Brexit and the Attempts to Shut Down Debate

                  I read an article recently in which the writer claimed that the U.K. was having a collective nervous breakdown.  It’s certainly felt like that for this blogger. I’ve watched BBC’s Question Time every week since the European Union referendum (usually on Youtube a couple of days after the live transmission) as I am fascinated by the persistent mood of anger and frustration among audience members and by the members of parliament who were Remainers but since the vote have become zealous Brexiters.  If that programme is an index to the general state of the nation, it seems a few springs have come loose.

                While I am sad about the impending departure of Britain from the E.U. (it’s bad for Ireland, where I live, and bad for Europe) what makes me sadder still are the attempts of some to stifle debate.  On Question Time, one regularly hears panellists and audience members admonishing those who complain about the decision to leave and demanding that those who are sceptical of the government’s approach stop criticising them and leave them to get on with it. Those who question the decision to leave the community are branded sore losers and remoaners and even traitors who are intent on ‘talking down’ Britain and weakening its bargaining position.

                For someone who has for years watched British democracy with a great deal of admiration, this is a sorry state of affairs.

     Having lived six months in Britain, and having spent much of my life watching British television and reading British newspapers, I have always been struck by how much complaining people do over there and this extends to the country's media. Reading the home news in any British newspaper and you would think the U.K. was teetering on the brink of collapse (failing schools, struggling health service, creaking infrastructure).  Unlike most people in Ireland, the British have long been highly critical of public services and government and this is partly due to a lingering notion that life on that island was better in the  decade or so after World War II. 

                But I think this propensity to complain and criticise is also linked to the fact that the U.K. is a mature, stable democracy where people know that the state can withstand scathing attacks. Complaint and criticism are expressions of freedom and confidence. Ireland is still an immature state where many people are afraid to ‘talk down’ the country by pointing out its flaws. During my lifetime, that has not been the case with the U.K….until now.

                I’ve always considered Britain to be a complex place but one in which reason and pragmatism were the chief values of its people and its parliament: many of the greatest Enlightenment thinkers were British, its political system has been remarkably stable for more than 350 years, and the U.K. has been in the vanguard of countries that have introduced progressive

policies for society at large.  Fascism has never put down strong roots in Britain partly because the people genuinely cherish freedom of expression.

                And that is why headlines like ‘Crush the saboteurs’ or the sight of columnists, politicians and members of the public telling dissenters to shut up and allow the government to do its work, are so depressing. Debate is the one essential component of a democracy and if this is dampened in one of the world’s most argumentative countries, it spells trouble for everyone.