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Marching again will be worth it, no matter the result

Monday 18 February 2019

The Independent

 

Voices

Marching again will be worth it, no matter the result

When there’s nothing else left to do, one does what one can
(AFP/Getty)

What we dignify as democracy is a far more complex thing than is usually admitted, but by and large it can be reduced to this: when given the chance, we vote.

Many don’t, of course, and very few who do assume that much will change. But most of us vote in non-marginal seats when we can for this simple reason. It’s all we have. It is the only way to be heard.

In these special circumstances, the same goes for the march for a Final Say on Brexit to be held in London on Saturday 23 March, five days before the scheduled date for leaving the EU.

It might change nothing. The postwar history of mass marches isn’t encouraging. Millions in aggregate have marched against nuclear weapons, and we still have Trident.

However many marched against the Iraq War in February 2003, be it less than one million or closer to two, Tony Blair and his posse were unmoved.

But those who marched under the CND and Stop The War banners no more regretted it than the estimated 760,000 who marched for a people’s vote last October.

They walked further than, and raised their level of democratic involvement above, a five-minute amble to a polling station. They may have been ignored, but they made themselves heard.

Undiscouraged, they must do it again in the knowledge that it might be futile, and the hope that it won’t.

God knows where this process will be on 23 March, but it feels unlikely to have been resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.

The roadmap ahead is so replete with potential diversions that, if anyone drew it in ink, it might look like a Rorschach test taken by a lunatic with Parkinson’s.

By 23 March, Theresa May might have cobbled together a majority of the reluctant to get behind her, though you wouldn’t bet on that. Yvette Cooper and Nick Boles might have had a successful second crack at their no-deal-slaying amendment, but right now you wouldn’t bet on that either.

Jeremy Corbyn may have been aroused from his self-induced coma into whipping Labour MPs to join sane Tories in voting for a delay to Article 50. But you’d no more bet on that than on the EU27 having given enough ground on the backstop to satisfy Jacob Rees-Mogg and his noisy little gang of bespoke-suited thugs.

The favourite, unimaginable as it seems, is the status quo. It appears that the PM plans to leave the timebomb ticking until 28 March, and with 24 hours on the clock, graciously offer the Commons a choice between the remnants of her deal and no deal.

History will judge her for that, as it will the leader of the opposition. The rough draft of history has given its verdict already, and found both abominably wanting.

A people shouldn’t be afraid of its government. A government should be afraid of its people

While they’ve been locked in their danse macabre, each the fairground mirror reflection of the other as they promote their political interests over the country’s requirements, the odds against a second referendum have drifted.

What was an almost one in two chance a month ago is a one in four chance today.

One reason for this is its supporters’ failure to acknowledge the complexities of the argument. It isn’t enough to say the referendum result was influenced by dodgy financing, or that the punters were misled by brazen propaganda, or that the populace has changed its mind.

There is good evidence for all three, but none of it explosive enough to blow away the central problem that the country expressed one version of the democratic will in June 2016.

While I was nauseated by that result, I can’t claim it wouldn’t be an affront to one branch of democracy to reverse it.

But democracy is not a one branch tree. It isn’t solely about the will of the people. This is a parliamentary democracy, and an estimated three-quarters of the Commons would, in a free vote, vote to remain.

While it’s anything but clear cut what the democratic will happens to be, it is a bit late in the day for circuitous dialogues of the deaf about how to interpret it.

All anyone can do to express their own will is march on parliament next month, and in numbers sufficiently enormous to send a shockwave of terror through that neo-gothic monstrosity.

As V puts it in V For Vendetta, which ended explosively after just such a march, a people shouldn’t be afraid of its government. A government should be afraid of its people.

Until now, the leaders of both this government and the one in waiting on the front bench opposite have been afraid of the roughly half of the people who voted to leave.

If the Put It To The People march supported by The Independent makes them terrified of the roughly half who didn’t, with the parliamentary numbers so finely balanced and the equation so volatile, there is the chance that it would make a difference.

But even if it didn’t, even if they brush it off as their predecessors ignored CND and Stop The War, it will be absolutely worth marching all the same.

It will be worth it because as the Churchill who advocated a United States of Europe in 1946 previously observed, the only thing to do when you’re going through hell is keep on going.

It will be worth it to be heard, and for the honour of being able to say that when there was nothing else left to do, you did what you could.