21 January

Watching Brexit debates. Every single person, from member of the public through to Prime Minster, says ‘we should...’. But the whole country can’t agree on any of it. There is no ‘we’. Isn’t Brexit trying really hard to tell us something? I say society and government is just us. It’s always individuals, agreeing or disagreeing. Individuals who don't just think about their own little space, but individuals with a view of what the whole thing should look like, what ‘we’ as a society should do. If all the we’s align, you get the appearance of a society and government existing separately to the individuals in it. But it’s an illusion, as Brexit is brilliantly showing. People are being forced to recognise that they need to find a way to agree with each other, there are no short cuts. No ‘power’ can force an agreement, power is an illusion. Which is why the public is being so critical of politicians in this, they don’t like having to find agreement themselves, they want politicians to do it for them. Politicians are just people like them, they don’t have magic wands with ‘power’ in them.