After Tony Blair's call for a second referendum (and maybe even a third if that one didn't work out) fell flat on Thursday, the campaign to stop Brexit looks on shaky ground. However, Newsnight have put forward an argument that could be just the thing to put life back in the campaign.
In a film for the BBC current affairs programme, David Aaronovitch – who once said 'if every one of the PM’s demands had been turned down I would still have been in favour of remaining in the European Union' – appears to find a glimmer of hope: Brexit voters are dying at a faster rate than Remain voters!
The Times columnist says the Brexit generation is dying out and that by the time Britain leaves the EU enough Leave voters, who tend to be older, will be dead for there to be a Remain majority. He refers to calculations made by the pollster Peter Kellner who predicts that by 2020 the Brexit majority could be reduced to zero 'by that most natural of wastages'.
To make his point, Aaronovitch quotes Bob Dylan:
“'Your old road is rapidly aging, please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand - for the times they are a-changin'.'
But don't get the wrong idea, arch-remainer Aaronovitch – who says a second referendum is 'hard to do but perfectly democratic' – means no harm; 'it's not my intention to be callous'.