The Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf is a clear-eyed analyst of economic affairs and a critic of the way they are regulated. When it became clear that the British might vote Leave, he concluded that to do so would be “mad”. His judgement has echoes of the prime minister’s description of UKIP as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, shortly after he became Tory leader, and Cameron’s close ally describing the Tories who wanted a referendum on Europe as "mad, swivel-eyed loons". The two diagnoses of craziness are different. David Cameron was making a personal attack on those who “bang on” about Europe and sovereignty. Wolf was assessing the potentially imminent consequences of Brexit in terms of the UK’s economy and its role in international affairs. Cameron condemned people; Wolf, a policy.
Cameron joined the more sober approach when he co-authored an article in the Guardian with Brendan Barber, until recently head of Britain’s Trade Union Congress, to proclaim, “For the sake of every worker in Britain, we urge you: vote to remain”. Although he is an unlikely workers’ friend, the Prime Minister used his new proletarian alliance to point out, as does Wolf, that all the main institutions and authorities of the global order share a similar sober view:
