No harm in making our feelings known

Here is the latest from eureferendum.com

One should not generalise but, nevertheless, I think it is fair to say that yesterday was the day the media, as a whole, completely lost it over the Article 50 Judicial Review.

As the hearings started, we see in The Times of 14 October the comment that the legal "will drag on for months". The High Court's verdict will be challenged, the paper said, and: "The Supreme Court is poised to make its final decision in December".

Thus, it was always a given that the High Court was just going to be the warm-up, and the final word was going to rest with the Supreme Court. Thursday's judgement, therefore, was simply a holding statement.

Yet, from some of the headlines yesterday, you would have thought that the entire civil order had collapsed. Not a single newspaper nor any of the broadcast media gave any serious recognition to the fact that the High Court was effectively round one of a longer battle, with no practical consequences.

This is where Richard North (Dad) is quite correct. We often remark that the public debate is a parallel universe that has no relation to the facts on the ground. For instance the media has been clubbing the dead horse of Hard Brexit for some time even though all the signals suggest it is dead in the water. But there are times when that debate in the parallel universe has real life consequence.

Sometimes you just have to go along with the make believe and make a bit of noise. Regardless of the technicalities and the process, this debate is all about signals and sentiment. What the average voter thinks of as the establishment is the high courts and parliaments and the general signal they are receiving, with the aid of the BBC, is that the establishment is doing all it can to delay and possibly prevent Brexit.

They make noises and the Daily Mail and the Sun must make counter noises in response. In most instances one should not pick a side, and and patiently wait out the storm. But then there are times such as these. Let's not beat around the bush. There is an attempt, albeit futile, to prevent Brexit. They are wasting their time, it is not going to happen, Article 50 will be triggered. But there are times when the establishment needs a reminder of the depth of feeling behind the Brexit vote.

I voted in good faith in the expectation that if we did manage to climb the mountain, in a referendum where the game was heavily stacked toward the status quo, that we would leave the EU. MPs voted to defer this decision to the public, the public have made their decision and now certain MPs and institutions with power are looking to interfere with a sacrosanct civic contract. So if it seems like we are losing the plot and making irrational noise then it is just cause and effect.

There is a time for rational reasoned analysis and then there is a time to show that patience is wearing thin. Mine certainly is. They complain about the tone of debate becoming more toxic. Can they really be so stupid as to wonder why? This is a week of protest - and let it be robust.