Boris Johnson was able to push through Brexit on just 44 per cent of the vote, whereas in America, at least this time, the majority vote was able to defeat Trump.

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The politicians behind Brexit, just like Trump, had four years to dial down the nationalist, xenophobic rhetoric, which they had seen lead to a terrorist killing, and make it clear that violent extremists were not welcome in their movement.

In the case of Brexit, politicians and sections of the media drove a narrative of “take our country back”?

Boris Johnson’s Vote Leave campaign played on the threat of Turkish migrants arriving in the UK if Turkey joined the EU; the Daily Express referred to refugees as “INVADERS”; and Nigel Farage had his “Breaking Point” refugees poster.

Since 51.9 per cent voted Leave, any questioning of Brexit was painted as being against the “British People”.

Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom, also of Vote Leave, accused an interviewer of being unpatriotic for questioning the success of the Brexit negotiations.

A former Vote Leave campaigner threatened on national television that if a second referendum happened it would “unleash forces that have not been seen in this country since the Thirties”.

In fact, in both the 2020 US election that ushered Trump out of office and the 2019 UK election that made Brexit inevitable, 52 per cent of voters voted for parties that opposed the direction the nationalists were taking the country.

The key difference is that Boris Johnson was able to win, and push through Brexit on just 44 per cent of the vote, whereas in America, at least this time, the popular (majority) vote was able to defeat Donald Trump.

What if it’s just because, unlike America, our system wasn’t democratic enough to allow the majority of voters to stop Brexit.

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