The jubilation shown today by remnants of Remain movement and FBPE reminds us how utterly this movement and its self-appointed 'leaders' failed. A movement representing half the electorate, with huge international support and right on its side, failed utterly.

I’ve been insulted and blocked by lots of nice people for saying it. And I understand. Admitting failure is hard. Especially when the stakes are so high. But maybe we should try to get over ourselves and LEARN something for next time?

So how did a movement representing the views and interests of half the UK electorate, with huge intellectual and financial resources, fail so entirely?

Some thoughts.

Firstly, once the referendum was lost, it was a mistake to try to reverse it. This was the first shot in the first skirmish of the culture wars. Immediately the Remain movement allowed itself to be cast as antidemocratic, as ‘enemies of the people’, etc.

We gifted them that stick and they’re still beating us with that stick today.

Second, both before and after the referendum, we failed to present an alternative credible proposition other than the status quo.

Remain and reform? Yeah but reform what? Bendy bananas?

FBPE? Um, how was following each other really helping?

Third, no recognisable public face.

Yes to networks, coalitions, distributed everything. But this is politics and politics is all about personality. A movement needs a face, TV needs a face. You can’t fight a figure like Farage in a crowd, the punches don’t land.

And the people we put up were not relatable. We were sending (mostly male and white) academics, lawyers and scientists to fights against female tabloid columnists and trying to ‘win’ the argument with facts. Facts are no weapon against feelings.

Which brings us to four: emotion.

The pro-EU side failed to understand that people voted for Brexit not for any informed, evidence-based reason, but for irrational, emotional reasons. And rational argument is no match for emotion.

To the contrary — once emotion is activated, conflicting info merely reinforces our prior beliefs.

Stupid, stupid error to have made.

And when we did entertain the prospect that Brexit appealed to people emotionally, we baselessly assumed that that emotion was fear, or xenophobia or racism. Which made us difficult for people to like, and made it easy for people to convince themselves they were right.

Five, once the ‘remoaner’ label stuck, it seemed that every action produced the opposite to the intended result. Rather than win people over, we repelled the other side, we allowed the in/out question on ballot to reproduce and create a vast, unbridgeable and acrimonious divide.

What suckers we were. Why didn’t it occur to us we were doing our enemies’ work of dividing society for them?

No self awareness, no self reflection.

Ever diminishing returns.

Six, humour.

This has been a movement almost entirely without humour. The remoaner label is well deserved, and it has destroyed us. Joy sustains activism. There is no insurrection without joy.

Seven, hope.

This has been a movement without hope. And without hope, there is no action. We gave up our hope, and the power of hope, far too readily. Hope is dangerous and audacious. Hope is our most powerful weapon, and we threw it away.