Morality of Victors and Vanquished

Moral Maze

BBC

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.5 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2016

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pundits and politicians alike are struggling to capture the enormity of the consequences of the result of the referendum vote. It's at times like these people often turn to George Orwell for inspiration. He likened our nation to "a family with the wrong members in control" - "that" he said "perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase." Who'll be left standing and in charge after all the political recriminations and bloodletting have ended is still not clear. It's been described as the worst peace-time constitutional crisis this country has faced. So this week on the Moral Maze we're asking what should now be the moral priority for the victors and the vanquished? Has the democratic will of the people been clearly expressed so that the victors must now deliver Brexit at any price? Is it the moral duty of those who championed Brexit to deliver on all their promises made during the campaigning? Or, once normal politics has resumed, should the utilitarian principle of cutting the best possible deal triumph - even if that means forgetting campaign promises on immigration and the single market? Should the vanquished now support Brexit and work towards it with all the enthusiasm they can manage? Or was this a mistake by the British people that means they have a moral duty to go on fighting to keep Britain in the EU and campaign for a second referendum? Or should the priority, above all others, be to find a way to heal a divided nation?

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4.
0:03.9	Good evening. It was a victory that stunned the winners as much as the losers, a vote that
0:08.0	reframes our lives and our prospects for generations to come. A decision that cannot, we're told,
0:13.3	be revisited or reversed. What now? What's the right thing to do? Whether you were,
0:18.6	are, remain, leave, or a new category they're calling
0:22.2	regrexit. There are moral choices beyond political calculation or economic advantage. For the
0:28.6	losers, does democracy trump all other considerations and must be obeyed, no matter if you think
0:34.2	it's made a dreadful mistake or you believe the old have blighted the future of the young.
0:38.8	How should the winners interpret their victory?
0:41.5	Should they feel morally obliged to deliver on all their promises,
0:44.6	or cut the best deal they can with our erstwhile partners in a utilitarian calculus that falls short on immigration, for instance,
0:51.5	of what many of their supporters thought they were voting for?
0:54.4	And what's the priority, the moral imperative in all this?
0:57.5	A teleological effort to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number,
1:01.1	stabilising the economy or healing the wounds of a divided nation.
1:04.8	Our post-Brexit moral maze.
1:07.0	Our panel, Melanie Phillips, social commentator on the Daily Mail,
1:10.1	Anne McElvoy, senior editor of the economist, Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies at Edinburgh University, and Giles Fraser, the Anglican priest and polemicist. Anne McElvoy, morally, has the referendum cleared the air or mudded the water? I don't mind the mixed metaphors. It's a nice mixed metaphor. I think we can say it cleared the air. I'm not one of those people who would seek to delegitimize or question the outcome. But what it signifies and what it mandates, that's much harder to call morally. And that's, if you like your ethical minefield in which we intend to blunder around tonight. John Sarasin?
1:44.5	Well, I think it's clear, yeah.
1:45.8	I mean, things at the moment are pretty horrible.
1:47.5	There's a rise in racist incidents and I think things are confusing for people.
1:52.5	Now, I voted to leave, but I think there's a, you know, big change is happening.
	...

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