Come back Michael Foot

On an early morning business program today, a leading businessman was talking about the only thing that can be talked about right now, and his comments on referenda were quite apposite to my mind.

With regard to the popular vote, he said that British politics meant that you voted for people who belong to certain parties which may roughly represent how you feel about certain issues, then you look to the heads of those parties for leadership in government. When they run out of leadership potential they hand the whole thing over to the people they are supposed to be representing in the form of a referendum.

This is the easy way out for them, because they can always blame 'the people' for whatever cock-ups they make in the aftermath of the result of a referendum.

David Cameron justified the Brexit referendum by saying that it was part of the Conservative manifesto which got him elected. He had promised it, and we all know that politicians should keep their promises...

WHY was it part of his manifesto? So he could pretend that the party had been listening to people who had legitimate concerns over immigration or expenditure on the E.U. budget? Or was it because the government was in danger of being overtaken in popularity by single-issue politicians like Nigel Farage? Both, I think. They were, and still are, completely out of touch.

When Boris Johnson was told that he was beginning to alienate big business with the prospect of a Brexit vote, he infamously said, "Fuck Business". Support from a handful of the leading businessmen who would greatly benefit from leaving the E.U. made him think that he could get away with saying that, but now it is coming back to bite him on the arse.

Three years is a bloody long time in politics.