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The EU referendum has plunged Britain into a topsy-turvy world of Alice in Wonderland politics

Mia Wasikowska stars as Alice in Walt Disney Pictures? epic 3D fantasy adventure ALICE IN WONDERLAND. A 19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter.
Alice navigates the EU referendum debate Credit: Film Stills

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” So said Alice in her eponymous adventures through Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll's heroine would feel right at home watching the EU referendum. This unusual debate has thrown together politicians from wildly different political traditions on both sides of the campaign, and seen many of them shift their rhetoric on the big issues. Call it cognitive dissonance or call it political expediency, but it has been remarkable.

Take George Osborne's "emergency Budget", which confirmed that Westminster has fallen through the looking glass. Mr Osborne was supported in his threat of cutting billions of billions of pounds more from public spending by Labour's Alistair Darling. This display of cross-party unity is all the more impressive given that when Lord Darling previously warned that the "tough but fair" cuts put forward by his Tory successor would be "dire for many". They clearly weren't dire enough for him to sign up to the idea of more of the same if Brexit triumphs on Thursday. 

In other circumstances George Osborne would also have expected his key opposition to come from Jeremy Corbyn. But instead many Conservatives, who had previously supported his drive to cut down on public spending in order to get the nation's books in order, threatened to revolt against it. Michael Gove spoke for many Brexiteers when he insisted that he would not vote for such a "terrible" austerity agenda, while Ukip's Douglas Carswell called his idea "nasty". 

Such figures were perfectly happy to make the case for cuts before the referendum, with the Justice Secretary telling lawyers to stop whingeing about the axe being taken to legal aid and Ukip's MP warning that the Chancellor's failure to have Britain live "within its means" would see the "forces of financial gravity" drag down the economy. They used to be keen on the nation tightening its belt, but have ran up quite a list of spending commitments when talking about what they would do by saving the £350 million-a-week they contentiously estimate Britain sends to the EU.

Indeed, the NHS would stand to get £100 million-a-week splashed on it in their depiction of post-Brexit Britain, with many other causes also promised funding. So the Brexiteers have turned into austerity-averse big spenders. 

The economic reasons for staying in or leaving the EU have also shifted for some campaigners. John McDonnell suggested in 2014 that Britain should "not" be in the EU, a "creature of the banks & corporations", and suggested as Labour's Shadow Chancellor that the party could back Brexit if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is agreed. 

But now Mr McDonnell wants Labour voters to back Britain's continued EU membership as a better way to fight such free trade, and to avoid a trade deal after Brexit that "could resemble TTIP on steroids". He finds himself joined in opposition to TTIP by Boris Johnson, who mocked the talks as "like trying to ride a vast pantomime horse", although the former London Mayor has come to a different conclusion on what that means for Britain's future with the EU. To muddle things further, TTIP isn't opposed by all Brexiteers, with Liam Fox praising it for offering "significant economic benefits". Still, we are treated to the strange sight of Right-wing politicians team up with actual socialists to stand against TTIP.

The future size of the European Union has caused even more confusion, with Remainers who previously embraced the idea of Turkey joining the EU and now distancing themselves from the idea. David Cameron infamously promised to "pave the road from Ankara to Brussels", but last night said it wouldn't happen until the year 3000. David Miliband previously suggested the EU should work towards including nations like Russia, but is awfully quiet about that now. Many Brexiteers, including Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox and Daniel Hannan, supported Turkish membership of the EU in the past, but now talk during the campaign how much strain Britain's borders will be put under if it joins.

The whiplash is even more intense with regard to immigration. Andy Burnham admitted to being "not particularly proud" of Labour's mugs boasting of how their plan to put "controls on migration", but now chides Europhiles for "shuffling uncomfortably" when immigration comes up and wants tougher migration controls. Ed Balls previously accused Ukip of being "not British", but could have been cribbing from their manifesto when he called for Britain to "restore proper borders, and put new economic controls on migration".

Jeremy Corbyn has been one of the few to stick to his guns, pointing out to his Labour colleagues that there can be no "upper limit" on immigration while Europe's free movement rules are in place. 

But Brexiteers too are having to be similarly nimble in their line on immigration. They tell some voters that a vote to Leave would crack down on "uncontrolled immigration", but tell others – such as British Asians – that it would encourage immigration from the Commonwealth. Nigel Farage may be pilloried for his hard-line stance on the issue, even by his fellow Brexiteers, but he now wants a system of immigration that would see – in his words – "more black people...qualify to come in". Michael Gove agreed with this line, calling Britain's migration system "racist" for not letting enough people in (albeit from outside of the EU),. This distinction means Brexiteers can now argue they want the drawbridge to be both pulled up, and lowered down, for foreigners.  

So the referendum has seen a temporary realignment of politics as pro-EU campaigners have turned into pro-cuts migration sceptics, and Brexiteers have become anti-austerians who want more people coming to Britain. We have fallen down the rabbit hole into a new political world. How long will we stay there?

Who said it: a Remainer or a Brexiteer?

To show how strange the EU referendum debate is, we've made this fiendish quiz. All the quotes are searchable, but please try not to look up who said it until you've had your own guess.

 

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