops.
Besides, the notion that Cameron was secretly trying to get a Leave outcome doesn’t track with me. Returning briefly to the Project Fear, that’s actually a wee bit of a misnomer. Project Fear III might be a more apt title. The same tactics were applied in the AV referendum and the Scottish independence referendum. Why would Cameron adopt what he thought was a winning strategy to achieve a loss?
Besides, if Cameron really did want to leave, he could have just pushed the position himself, knowing he’d be able to count on the bulk of Conservative voters, four million Labour voters and pre-purdah help from the government, media and civil service.
Next, what was Cameron getting out of it? Let’s not forget that the result killed his political career at a very young age. He stood on the steps of Downing Street and declared that he was not the man to take the country out of the EU. That doesn’t sound like someone wanting to leave.
David Cameron is a victim of his own success, and also, his own hubris. He believed he had the ability to confirm our permanent membership of the European Union, while at the same time definitively ending a squabble within his own party that sparked the moment we joined and exploded in Maastricht.
You’re completely correct to refer to the austerity measures of the preceding six years. Had people been doing better, I am not sure that they would have voted out. Folk vote for the status quo if they feel they’re doing alright, largely because they want to keep on doing alright. People vote for something different when they feel that the present situation is unsustainable, and the risk of change is less scary than the continuance of the status quo.
Cameron tied his own hands in this regard, and also fed the far right plenty of juicy sights and sounds to exploit and amplify. They typically never mentioned that things were underfunded and being driven into the ground for eventual corporate takeover. In fact, their argument, that it’s the foreigners init, is predicated on the notion that everything is funded perfectly, and it’s only these aliens that are depriving Brits of their vital services.
It’s bollocks, of course.
People often say that they’d suspect a cock up before a conspiracy. Our erstwhile PM conspired as hard as he could to get a Remain result. I think he cocked it up.
