In days gone by it was perfectly respectable to be a Eurosceptic and a lefty. Great socialists such as Tony Benn, Peter Shore and Barbara Castle lead the battle to get out of the EU in 1975. But gradually most on the left have abandoned that position. That they have done so while working people and the old, young and sick across Europe have been screwed by the EU might be rather surprising.
And thus while Greek Pensioners have to live on £9 a day, find hospitals starved of drugs and while employment in Greece among Greek youngsters is sub 15%, the left generally stands shoulder to shoulder with the banksters at Goldman Sachs, the CBI and the media elite in support of the EU. How odd. In Britain, immigration holds down wage rates for the working poor so is a tax on the less well off while reducing the cost for the rich of hiring cleaners, plumbers and of dining out. The EU works as a tax on the poor to benefit the rich.
Yet for liberals like film maker Inigo Gilmore a long time contributor to the Guardian and Channel 4 News it is an article of faith that only those on the far right are Eurosceptic. And thus Inigo ran a film on Channel 4 this week making that point.
Among the far right MEPs at Brussels there are some fruitcakes. The German who thought Hitler was a great statesman, the Pole who seem to think war was a normal part of life were odd. Although they were made odder by the Gilmore spin. Thus the Pole was described as "wanting war" which is clearly not what he wanted at all. But Gilmore did show that among the far right of MEPs there were a good few fascists and fruitcakes who applauded Brexit. I could, of course, find a good few "Remainers" with odd views. Islamic hate-preacher and ISIS supporter Anjem Choudary was a keen Remainer for instance.
But whilst I would not make the philosophical leap of saying "some Remainers support chucking gays off high buildings so Remainers are usually homophobes" Mr Gilmore seems to think that he can demonstrate " some supporters of Brexit are fascists therefore Brexiteers tend to be right wing extremists".
Gilmore cannot make that leap at all. He strengthened his case by bringing in Churchill " the dream of Churchill was of a Europe of peace and prosperity". Well we would all like that. It is a shame that the EU's crackpot socialist economic policies make such a dream unattainable. The implication, of course, is that Churchill, a moderate right winger would have supported the EU. There is much evidence is that he would have not and at best the question is a matter of debate. But Gilmore slips in the assertion so that we do not really question it.
The reality is that working folk across Europe feel that the EU is for the few, the banksters, big businesses, the political and media elite it is not for Joe or Josephine Public. And it is not. The popular mood not just in Britain but across the EU is increasingly hostile to the Evil Empire but that does not mean that Europe is shifting to the right. In Greece Eurocsepticism found an outlet in a left wing party, Syriza, before its leaders sold the people out in order to maintain the trappings of power.
An angry people could vote left if only the leaders of the left were not now almost entirely in bed with the banksters and their media patsies like Indigo defending the Status Quo