Brexit and the politics of contempt 
Monday, May 27, 2019 at 16:17
Simon Clark

Great result for the Brexit party in the European elections.

If I’m biased it’s not just because I know several of the party’s candidates including Claire Fox (above).

The parallels between the treatment of smokers over the past two decades and the contempt shown for those who voted to leave the European Union are pretty obvious when you look at it.

In the same way that tobacco companies are accused of conning people to take up smoking, Brexit voters - it was said - were manipulated by slogans on the side of a bus.

Smokers, it is often implied, are too stupid - or addicted - to fully understand the health risks of smoking. Likewise it’s been a mantra since the referendum that many Brexiteers were too stupid to know what they were voting for.

Yet if people choose to smoke knowing the health risks, that too is anathema for tobacco control campaigners, just as the fact that millions of people voted to leave the EU despite the well-publicised uncertainty is incomprehensible to Remainers.

Either way there’s an expectancy that government should step in to ‘save’ us, whether that’s by banning/regulating tobacco almost to extinction, or by stopping/neutering Brexit to the point where it exists in name only.

Consider too the way the UK government ignored the outcome of its own public consultation on plain packaging.

Over 450,000 people signed petitions opposing the measure. Half that number supported the policy. Two years later the government went ahead with it anyway.

Plain packaging was Brexit in reverse except the result was even more decisive. The point is the same, though. Why hold a consultation or referendum if you’re going to ignore the result?

As it happens, I’ve long been struck by how few Brexiteers there are in tobacco control and public health.

To judge from social media, public health campaigners are invariably anti-Brexit. Significantly, several of the leading vaping advocates are hardline Remainers too.

It’s quite revealing to read some of their anti-Brexit tweets - the insults, the condescending ‘I know better than you’ attitude and the strident refusal to respect other people’s genuinely held views.

Anyway, huge congratulations to Claire Fox, elected as the number one Brexit party candidate in the North West of England.

Claire, pictured above speaking at a Forest EU event in Brussels (yes, I’m aware of the irony), did more than anyone to give the Brexit party broader appeal across the political spectrum.

Left or right, this was about upholding democracy, she said, and she was right.

Her energy, resilience and refusal to bow to some pretty nasty personal attacks was a masterclass in how to fight an election.

I understand she was advised by many people not to stand but I’m so glad she did. In 2012, commenting on the Battle of Ideas, the annual event Claire founded more than a decade ago, I wrote:

The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic event and a huge achievement. To organise a festival like that would make me very proud.

If I have a (small) criticism it's this. Politically speaking it remains a talking shop far removed from the realities of day-to-day politics.

By standing as a candidate at huge personal risk to her reputation, Claire took the sort of direct action one can only admire because it’s extremely rare among the commentariat.

Imagine Owen Jones, David Aaronovitch or Polly Toynbee actually standing for election rather than sniping from the sidelines.

I’m no fan (quite the opposite) but at least Gavin Esler, the former BBC correspondent, had the courage, like Claire, to put his convictions to the electorate.

Congratulations too to Brian Monteith (pictured below after speaking at a Forest event at the Conservative conference in Birmingham last year).

Brian was another successful Brexit party candidate. Twelve years after he stood down as a member of the Scottish Parliament, Brian is now an MEP for the North East of England.

Not bad for a former Forest spokesman and an occasional pipe and cigar smoker!

Article originally appeared on Simon Clark (http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/).
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