Hell hath no fury like an establishment spurned. If you didn't know this already, you certainly know it now, following the British people's vote for a "Brexit." A whopping 17.5 million of us voted last week to cut the U.K.'s ties with the European Union (E.U.), against 16 million who voted to stay. And they did so against the advice of most of the political class, media "experts," E.U. bureaucracy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), celebrities such as Benedict Cumberbatch, President Barack Obama, and virtually every other Western leader. They defied them all, rejecting every E.U.-loving overture from the great and good and well-educated. And boy, is the establishment mad.
In the three days since this modern-day peasants' revolt—the poor and working-class voted for a Brexit in far large numbers than the well-to-do and well-connected—the political and media elites have rained damnation upon the little people. They're calling into question the ability of ordinary people to rationally weigh up hefty political matters, and are even suggesting the referendum result be overturned in the name of the "national interest."
Much of the elitist rage with the masses who voted for Brexit echoes a longstanding suspicion of democracy, writes Londonite and spiked editor Brendan O'Neill. Among the upper echelons of British society there has never been a willing acceptance of the idea that ordinary people should have an equal say in political life.
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