A couple of months ago, the Leave campaign seemed constantly grumpy, complaining about media coverage, colleagues and the use of the government machine in this referendum. But now, with just a week to go until polling day, this seems to have reversed. The Brexiteers’ continuing poll lead has spooked Remain, and Remain really isn’t dealing with it all that well.
It wasn’t just the way that the pro-Remain politicians ganged up on Boris Johnson during their TV debate last week. And it isn’t just the way that government ministers including George Osborne seem to be resorting to increasingly desperate interventions such as a scary Brexit Budget that disgusted so many of his own party colleagues. Or indeed the way in which Gordon Brown thought attacking the media would be a good way of charming voters over to Remain when he made his big intervention on Monday.
It is also the way the prominent Leave campaigners have decided largely to be placid, even when faced with the sort of relentless personal onslaught that Boris Johnson had to deal with during last week’s television debate. Michael Gove last night was on a charm offensive, too – and even Nigel Farage had managed, in his own way, to tone it down a bit from his grouchy General Election TV performance (though he did still manage to tell an audience member to ‘calm down’, so there’s a little way to go before he is seen as a model of serenity and inner peace).
Remain now looks desperate to throw anything at voters to get it across the line next Thursday, while Leave appears to be enjoying itself rather. This is quite a reversal from the Project Grouch that appeared to be developing among the Brexiteers in April.
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