Statue of Cecil John Rhodes, Kimberley Club, 2014. Flickr/ flowcomm. Some rights reserved.In the days that have followed the shock result of the UK’s referendum on EU membership, a profound sense of foreboding has settled across liberal and progressive Britain. Whatever expectations the British people may have entertained throughout the course of the campaign, it is now painfully clear that the primary result of the referendum will be to hand control to a small number of right-wing demagogues dedicated to reversing the advance of modern cosmopolitan Britain. And this rag-tag cabal looks likely to set the narrative of democratic politics in Britain for years to come. Amidst flawlessly-crafted cries of ‘we want our country back’, Britain will be sold a bombastic, populist daydream designed to efface the memory of an inclusive, egalitarian, and outward-looking liberal ideal. Brexiteers will seek to confine progressive politics to the dustbin of history.
Rhodes Must Fall
Amazement at the Leave victory is all the more resonant because it reflects such a stark contrast with what came before. Over the last twelve months, left-wing activists demonstrating in universities and on the streets have been pushing the boundaries of the broader liberal-progressive ideal. The Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) movement provoked controversy over its uncompromising demand to end the memorialisation of historic architect of British imperialism, Cecil B. Rhodes, within college campuses and throughout public spaces. RMF argued that statues of nationalist demagogue Rhodes had no place in modern, multicultural Britain. But their arguments generated a staunch liberal defence of the integrity of history, and a refusal to be reshaped by a radical political agenda. Barely three months ago, the battle for tomorrow was being played out in disagreements between liberal and progressive groups aiming to come to terms with a bloody imperial past.
Today, Britain is faced with the rise of the Cecil Rhodes of the twenty-first century. Liberals are dumbfounded by a living revival of xenophobic populism among prominent right-wing architects of Brexit. And neither the centre, nor the left, has fully come to terms with this unwelcome shift in the political reality.
