As you may have noticed there is plenty of debate going on about BREXIT and the referendum – and you’ll find many related posts on this website. All right/proper to debate such an important issue that affects our future in a complex world of today. But whatever the outcome of this debate turns out to be, what to me is more concerning is what this debate has demonstrated quite vividly in terms of the alt-right ideology slowly creeping into our political eco system. Having an ideology in of itself is NOT the threat because ideologies can be challenged/changed and it is part and parcel of Democratic governance. What is worrying though is that alt-right ideologues are NOT necessarily contained within a political structure like a political party that one can challenge but rather seem to be spread throughout multiple parties including obviously the ruling Conservative party. This is by no means suggesting that BREXITEERS are alt-right by definition but it is clear that many politicians on the LEAVE side of the argument seem committed to BREXIT based on flawed arguments and extreme nationalist narratives/views that scream alt-right under the hood. It is also clear from what I’ve read about the team advocating BREXIT during the referendum campaign that they applied similar strategies and have been supported by alt-right media & strategists. Here is an article that makes the point and we all know of course Nigel Farage and his comrades quite well – so no secrets there. Now as I mentioned before one can effectively challenge an ideology if takes a form we can respond to based on real policies/vision. But what seems to be happening here is that politicians across parties advocating for an exit from the EU are using the term “Nationalism” as a vehicle to drive through alt-right ideology/narratives in the debate and more importantly take the opportunity to expand their overreach throughout our political system in an attempt to transform this country into something very different from what it is today; today it’s about BREXIT tomorrow it’s about more vile/radical policies. So you one can see the benefit of having an alt-right party like the one in Germany, the Netherlands and else where rather than dealing with individual politicians who for political convenience hide their true colours – makes sense to them because they’ve seen what happened to the British Nationalist Party. This issue compounded with what we do know of foreign interference into elections – and so far we do NOT know much about the extent of that interference in the BREXIT referendum – leads me to caution advocates on both sides of the argument NOT to be too gullible to accept arguments – whether for or against BREXIT – without proper factual assessment/validation.
Finally just to say that Identity Politics – as one of the main propellers during the BREXIT referendum – is in this day-and-age Failed/Sloppy Politics. One can certainly be critical – as I have for years though being an immigrant myself – about disastrous immigration/integration policies. But Identity Politics is NOT the approach we should use in steering our future as a nation otherwise we end up where we seem to be heading; “the cliff edge”.