It’s a common doorstep retort. “The European Union is bloody awful,” she says. “But life outside it will be much, much worse.”
A brief moment of internal conflict subsides like a cooling soufflé. “Better the devil you know. Why take the risk?”
Maybe she has a point. After all, we’ve been bombarded by economic institutions, political leaders and businesspeople urging us not to risk the potentially catastrophic consequences of Brexit. Terrible things will happen if we vote to leave the European Union, they’ve said: global recession, hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, a ‘Black Friday’, World War III. To paraphrase Donald Tusk, the President of the EU’s Council of Ministers, Brexit could even destroy western political civilisation.
These are serious matters indeed. But they are at best misguided near-term projections and at worst grotesque hyperbole.
On balance, I opt for somewhere in between. But it is by way of the events of the last few months that I’ve found myself recalibrating my Brexit barometer. The empty sound bites, personal attacks and factual distortions surrounding the great EU question – from both sides – have rendered my decision as unequivocal as ever. A veil has been lifted on the cracks in our politics. We need serious change – and more urgently than ever.
The question, then, is how best we can deliver that change. What kind of institutional infrastructure allows our politicians to best perform their duties for UK citizens?
At the heart of this question is the issue of democratic accountability. This vote is about more than the EU in its crooked isolation; it has far wider ramifications on the functioning of our democracy. A vote to leave the EU would provide the democratic impetus for better politics, better debate and, in turn, better government. A vote to remain in the EU, on the other hand, will accelerate a worrying democratic descent into disenfranchisement and apathy.
“We risk dealing a hammer blow to our democracy”
I expect the referendum to produce a substantial turnout. Exercises like the EU referendum, which amplify democratic engagement, are something our politicians should embrace in greater frequency. But I worry that this referendum takes us to a crossroads on democratic engagement. Should we vote to remain in the EU, I expect many Leave voters from the two main parties will turn to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). More worryingly, an even greater proportion may turn away from voting entirely.
Many Conservative voters are disgusted by their leadership’s treatment of the EU debate. Some feel they’ve been conned and some I’ve spoken to say they will never vote again, regardless of leadership or opposition. All the while, voters feel similarly aggrieved on the Left. Polling suggests that some 40% or more of Labour voters will vote to leave the European Union. They are represented by just 4% of Labour MPs.
There is a widely held establishment denial of the impact of uncontrolled EU migration on housing, public services and wages in the low-income labour market. Legitimate concerns about immigration are ignored, muzzled and even vilified. They surface on the fringes instead in anger and animosity, ripe for exploitation by populist rhetoric.
This lack of representation is not symptomatic of our politicians’ ignorance or stupidity. It is the political infrastructures in which they participate that render our politicians impotent and foster denial. In part, this is a result of our outdated electoral system. But the EU, in particular, takes power away from democratically elected politicians and puts it into the hands of unelected commissioners and presidents. It is a drain on democratic accountability, shifting control from the British people to an anti-democratic, corporatist cartel in Brussels. The end result is an unaccountable political mainstream, increasingly indistinguishable on both sides.
Democratic deficits are bad for democratic engagement, as night follows day. By voting to remain in the EU, we’d risk dealing a hammer blow to our democracy. In stark contrast, a vote to leave would be a shot of adrenalin in the arm of an increasingly depleted political patient.
“With trust in politics at an all-time low, the last thing our politicians need is an anti-democratic institution to hide behind.”
There’s also an important issue of trust in politics. I have spoken to hundreds of people during this referendum who expect, with a disturbing degree of confidence, that the vote is rigged for Remain. I don’t for a second share these cynical sentiments, but I am deeply concerned about where trust in our political system is at.
With trust in politics at an all-time low, the last thing our politicians need is an anti-democratic institution to hide behind. No, the only way to begin fixing our political system is by giving our democratically elected politicians more control and greater accountability for their actions. It is by the very mechanism of hiring and firing those who hold responsibility for decision making through which we can galvanise a better kind of politics for the UK. It is no silver bullet, but leaving the EU can create an environment where our politicians can be held properly to account.
And so we return to the lady on the doorstep.
I have come to see the devil-you-know line as a false dichotomy. While the majority of us recognise the EU’s flaws, many of us fear the economic consequences of leaving its clutches. For the lady on the doorstep, in effect, it has become a binary choice between prosperity and self-governing democracy.
This it is not. Prosperity is a corollary of liberal democracy, exemplified by the stark historical transitions of countries across the world. By giving back the driving seat to the British people, we will prosper like never before.
So I will vote to leave the EU because our politics is broken. Without a political structure that fosters fuller accountability – that believes in the British people – we will never fix it. We will continue to divide, disenfranchise and curtail our democracy.
So be brave, Britain. A brighter, more democratic future is in touching distance.
Info Angle. 