Remainers are starting to look as cuckoo as the Brexiteers – that’s no way to ensure a Final Say referendum

They may despise people like me, but those in favour of staying in the EU need all the support they can get. Including voters who supported Leave

“Suck it up, Sean.”

That was one of the more publishable, on a family website, comments on the various articles I’ve written recently under variants of the headline “I voted Leave and now I want a Final Say referendum”.

Others include:

“I’m amazed you could have been so naive, because you’re obviously not exactly unintelligent.”

Not exactly, no.

“Is it fair to assume that with an Irish first name and surname, Mr O’Grady will be entitled to an Irish passport and could therefore afford to vote Leave when he did? It’s all right for him, what about the rest of us?”

Not a fair assumption, actually. For the record, I have no intention of applying for an Irish passport.

“Sean O’Grady is an absolute c**t.” Fair comment.

Seeing as they’re directed at me, I thought I might as well answer back. Or, rather, make a few observations about this phenomenon.

First, and I make no apologies for pointing this out, some Remainers are plainly a bit touched.

Being a “passionate European” is one thing, in the way that Ted Heath, or Roy Jenkins or even Tony Blair used to go around the country making grand tour d’horizon speeches about the great European project for peace ending a century-long civil war on our shred continent.

Heath, for example, had seen the Nazis’ Nuremberg rallies and then served in the war. He knew at first hand the destruction it had wrought across the continent. He always maintained that we had a shared cultural heritage – Beethoven is European, Michelangelo is European, Shakespeare is European. And so on.

Now you get people dressed up in EU flags wearing, for all I know, euro-themed undercrackers spending inordinate amounts of their free time getting cold on Parliament Square waving placards saying “Bollocks to Brexit” around. So, no I’m not that bothered if you have a go at me.

Second, I just wonder where the Remainers think their support is going to come from? The answer is: (relatively few) new young voters, overwhelmingly pro-EU; people who abstained last time round; and ex-Leave voters, er, like me. And I wonder too whether calling them names and dishing out (supposedly) withering satire on their past judgement is the best way to persuade someone to your case.

I’d love a Final Say referendum, but what will happen, next time round, if the Remain campaign looks as cuckoo as the Leavers? Sorry about that. But sometimes you just have to suck it up.

Yours,

Sean O’Grady

Associate editor