Revolting!: How the Establishment are Undermining Democracy and What They’re Afraid Of

One incident that highlighted this divide after the EU referendum came with the prosecution of the former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, ex-working-class hero, fallen national treasure and psychiatrically challenged alcoholic, for a race-hate crime. In 2015, during a desperate attempt to raise funds, the sad ghost of Gascoigne had staged An Evening With Gazza show in Wolverhampton. While on stage he said to his black security guard, ‘Can you smile please, I can’t see you.’ For cracking this unfunny and insensitive joke, Gascoigne was hauled into court in September 2016 and convicted of the ‘racially aggravated’ offence of using ‘threatening or abusive words’. Most telling were the threatening words used by the judge in sentencing Gazza. M’lud made clear that he was making an example of the faded star to send a message to others. ‘We live in the twenty-first century,’ the judge proclaimed. ‘Grow up with it or keep your mouth closed!’67 (#litres_trial_promo) It is not necessary to defend what Gascoigne said in order to see that sort of censorious court order as no laughing matter.

You might interpret this sorry incident as evidence of the hidden epidemic of white working-class racism behind the Brexit vote. Or, alternatively, as a sign of the contempt with which the white working class and its old habits – such as telling naughty jokes – are held in high places. That helped to provoke the pro-Brexit backlash among millions who had had enough of being told to ‘keep your mouth closed’ by those who look down on them from the judges’ bench of life.