The Highlander and the Peasant

If you want a snapshot of the weird lies and distortion of elites posturing as ‘the common man’ through the self-induced Brexit crisis, you can do no better than witness Fraser Nelson and Brendan O’Neil in action.

Nelson this week declared himself a “Highlander” and announced that Scotland was firmly against Freedom of Movement. O’Neill famously recently declared himself from “Irish peasant stock”.

Like some kind of contemporary kailyard Maeve Binchy novel The Highlander and the Peasant are joined in their commitment to ending immigration and attacking multi-cultural Britain.

Koch sucking O’Neill this week wrote a confused rant in Nelson’s Spectator (“What Jon Snow meant when he talked about ‘white people’):

“In recent years we’ve witnessed the racialisation of snobbery. It is no longer acceptable to say ‘underclass’ or ‘scum’ and so instead we have seen the emergence of phrases like ‘chav’, ‘gammon’ and the far broader but very selectively targeted ‘white people’. All these terms play the same role that phrases like ‘white trash’ once played.”

They really don’t.

In a line of divisive patter straight out of the Bannon-Breitbart playbook O’Neill suggested: “White people’ is increasingly PC code for the lower orders.”

He said: “I was one of the speakers at Friday’s protest, and both before and after the event I met many, many people. Yes, most of them were white but there were people from minority groups too.”

The Spiked editor didn’t pause to illuminate Spectator readers just why there wouldn’t be more “minority groups” at a rally featuring himself Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage, and shrouded with Union Jacks and with people trailing an effigy of Sadiq Khan. Presumably that would be too PC.

In the frothing shambles that is Brexit Britain Channel 4 was forced to apologise for Jon Snow’s remarks.

As Frances Ryan has commented:

“It is essentially an apology for offending people with facts. This is where we are now: a white person in trouble for calling…