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Conservative politicians attribute our parlous economic situation to the cost of Covid and the inflated price of oil and gas due to the war in Ukraine.   The barmy budgeting of Liz Truss and

her _malfortuné_ Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, sometimes get a mention, a cautionary tale of self-destruction.   As for the third of the slings and arrows of outrageous

fortune: the word “Brexit” shall never pass the lips of a government minister. How should we describe this deliberate omission?  Google to the rescue: an English version of the South Italian

word _omertà_, a “code of silence and code of honour and conduct that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by authorities or outsiders”. _Omertà _is popularly associated

with the Mafia. Ministers and MPs know a great deal about the impact of Brexit — hence _omertà_.   The UK Department of Trade and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

like the European Commission, are all clients of_ Cambridge Econometrics_.  In a report commissioned by the Mayor of London and published in January 2024, _Cambridge Econometrics_ estimates

that we lost 2 million jobs due to Brexit, and that in 2023 the average person was nearly £2,000 worse off (Londoners by £3,400) than had the Referendum gone the other way.   Goldman Sachs’

2024 report “The Structure and Cyclical Costs of Brexit”, puts the economic loss caused by Brexit at between 4 and 8 per cent of GDP and concludes that since the referendum, Britain has

“significantly underperformed [compared to] other advanced economies”.  Both reports, based on complex calculations, emphasise the impact of Brexit on trade and investment. The Office of

Budget Responsibility (OBR), an independent public body funded by the Treasury, analyses our public finances and produces bi-annual economic forecasts intended to guide Government’s economic

policy. So it is heeded by Prime Ministers, except of course Liz Truss.  It broadly supports the conclusions of _Cambridge Econometrics_ and Goldman Sachs. Rishi Sunak is well aware of the

extent of Brexit damage. In 2016, David Cameron, believing he would win the referendum, turned a complex issue into a binary choice.   No rules were established to govern the conduct of the

ensuing campaigns, nor the information provided to the electorate.  Voters need accurate, relevant information to make informed political choices.  Voters making a huge decision by direct

democracy were lied to and misinformed in a campaign led by charismatic but unscrupulous men. The public did not necessarily believe their lies or the battle-bus promise of “£350 million

sent per week to the EU” being returned to the NHS, but such disinformation served to dramatically and divisively raise awareness of the_ Leave _campaign.  Thanks to the nurturing of

division and hostility, any empathy for the thinking and feelings of people on the other side of the argument could not get a look-in. “A shared framework for containing conflicting aims”

created by “good faith compromise”, “positive agreements and brokered bargains”, appear in Brook Manville and Josiah Ober’s _The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, _Princeton and Oxford

University Press 2023, as important ingredients in any functioning democracy.  They offer a simple definition: the pithy “No boss – except one another”, but there is no discussion of how

this is best achieved by direct or representative democracy. It is a stretch to describe the Brexit referendum, conducted in a climate of disinformation and lies, the subsequent negotiations

and the unlawful proroguing of Parliament, in these terms.  The consequences were the reverse of what Aristotle called “civic friendship”, seen by the two authors as sustaining democracy.

_Omertà _about Brexit is part of a wider government _omertà _about the damage done to our political culture, with its unwritten but well understood values and codes of conduct.  It is

important, though counter-intuitive, to recognise the erosion of democracy added to by the 2016 referendum , with its compelling slogan “Take Back Control”.  The quantifiable economic

consequences of Brexit are not the only ones to contend with; there is also the absolutist mindset encouraged by the binary referendum choice, _in_ versus _out,_ pervading public attitudes.

The gradual nibbling away of the mainstays of a democratic culture has done nothing to improve voter turn-out.  Youth are giving up on their fundamental civil right to vote, to sack the

government and install another, to put into practice – Manville and Ober’s – “no boss except one another”.  In addition, many people are responding to continuous grim reports on radio and TV

with “news avoidance” that further encourages a “they’re all the same” rejection of political participation. The 2022 Electoral Reform Act directly affects turn-out and not only in general

elections.  The Bill abolished the supplementary (second choice_) _vote and made mayoral elections first past the post, generally thought to favour the Conservative Party.   Voters not

showing photographic voter ID are turned away, an imported form of voter suppression, part of the US Republican electoral playbook, known to disadvantage youth, ethnic minorities and poorer

voters.  In the 2019 general election — before this requirement — 33 _alleged _impersonations with 9 convictions came to light, amongst 32 million people who voted.  A 2023 YouGov poll found

that one in four voters were unaware of the new requirement.  In last year’s local elections, according to the Electoral Commission, some 4% of eligible voters said they didn’t vote because

of the new regulations.  Voters in a democracy need obstacles to voting removed, not inserted on spurious grounds. Electoral campaigning can, and is, used as an opportunity for the

destruction of “civic friendship” by gaslighting and the flagrant untruths of attack ads._  _In support of the Conservative mayoral candidate, Susan Hall, a video purporting to reveal panic

on the London Underground appeared on X (Twitter).  It turned out to be filmed in Penn station, New York. “Gripped by the tendrils of rising crime”, Londoners were staying at home, said the

voiceover.  Picture of empty street. After complaints, the fake “evidence” from the USA was taken down — but the fake assertions about citizens’ safety in London stayed in.  The Greater

London area, with 9.75 million people, will have more crimes (for example than Greater Glasgow, with 1.7 million, to which London is sometimes compared), just as it has more bins to empty,

more air pollution to be cut.  As ministers know, meaningful crime statistics are based on the size of the population.  In the real world, the crime _rate_ in London is _below_ the national

average. There is danger that such American-style attack ads have also infected the Labour Party.  One of their on-line ads a year ago asked: “Do you think adults convicted of assaulting

children should go to prison?” It answered: “Rishi Sunak doesn’t.” Shocked shadow ministers and party members protested.  Sir Keir Starmer had a torrid time on Sky News trying to limit the

fallout.  The truth is that such ads are widely shared and read by millions, creating a serious temptation for politicians who find that honesty and truth-telling disadvantage them. We’ve

got several more months of campaigning to endure. _Omertà_, disinformation and voter suppression are poisoning our political culture.  Together they preclude acknowledging and learning from

experience.   This is not how democracy survives.  This is not how to heal domestic divisions, nor counter the rise of threatening authoritarian regimes that are opposed to democratic

values.  You don’t have to read _The Civic Bargain_ to figure that out. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important

contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a donation._