© Dinendra Haria / Global Look Press
Khrushchev's logic and democracy as a zero sum game
With the kind of homespun logic for which he was famous, and which never failed to cut through the fog of theoretical obfuscations spouted by ideologues for whom reality is often a foreign land, Nikita Khrushchev once sagely opined that "you can't make soup out of an idea." Yet if the former Soviet premier dared offered this opinion to proponents of a 'hard Brexit' today he would be accused of attempting to betray the will of the British people, of subverting democracy - of being a shill for Brussels.
Regardless, Khrushchev's words do more to place in perspective the most far reaching political crisis to engulf Westminster since the Second World War than any of the ideologically-heavy but reality-light arguments that have been swirling around Brexit since the British people, by a small majority proportionate to turnout, elected to leave the EU in the referendum that was held on the question back in 2016.
It reminds us that when democracy lapses into a zero sum game of winner-take-all it becomes a tyranny of the majority, attacking the bonds of social cohesion that are essential to stability - without this kind of stability nothing exists, including democracy. Just ask people in Russia, those who went through the hell of the 1990s, if democracy should be regarded as an end rather than the means to an end. Ask them if you can make soup out of an idea.
Comment: The UK is just one of many countries that realises it needs to take control of its own future. But the author needn't worry: Britain will remain in the EU: Why 'Brexit' outcome is a foregone conclusion
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