Robert Tombs
Why do critics of Brexit caricature their opponents, creating a monster that exists essentially in their own imaginations? Presumably a caricature is easier to deal with: metaphorically putting your fingers in your ears. In November’s Prospect, Dutchman Joris Luyendijk, having just returned home from London, wrote a Britain-bashing cover story which went viral online. For him, Brexit is nothing to do with the manifold failings of the European Union, but rather “the logical and overdue outcome of a set of English pathologies.” How else could “a workingclass mother” (a “warm person” to boot) presume to disagree with a “well-to-do mother” over Europe? The dysfunctions of the eurozone? Youth unemployment? Inability to deal with migration? The Catalan crisis? The rise of extremist parties? Fingers in ears: nothing but the ravings of the tabloid press.