At Brexit conference in London, author says ‘angry old men’ are shaping UK’s future and by 2019 the mood could be different

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The novelist Ian McEwan has suggested that the death of many elderly Brexit voters over the next two years would help swing a second referendum in favour of Britain staying in Europe.



“A gang of angry old men, irritable even in victory, are shaping the future of the country against the inclinations of its youth,” McEwan told a conference of remain supporters in Westminster.

Brexit will spell the end of British art as we know it | Bob and Roberta Smith Read more

“By 2019 the country could be in a receptive mood: 2.5 million over-18-year-olds, freshly franchised and mostly remainers; 1.5 million oldsters, mostly Brexiters, freshly in their graves,” he said.

The two-day Convention on Brexit and the Political Crash, organised by the journalist Henry Porter, struck a defiant opening note on Friday as politicians and artists debated whether any Brexit deal agreed by the government should be put before voters.

“How we voted almost a year ago is in a sense irrelevant as it is in the past,” said the activist and Brexit litigant Gina Miller in an opening speech. “Both remainers and leavers need to move on.”

“I will carry on remoaning until the whole thing is over,” said Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor, in a panel that featured heated clashes with the Tory MP Kwasi Kwarteng.

McEwan, known for his provocative views on Brexit, was in March forced to clarify remarks to a Spanish audience that were reported to have compared the referendum to the Third Reich, but on Friday he pulled no punches in a passionate speech.

“This country, like a depressed teenage self-harmer, takes out a razor to scour a forearm and now contemplates its own throat,” said the author.

“Truly, Brexit has stirred something not heroic or celebratory or generous in the nation, but instead has coaxed into the light from some dark, damp places the lowest human impulses, from the small-minded to the mean-spirited to the murderous.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gina Miller at the Convention on Brexit. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The morning session of the conference also heard other points of view. Anand Menon, professor of European politics at King’s College London, said efforts should be focused on softening Brexit rather than reversing it. “If we care about democracy, overturning the referendum is a profoundly dangerous thing to do,” he said.

Kwarteng said of the idea of a rerun: “People are completely deluded about this. For most people this ship has sailed and they want to move on. This is completely cloud cuckoo land. It’s insane.”

McEwan said: “I belong to the smallest, saddest, most pessimist faction: I am a denialist. Almost a year on, I am still shaking my head in disbelief. I know it’s not helpful, but I don’t accept this near mystical, emotionally charged decision. How can it be that in a one-off vote, a third of the electorate have determined the fate of the nation for the next half-century?”

At a lunchtime session there was applause when one audience member called for non-violent direct action to “stop the underground, stop the buses”.

The musician and activist Bob Geldof said: “I loved [McEwan’s] rejectionism. Anger is a great animus. I heard too much reasoned debate this morning. I resent those who voted leave. There is too much hubris that infects the political class. Fuck them.”

Jarvis Cocker struck a more understanding note. “Fear makes people cling to what they have,” he told the convention. “People feel trapped, and when they feel trapped they lash out.”

He urged musicians to boycott political events like the Trump inauguration and said the anti-Brexit movement should celebrate openness rather than focusing on the threats.



“The resistance starts here and its slogan is fun not fear,” concluded the singer.