Boris Johnson is perhaps Britain's most popular politician, and he joins an "out" campaign not overburdened by popular figures. Other "outers" in the ruling Conservative Party include the unreconstructed Thatcherite Iain Duncan Smith - and Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who despite being the adopted son of a Scottish fishmonger in a Cabinet stuffed with aristocrats is nevertheless considered among the most unpopular of British leaders. Mr Johnson - another aristocrat, who has in the past distinguished himself by declaring that without colonialism, "the natives would have relied on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain" - reveals an estimation of the future direction of British politics. Just as in other European countries, in the UK too, an anti-European stance helps position oneself as a populist who scorns party lines and establishment politics in favour of a crude and hitherto vanishing nationalism. In a West swirling with disaffection, this is clearly the position to take.
The "out" campaign brings together various populists with marginal mainstream influence. The campaign's face is Nigel Farage, the Muslim-bashing chief of the United Kingdom Independence Party, which threatens to swipe both hardcore nationalist voters from the Conservatives and angry white working-class men from the Labour Party. He has been joined by, among others, ex-Labour maverick George Galloway, Pakistan's favourite Englishman, who is reported to have never met an Islamist he didn't like. In 2012, Mr Galloway won a famous victory against Labour in a Yorkshire by-election by declaring that "I'm a better Pakistani than [Labour candidate Imran Hussain] will ever be" and declaring that Mr Hussain was "never out of the pub", while he himself was not a drinker. Yet Mr Galloway and Mr Farage are now being photographed together in the service of ending British participation in the European project. Clearly, this referendum has, like many such in the past, become a vehicle by which inchoate anger at the general state of politics can be expressed.
Also Read
Caught in the cross-fire is Prime Minister David Cameron. In spite of his handy re-election in May 2015, he has discovered that the urgent business of reviving the economy has had to take a back seat to testy negotiations over Europe, both in Brussels and at home. The UK economy grew at a comfortable 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2015, driven by higher consumer confidence; but economists surveyed by Bloomberg, when the growth numbers came out last week, suggested that Brexit would send the country back into recession with 40 per cent probability. Mr Cameron has negotiated a deal for a "two-speed" Europe, in which the Community's core can move forward, while the UK can opt to stay out of "ever-closer union". This is better than most Euro-sceptic Britons could have hoped for in the past, but it is still not enough for the "no" campaign. After all, for many of the fringe populist players, whipping up anti-Europe or anti-foreigner sentiment is a crucial ladder to prosperity. And for mainstream Conservatives like Mr Johnson, pandering to the nationalist base of their party is crucial if they are to succeed Mr Cameron - who has already declared that this is his last term, and who will likely resign if he loses the referendum in June.
The polls are still uncertain as to the outcome of the referendum, but the "in" campaign is supposed to have a slight edge. Either way, the strength of the "out" campaign, even though a third of the firms surveyed have said they would leave Britain or cut capacity there if "out" wins, is a startling reminder of atavistic nationalism's continuing ability to outweigh economic progress in voters' minds.