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If you want to know how our world became so polarised, look at the competing narratives about the #PutitothePeopleMarch. Critics from left and right denounce the marchers as members of an elite. It's worth acknowledging the extent to which that's true--and also true of Brexiteers 
Yesterday's march was huge. As a veteran of marches following precisely that route, it was the largest by far that I've seen. After three hours, my group, nowhere near the back of the march, had been able to move only 0.4 miles, from Hyde Park Corner to the start of St James's St
During that time I spoke to people of different life experiences, backgrounds, socio-economic groups, religions, ethnicities, demographics. Quite a few women had to leave the march because they had caring duties. Others had made arrangements for care cover so they could attend
There will have been many more who didn't attend not because they didn't want to but because they couldn't. I know people who weren't physically able to attend and others who literally couldn't afford the time because they would have lost pay, even their jobs
Political activism is restricted to those who can do it, compounding the effects of an undemocratic democratic system that efficiently excludes a huge range of vital perspectives in the name of "stability". One driver of the Leave vote was the (correct) sense of being excluded
No wonder the referendum became a proxy for other debates and emotions. It was about everything *except* the UK's relationship with Europe, because the EU has come to represent competing ideas and values. It was itself also a deeply exclusive process meandeurope.com/wp-content/upl…
(It looks like a corrupt and corrupted one too. As we wait for the findings of the Mueller Inquiry, we wait, in vain, for any UK equivalent. What we anyway know is that the outcome did not create a clear mandate. "Brexit means Brexit" was always a dangerous nonsense)
We know the Leave campaigns lied. But conflating their lies with Leavers or again assuming a monolithic identity or set of reasons for Leavers is at least as misguided and damaging as the Remoaner myths.
There are no monoliths, but this Leave EU poster unintentionally highlights the dominance on all sides of affluent white men. As I marched yesterday for a #PeoplesVote, I recalled how badly served the Remain campaign was as a result, out of touch, excluding, exclusive
We need a #PeoplesVote, but we will have to work hard to ensure it lives up to its label--by people, all people, for people. That means recognising and disarming the mechanisms that exclude and polarise. And this is just a start. Some us never voted to remain. We voted to advance
