I think we’re broadly in agreement on the point that it was expedient for politicians to back Brexit, but for me it’s very much a case of it taking two to tango.
Up until the last decade Euroscepticism was a fringe affair, it’s only been able to build up a head of steam due to the stubbornness of the EU in refusing to address the problems that have developed out of enlargement, the Eurozone crisis, the democratic deficit and so forth.
I really don’t think Farage and UKIP achieved their goals outside of the normal democratic process, they went from being a fringe party in GE 2010 to being the third largest party by vote share in 2015, in the Euro elections they went from the third party in 2010 to the largest party in 2014 in terms of seats and vote share, eclipsing both the Tories and Labour. So pressure for a referendum was exerted democratically, not through some weird Cult-of-Farage.
Essentially it’s a supply and demand issue — it wouldn’t be expedient for politicians to play the Euroscepticism card if there wasn’t significant demand for it, Euroscepticism has gone from being a fringe issue — think James Goldsmith at the 1997 election — to being the defining issue in Britain today, a fact in which the EU cannot remain blameless.
We are where we are precisely because we have a functioning democracy. As the entirely unremarkably named Dick Tuck was reputed to have said, “The voters have spoken, the bastards!”
