Surely, a comparison doesn’t carry any meaningful force unless it is analogous. Sometimes ‘hysteria’ is justified, sometimes it is not. Whether the ‘hysteria‘ around Y2K was justified is a complete non-sequitur to whether it is in relation to Brexit.
Furthermore, hysteria is a subjective term. One man’s hysteria is another man’s proportionate response. Brexit represents an existential long-term threat to this nation’s standing (relative and actual) in a way that Y2K never could or did, which arguably warrants a degree of ‘hysteria’.
As to the hive mentality, I, for one, would greatly welcome an articulate contribution to this thread from someone who can advocate the enduring case for Brexit, but there don’t seem to be many takers…
If only it was that simple and the major problem with brexit was the argument became simplistic.
For a start the original vote was simplistic and easy to manipulate. It was in effect a vote between status quo and change. This showed a total lack of vision from the remain camp who were happy with the status quo whilst allowing the Faragist leave camp to set an agenda for change. In a country where people were already suffering the effects of austerity it was easy for the leave camp to blame the EU and use the arguments we are all aware off to achieve their aims.
Lexiteers believed that freedom of movement for employers allow businesses to move to countries with lower wages and worse working conditions for employers for workers of all nationalities. Businesses would save money, but employees would lose out. In many cases throughout the EU, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sided with the companies and it would cause issues of firms moving around the continent to make more money, rather than protect their workers. Employees legal rights across the EU were therefore not viewed as progressive as that proposed under Britain outside of EU legislation.
They also believed that being in the EU allowed free movement for workers which meant that wealthier countries that pay higher wages are more likely to see an influx of people seeking to move to the UK to seek bigger rewards for their work. As a result, there would be a rise in cheap labour – meaning that businesses would pay less and skilled workers would therefore miss out. You can actually see this point with the current round of strikes.
Lexiteers and the ERG made an unholy alliance because they want the same thing but come at it from two distinct positions. The ERG and Brexit fanatics foresaw a UK that was a libertarian (see Truss et al) free market entity, the Lexiteers saw the EU as a pro - Corporate anti worker entity.which espoused liberal beliefs
Here is an article on Lexit
Giving Lexit a deeper look
www.thecanary.co
Obviously the issue is/was we left the EU under the auspices of a clueless and under prepared Tory government who it appears never expected leave to win the day. Then a faction of ERG nutters aided and abetted by the RW media claimed Brexit was a vote for something it was not. Does anybody really believe that Red Wall voters voted leave because they were libertarian nutjobs?
The real problem in my mind was that Remain never made a case for reform, if it had and maybe espoused the virtues of the Scandi social democratic tradition then remain would have prevailed. Where as Johnson said we could have our cake and eat it, remain didnt want any cake.
