When, roughly 60 years ago, Aneurin Bevan described the Conservatives as ‘lower than vermin’, Tory supporters all over the country formed a Vermin Club in proud response. Now it is time to form a Graffiti Club. On the Today programme on Monday, the day of the referendum vote in Parliament, William Hague foolishly compared his own party’s MPs voting for a referendum on the European Union to people who scribble graffiti on the wall. His comparison encapsulated why the government lost the argument. It disclosed an underlying contempt for anyone who actually minds about being ruled by the European Union, and a belief that this is not a subject on which the public’s opinion, or even that of backbenchers, should be sought. The Graffiti Club would be formed to mobilise the opposite position. If this doesn’t happen within the Tory party, it will be led from outside it. Already, backers are talking of starting the Referendum party all over again.
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