Postcards From The 48%. (15.)
Directed by David Wilkinson.
Starring David Wilkinson, Alistair Campbell, Nick Clegg, Lesley Riddoch, Miriam Margolyes, Mark Durkan, A.C. Grayling, Bob Geldof, Rachel Johnson. 114 mins.
I think I might be coming round to this whole Brexit thing. The more I watch our political classes in action, that confederacy of numpties, the more it seems like Brexit is a noble gesture on our part, in the best traditions of English self-sacrifice: it's just like Captain Oakes saying "I am just going outside for a while and may be some time." EU go on without us, we're just holding you back.
In Wilkinson's film leaving the EU is an If not When proposition, and it addresses itself entirely to the Remain side, telling them what they already know and trying to inspire them not to give up. It's a man with a beard and a rucksack and a cameraman touring the United Kingdom for nearly two hours interviewing people on what a terrible idea it is and how it can still be stopped. Whatever criticisms you can make of it, you can't say you don't know where you stand with it.
The good thing about the film is that you don't have to see any of the various Leave ghouls: the bulging bounders and prim, uptight masochists. The downside is that a fair few of the people putting the Remain argument are people you'd rather hoped we'd seen the last of. It is a mark of what a wretched state we've got ourselves into when Campbell and Clegg can emerge from their cloaks of infamy to speak as the voice of reason. (It is also fantastically depressing that a body as corrupt as the EU can look like such a paragon compared to our own political institutions. ) The film's most useful contributions come from outside England: former deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Mark Durkan explaining the issue of the Irish border and journalist Riddoch outlining the Scottish position.
Though the film explicitly sets out that it will not do so, and isn't aimed at them, I think it is a flaw not getting the views of ordinary Leave voters. If it is to be stopped, surely at some point their, not always unreasonable, frustrations and feelings need to be accounted for. At one point the film visits Stoke-on-Trent, where the vote to leave was 69.4%. But it then just has Wilkinson stand to camera and give his view on why people wanted to leave. No doubt some internet tosser will dub this remainsplaining. The voices on film are almost entirely metropolitan and middle class. Though it outlines some of the larger lies and misinformation used by their campaign, a bold Leave supporter might be tempted to show it to wavering supporters, as proof of the country being ruled by a metropolitan elite that is contemptuous of them.
Aaron Banks, the millionaire bankroller of UKIP and the Leave campaign and Russian stooge (allegedly), said recently “This Brexit stuff is all getting very tedious.” You think? Tedium though maybe its great blessing: as none of the preening self-publicists that pushed for it have the patience to sit down and do the boring hard work necessary to achieve it, the process might just grind to a halt. Which would be the least divisive way to defeat it, but depressing in its own way.
Directed by David Wilkinson.
Starring David Wilkinson, Alistair Campbell, Nick Clegg, Lesley Riddoch, Miriam Margolyes, Mark Durkan, A.C. Grayling, Bob Geldof, Rachel Johnson. 114 mins.
I think I might be coming round to this whole Brexit thing. The more I watch our political classes in action, that confederacy of numpties, the more it seems like Brexit is a noble gesture on our part, in the best traditions of English self-sacrifice: it's just like Captain Oakes saying "I am just going outside for a while and may be some time." EU go on without us, we're just holding you back.
In Wilkinson's film leaving the EU is an If not When proposition, and it addresses itself entirely to the Remain side, telling them what they already know and trying to inspire them not to give up. It's a man with a beard and a rucksack and a cameraman touring the United Kingdom for nearly two hours interviewing people on what a terrible idea it is and how it can still be stopped. Whatever criticisms you can make of it, you can't say you don't know where you stand with it.
The good thing about the film is that you don't have to see any of the various Leave ghouls: the bulging bounders and prim, uptight masochists. The downside is that a fair few of the people putting the Remain argument are people you'd rather hoped we'd seen the last of. It is a mark of what a wretched state we've got ourselves into when Campbell and Clegg can emerge from their cloaks of infamy to speak as the voice of reason. (It is also fantastically depressing that a body as corrupt as the EU can look like such a paragon compared to our own political institutions. ) The film's most useful contributions come from outside England: former deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Mark Durkan explaining the issue of the Irish border and journalist Riddoch outlining the Scottish position.
Though the film explicitly sets out that it will not do so, and isn't aimed at them, I think it is a flaw not getting the views of ordinary Leave voters. If it is to be stopped, surely at some point their, not always unreasonable, frustrations and feelings need to be accounted for. At one point the film visits Stoke-on-Trent, where the vote to leave was 69.4%. But it then just has Wilkinson stand to camera and give his view on why people wanted to leave. No doubt some internet tosser will dub this remainsplaining. The voices on film are almost entirely metropolitan and middle class. Though it outlines some of the larger lies and misinformation used by their campaign, a bold Leave supporter might be tempted to show it to wavering supporters, as proof of the country being ruled by a metropolitan elite that is contemptuous of them.
Aaron Banks, the millionaire bankroller of UKIP and the Leave campaign and Russian stooge (allegedly), said recently “This Brexit stuff is all getting very tedious.” You think? Tedium though maybe its great blessing: as none of the preening self-publicists that pushed for it have the patience to sit down and do the boring hard work necessary to achieve it, the process might just grind to a halt. Which would be the least divisive way to defeat it, but depressing in its own way.