Prominent biologist and “anti-theist” Richard Dawkins has welcomed Theresa May’s move to delay Brexit yet again, appearing to suggest it will improve the electoral arithmetic for Remain in a second EU referendum.
“9 month delay? The longer the better,” Dawkins gloated on social media.
“More time for young voters (who have to live with the consequences) to come of age. More time for Leave voters to drop off their nostalgic perch,” added the emeritus professor, who has previously expressed his deep envy of fellow Remainers who are able to apply for Irish citizenship, as he is “So ashamed to be English.”
9 month delay? The longer the better. More time for young voters (who have to live with the consequences) to come of age. More time for Leave voters to drop off their nostalgic perch. More time for Tory party to destroy itself. And for 2-party system to destroy itself.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 10, 2019
Dawkins, who at the age of 78 has been eligible for the old age state pension for over a decade, appeared to be making reference to the increasingly common narrative among Remain diehards that, given enough time, Britain’s electoral demographics will shift in favour of EU membership, as children more likely to be supportive of the bloc turn 18, and older voters more likely to support national independence pass away.
While initially considered distasteful, it is a narrative which is being advanced with growing brazenness as the 2016 vote to Leave the European Union recedes further and further into the past, with the British political class seemingly no closer to delivering it.
The left-liberal Guardian newspaper, for example, published a column titled ‘On Saturday the UK turns remain. Parliament must force a second referendum’ in January, to mark what some EU loyalists believe was “crossover day”.
“Enough old Leavers will have died and enough young Remainers will have come on to the electoral register to turn the dial on what the country thinks about Brexit,” explained writer Polly Toynbee — aged 72.
The will of the people over Brexit is now “the will of dead people” says this member of the audience #bbcdn pic.twitter.com/2LJ5W7SueI
— BBC Debate Night (@bbcdebatenight) April 3, 2019
The narrative is also gaining traction outside the Remain-leaning media-political bubble, with one plum-voiced young man opining that “the will of the people” in 2016 is now “the will of dead people” on BBC Debate Night, receiving some 1.2 thousand “likes” when the publicly-owned corporation shared his remarks on Twitter.
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