Another of Brexit’s beautiful mysteries: I voted against, but I’m expected to support it. Why? With the exception of Sadiq Khan, I have never voted for the winning proposition in any election in my adult […]

With the exception of Sadiq Khan, I have never voted for the winning proposition in any election in my adult life. I haven’t even managed to back a Eurovision winner. The other day, a friend ran a series of Twitter polls about which the best Wes Anderson film was. I lost that, too.

Theresa May has a better track record as far as picking winners than I do, but we were united in defeat on 23 June 2016: we both voted for the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union, and we were both disappointed. Now the Prime Minister is under fire after she refused to say whether or not she would, given the chance, vote to leave the EU in the event of a referendum re-run.

PM on a hypothetical second ref

Remainers have understandable unease

Regardless of how you feel about the question of Brexit, I invite you to consider it from the perspective of someone on the losing side. In the year since we voted to leave, our currency has gone from the top flight to non-league.

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That’s increased the pressure on wages, meaning that for the first time since 2010, incomes are not only stagnant but falling in real terms. The government has proved near-incapable of negotiating a favourable exit from the European Union.

Clueless pro-Brexit MPs

Adding to the unease, a large number of pro-Brexit MPs have shown themselves to be barely equipped with the ins and outs of EU regulation. The recent row over the nature of the transition from EU membership to life outside is a case in point. During the transition, British people will remain subject to the European Court of Justice.

If there was time to negotiate a bespoke mechanism for arbitration between the United Kingdom and the European Union during the transition, there would be no need for transition.

That the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Bernard Jenkin think this is a sign of a pro-Remain plot suggests that, frankly, they simply haven’t done their homework.

And if you imagine you come to it from the position of an impeccable Tory like May, it’s impossible to deny that Brexit has been good news for Labour in general and Jeremy Corbyn in particular. Thanks to the referendum, a large chunk of people who voted Conservative in 2015 opted for Corbyn in 2017, and regardless of how Brexit pans out, they won’t be returning to the Tory fold anytime soon.

I’m willing to concede that there may have been a good case to leave in June 2016. But even a generous marker would have to admit that the case for Brexit has, at best, remained unchanged since then, let alone improved. Why on earth would May have changed her mind?

Why dance to the Brexiteer jig?

But that’s the bizarre mystery of Brexit, the only defeat I’ve suffered where I’m expected not only to accept the result, but actively support it.

In 2015, I didn’t think that David Cameron’s programme of cuts could be enacted without hitting the economy, damaging the fabric of society and triggering political upheaval. Seeing as since then, Britain has voted to leave the EU and 12 million people voted for the most radical leader of the Labour party in its history, I feel increasingly convinced I was right on that one. But regardless, at least George Osborne didn’t pick up the phone and demand that I, personally, identify £12bn worth of cuts to welfare that could be carried out without severe repercussions.

After the referendum on the alternative vote was lost, no-one has expected me to dance a jig everytime I fill out a ballot paper. Yet at Conservative party conference, one special adviser, who has never expected me to greet the continuing presence of the Tories in government with anything other than dismay, complained that I never seemed to write about the “opportunities” that arise from Brexit.

Smiling non-obligatory

As, in my view, the only opportunity that arises from Brexit is the chance to get poorer while having to apply for a visa to visit the continent, I’m not overflowing with excitement, to be honest.

Now you’re welcome to believe that I am being far too negative about Brexit. You may well be right to think that it will end in success. Certainly the fact that we had a referendum and Brexit won means that it has to happen.

I completely accept that the Brexiteers have won the right to drive the car off the cliff. What I cannot stand is the idea that I have to smile on the way down.

Stephen Bush is special correspondent at the New Statesman