Kirstie Allsopp ran out of fuel and it’s her fault for voting Brexit – will Remainers’ smugness never end?

The binary, stubborn thinking that blighted the 2016 referendum still haunts us

A couple of days ago, Kirstie Allsopp ran out of fuel on the way from Burford to London. That is not an especially interesting sentence, I grant you, particularly when the UK is in the midst of a fuel crisis. Presumably, lots of people are having similar problems.

But then something strange happened. The fact that Kirstie Allsopp had run out of fuel, and tweeted about it, became national news. “Kirstie” started trending on Twitter – 5.2 thousand people replied to Allsopp’s tweet about having “ZERO fuel”. A subsequent story from the BBC led to Allsopp messaging the BBC, telling them to “NEVER tweet something of mine again, it seems it attracts the attention of some really horrible people and makes Twitter a pretty scary place”.

At this point, I think it’s fair to ask what the hell is going on. Why has the unfortunate predicament of the presenter of Location, Location, Location caused such a fuss? The answer, as it nearly always is these days, is Brexit.

Now of course none of us knows whether or not Allsopp voted to leave the European Union in the referendum but she has criticised the “bigotry” of Remainers and, in 2016, tweeted: “I’m looking for the Remain campaign to persuade me why we should stay in the EU, not tell me what might happen if we leave.” From these bits and pieces, people have concluded that Allsopp is a Brexiteer. Fine. She probably is.

Except it’s not fine. Because Brexiteers are not, it seems, allowed to complain about anything happening in the UK ever again. Why? Well, you voted for it. Have a look through some of the replies to Allsopp’s tweet. “This is what you voted for. We tried to warn you.” “Ah well, imagine how you’d feel if you hadn’t voted for it. You’d be bloody furious then.” “You must be delighted to see things turning out exactly as predicted, Kirstie.” And so it goes on. And on.

It is, apparently, the ultimate buzz for some Remainers to bask in the glory of vindication. There is this perverse delight in seeing the UK in crisis, since it affords them the opportunity to point and say, “I told you so.” But it is terribly misguided. As it happens – and it says a lot about the debate that I feel the need to state this – I voted to remain in the EU, but that doesn’t mean I take any joy in the news that we are short of fuel and labour. That thousands of pigs are being culled. That we may not have turkeys for Christmas.

Of course I want Brexit to be a success, even though I wish it hadn’t happened. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. It is extraordinary that five years on from the referendum, the battle lines are still so aggressively drawn. Who exactly benefits from the grandstanding of Remainers?

The binary, stubborn thinking that blighted the 2016 referendum still haunts us. I can’t believe I have to spell this out but a vote to leave the EU was not a vote for fuel shortages or a vote to break down on your way from Burford to London. Maybe these things are a direct consequence of Brexit; more likely, Brexit is just one part of the story. People’s reasons for voting to Leave were myriad; to pin every failure on every Leave voter is, to put it politely, a touch simplistic.

Blame our politicians if you like for misleading the country, demand change at the next election by all means, continue to push for the UK to rejoin the EU, but please, think twice about pointing at individuals and screeching, “This is on you.” The animosity it creates, the division it entrenches, is not worth the little buzz you might get from feeling “right”.

And as for Kirstie Allsopp and her little adventure, is it really so hard to see her tweet, wish her well and hope she got home OK? Doesn’t seem like much to ask.