Here's the text of that FT article mate, I thought it was very apt
https://www.ft.com/content/524ae104-b250-11e7-a398-73d59db9e399?mhq5j=e6
As the bleakness of Britain’s Brexit dilemma becomes more apparent, so the search for scapegoats has begun. The Brexiters’ favourite target remains the EU itself. But the Leave campaign is now also rounding on the enemy within: the British people and institutions they accuse of undermining Brexit.Last week, it was the turn of the chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, labelled a “saboteur” by the Daily Mail. Lord Lawson, an 85-year-old former chancellor, called for Mr Hammond’s dismissal — for refusing to spend large amounts of money preparing for a no-deal Brexit. (The same Lord Lawson claims that Brexit will save Britain billions of pounds.) Julia Hartley-Brewer, a broadcaster and columnist, upped the ante by suggesting Mr Hammond should be tried for treason.
The list of British institutions where the Leavers sniff treason is long and growing. They include the BBC, the civil service, the City of London, leading universities and top lawyers as well as The Economist and the Financial Times. Yet the Brexiters’ search for “saboteurs” is dangerous to their own cause. It gives off a whiff of desperation and defeat, undermining the comforting fantasy that Britain is a united country, confidently pursuing Brexit. The saboteur hunt places the Leavers in the paradoxical situation of being arch-patriots who appear to distrust, and even detest, many of Britain’s most respected institutions. As a result, they risk turning into precisely what they accuse Remainers of being: “People who hate their own country.” The most disturbing example of a Brexit-driven witch-hunt remains the Daily Mail’s front page accusing Britain’s top judges of being “enemies of the people”, for ruling that parliament had to approve Britain’s decision to leave the EU. But now that the negotiations have begun, the search for domestic enemies is increasingly focused on government and the media.
Many Leavers believe that the problem is not just “negative” ministers such as the chancellor — but the officials who brief them. Bernard Jenkin, a senior backbench Conservative, recently published an article headlined — “It’s a sad truth; on Brexit we can’t trust the Treasury”. John Redwood, a like-minded colleague, has demanded that the Treasury should provide “more realistic, optimistic forecasts”. As for the Foreign Office, it has long been regarded by Brexiters as a nest of Remainers. RecommendedBoris Johnson styles himself as ‘godfather of Brexit’Brexit talks are at a standstill, warn diplomatsHow the City finally raised its voice over BrexitBut declaring a full-scale jihad against the civil service is a losing proposition. For it is civil servants who will have to perform the hard (and possibly hopeless) task of trying to negotiate a decent Brexit deal. The Leavers know that an impartial civil service is one of the British traditions that they claim to cherish. That tradition is genuine. Senior civil servants will do their utmost to implement policies that many of them profoundly disagree with. Unable to launch a full-scale attack on the civil service, the Leavers have instead made increasingly querulous complaints about the media. Jacob Rees-Mogg, darling of the Hard Brexiters, complained recently that the BBC has a “deep-seated anti-Brexit bias”.
Andrea Leadsom, a cabinet minister, has called for broadcasters to be more “patriotic” in their reporting. The obvious next play in the populist handbook would be to frame the whole issue as “the people versus the elite”. Quentin Letts, a journalist, has just published a book along these lines, called Patronising Bastards: How the Elites Betrayed Britain. But many of the most prominent Leavers, such as Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg, are clearly members of the British elite and deeply proud of the fact. Even though much of the British establishment now actively despises the Gove-Johnson-Rees Mogg trio, these men are not eager to tear up their club membership cards.Much of the establishment despises the Gove-Johnson-Rees Mogg trio (Michael Gove and Boris Johnson pictured), these men are not eager to tear up their club membership cardsA full-scale Brexiter embrace of a culture war against the establishment would mean abandoning their fond hope that Britain will ultimately unite behind Brexit — and so frustrate the “knavish tricks” of the Europeans. Many Leavers long for Britain to rediscover the unity and national purpose that saw the country through the second world war.
This “finest hour” fantasy was stirred this summer by the release of the film, Dunkirk, which prompted Allison Pearson, a star writer for the Daily Telegraph, to write a column entitled — “For Brexit to work we need Dunkirk spirit, not Naysaying Nellies”.But the comparison between Brexit and the second world war is too obviously ridiculous to create the national unity that the Leavers long for. Just as Remainers have been disappointed by the stubborn refusal of Leave voters to change their minds; so the Brexiters have had to accept that roughly half the country still thinks Brexit is a mistake. Indeed last week, we discovered that this group probably includes Theresa May — with the prime minister refusing to say that she would now vote Leave, if there were another referendum.It is possible that — as the negotiations get rougher and even break down — a nationalistic instinct will kick in, and more Remainers will rally around the Union Jack. But, after a humbling and economically destructive Brexit, there will be plenty of anger to go around — and the divisions within British society will also grow. The hunt for the “guilty men” has only just begun.
