Brexit 5) Tom Harris: What a fool I was to think voting Leave would make a
difference
"The epiphany I mentioned earlier is my realisation €“ which I confess should
have been clear to me long, long before now €“ that whereas I was in a
majority of voters in June 2016, that does not, and did not, matter. The
only majority that counts is the majority of those who make the real
decisions, the majority of those who know better than the voters. Yes, I was
naïve in believing that voters were ever going to be given the choice as to
whether or not to leave the EU. After all, MPs only voted for the Referendum
Act itself because they assumed that a Remain result was assured. Whats
that old cynical political saying? €œNever call a vote unless you know what
the result is going to be.€� While I have chosen to expunge much of the
referendum campaign from my memory, some of it is coming back to me now: the
sheer confusion, the appalled looks of disgust on the faces of Remain
campaigners who were genuinely aghast at the very notion that anyone would
ever seriously consider Brexit. The terms of debate that cast Leavers in the
role of small-minded nationalists, imperialist flag-wavers and €“
inevitably €“ racists. Yet still they lost. As if that mattered." - Daily
Telegraph