The Dialectic:

A) a method of examining and discussing opposing ideas to find the truth.

B) the dialectical tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements.

C) the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.

D) an inquiry into contradictions and their solutions.

Continuing my series of blogs on the dialectic, which are intended to act as introductions, simplifications, and teasers for my book, let us turn our attention to another issue we continue to face today, namely Brexit.

First, a little rewind is in order. To 1975. In that year, a referendum took place in the UK on whether or not to stay in the European Community or Common Market, as it was called then. Sixty-seven percent (of a sixty-four percent turnout) voted to remain. The majority of Conservative MPs also voted to remain, including the leader Edward Heath and the future notoriously Eurosceptic leader, Margaret Thatcher. The Labour Party was split on the issue, although those on the more radical left generally voted to leave.

Let’s fast forward to 2016. In that year, a referendum took place in the UK on whether or not to stay in the European Union, as it was now called. Just under fifty-two percent (of a seventy-two percent turnout) voted to leave. The Conservative Party was split on the issue. Fifty-six percent of MPs voted to remain, forty-four percent voted to leave. The overwhelming majority of Labour MPs voted to remain.

Here then is another example of the dialectic in full effect. In just about every fact quoted above, there was a dialectical flip from one binary opposite to another. It was now the party on the right, the Conservatives, who were split, with a sizeable minority wanting to leave Europe. The party on the left was now united around remaining. And, of course, the public, and by extension the UK itself, had chosen to leave with quite a larger turnout than before, although not by much, and regional differences were considerable.

There were a lot of reasons for all this, but there’s no time to discuss those here. Read my book. The point I want to make in this blog is that, as with the issue of anti-globalisation and Trump (see future blog), the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ have been dialectically negated to the point of redundancy. This has become problematic when trying to move beyond the binaries of Leave and Remain to resolve the UK’s position on Europe in the future. The reason is that large elements within the media and the public still want to use these terms to describe—and in the process stereotype—Leave voters as from the right and Remain voters as from the left. This is in spite of the dialectical reverse in the forty-year gap between referendums, along with the much more nuanced reasons why both the public and MPs voted the way they did.

However, there is an elephant in the room that weighs heavily on the subject of Brexit and is completely intertwined with it. That is the subject of my next blog: The dialectic of Immigration….