Yesterday, hundreds of thousands marched in central London to demand a vote on whatever deal is, or is not, agreed between Britain and the EU over Brexit. Many had never marched before; the mood, though, was peaceful and the Police presence required minimal, which will have come as a relief to the Met Commissioner.
And as the March reached Westminster, there were speeches from a range of political leaders. This was all too much for the convocation of contrarians otherwise known as Spiked, so called because it should have been years ago. Whatever the march represented had to be framed as something seriously bad, and indeed undemocratic.
So it was that Brendan O’Neill and Fraser Myers sallied forth, telling anyone bothered “spiked’s Brendan O’Neill and @FraserMyers at the #PeoplesVoteMarch, trying to keep our spirits up in the middle of this tragic display of middle-class angst and anti-democratic entitlement!”, declaring that whatever this march was about was A Very Bad Thing Indeed.
Where was the angst? Where was the entitlement? What was anti-democratic about it? Best not ask. Instead, it was on to more selective reporting: “The #PeoplesVoteMarch is hands-down the whitest, most middle-class demo spiked has ever seen. This is a screech of rage of the comfortable classes against the masses who voted for Brexit”. People who cadged a coach fare to London are the “comfortable classes” in the retelling. But kudos to O’Neill and Myers for finding a view of the march with only white faces in it.
Their desperation reached its peak with the observation “The police presence here is the smallest spiked has ever seen at any demo - which is not surprising given this is a march defending the status quo”. Got that? A peaceful protest is A Very Bad Thing. People behaving peaceably means there is some sort of dastardly conspiracy at work!
And it got worse: “Here is spiked’s Brendan O’Neill and @FraserMyers arguing with Remainers at today’s pro-EU march. We passionately put the case for democracy and liberty against the stiff, haughty Brussels oligarchy. A great day arguing on the side of the people!” There was no evidence whatever of them arguing with anyone. There was, as far as is known, no Brussels presence. And who elected them to speak on behalf of the people? Ah well. Best not ask. Mustn’t cause even more butthurt.
But perhaps someone did speak to them. “Someone asked spiked today: ‘Do you support our right to march against Brexit?’ Our response was this: ‘Absolutely. Freedom and democracy should extend to everybody - even those who fear freedom and democracy, as Remoaners do.’” Abuse. Claims that those marching do not support democracy.
There were plenty of similar claims. “The wealthy, well-connected people who want to ‘Stop Brexit’ are really trying to stop democracy. They think their vote should count for more than ours. It is a brazen assault on the democratic ideal, says Brendan O’Neill”. Spiked cites Tony Blair and Richard Branson. Neither of whom was there. No-one is pretending that one person’s vote outweighs another. It’s just lies.
All that was left was for the great Brendan to make an official statement. “Brendan O’Neill on today’s #PeoplesVoteMarch against Brexit”. O’Neill let slip the vacuity of his position by claiming that only 50,000 turned up. Estimates have been in the hundreds of thousands.
This is what Brendan O'Neill thinks about democracy
What O’Neill really thought, and what he and Spiked don’t want us to see - because the Tweet has been deleted overnight - is the comment “Brendan O’Neill: ‘This has been my mood all day. #PeoplesVoteMarch was a gathering of the most entitled, democracy-suspicious people I have ever encountered. They genuinely think they have the moral authority to overthrow the largest vote in British history. This cannot stand.’” together with a sneering O’Neill giving the finger. There he is, the really entitled one.
The reality of Spiked’s smearing of the People’s Vote march is that Brendan O’Neill has his eye on the next commission from papers like the Murdoch Sun, which will lap up his contrarian nonsense. But one inconvenient fact blows his argument apart.
Brendan O’Neill’s whole schtick rests on framing the 2016 EU referendum as being set in stone, an immutable result which he then calls “democracy”, declaring anyone wanting - for instance - a vote on the final deal as “undemocratic”, or somehow fearful and suspicious of democracy. But what he is defending is not democracy.
Democracy is not setting one vote in stone and declaring it to be “the will of the people”. Democracy is a continuous, living process. The will of the people is never settled; it varies with issues and over time. It is Brendan O’Neill who is fearful of democracy - so fearful, in fact, that he is prepared to go out there and blatantly lie and smear.
But good of O’Neill and his pals to show their butthurt at seeing a genuinely popular movement out there that he cannot understand. The Sun will be calling him soon.
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