For my first non-technical blogpost, I thought I’d go in for something that we can all agree on and is entirely devoid of controversy: Brexit. Is that growning I hear from the back of the room?

One of my uncles is a professor of sociology; he returned to the UK for the first time in 10 years over Christmas 2019, and naturally we had plenty to talk about. He had left with two kids when I was a lanky, goofy teenager and had returned with four to a lanky, goofy adult. What were most interesting, though, were his views on green politics and their relationship with the traditional left-right spectrum.

I don’t recall him ever telling me who he voted for before he left in 2010, but his parents and siblings were centre-left labour voters and nothing he said suggested any major disagreement with that position. He has always been an ardent supporter of ecological preservation and environmental activism – this is something that is hard to take issue with. The beginning of our major disagreements started when the dreary, omnipresent issue of Brexit reared its head after dinner in that way that it all too often does in my parents’ politically divided household.

The argument he made went something like this:

1. The left proposes a large state, providing services such as healthcare, a social safety net, excellent public services, free transport, etc.
2. The only way to pay for all of this is ever-increasing growth, fuelled by growth in production, consumption and population
3. The left, in general, are aware of and would like to combat climate change and ecological collapse
4. Endless growth in production, consumption and population cannot continue indefinitely without destroying the environment.
5. (2) and (4) mean that consumer-driven capitalism is incompatible with averting climate catastrophe, and therefore goals (1) and (3) are mutually exclusive
6. The EU is fundamentally a neo-liberal institution based on perpetual growth and free market capitalism
7. Leaving the EU is therefore the only way that (3) can be achieved in the UK (and in other EU countries)

I find the arguments compelling, but do not particularly like conclusions (7) or (5), although I cannot think of a counterargument. The current Conservative government are not known for their desire to restructure the economy to achieve some goal higher than profit for the capital-owning classes, but that does not preclude a different government from doing this in the future, free of the shackles of an EU laws and institutions which are designed to facilitate unfetered international consumer capitalism. The argument that we in fact need less international trade (to drive down consumption and production – and transport emissions) is not one that is often made, but I cannot see how it can be avoided if we are to avoid the looming climate disaster. I now feel that I (a lefty green remainer) hold three incompatible positions. Until someone can persuade me otherwise, I will just have to contend with this Triplethink as we wander ever closer to the 31st of January EU departure date – which just so happens to be birthday.

Happy birthday to me.