Helping Us to Vote ‘No’

I would like to begin this review by acknowledging the “Yes” campaign, and I pay my respects to its tireless advocates, past, present and emerging. Across newspapers, airwaves and social media, Voice architects and cheerleaders seem to be making it a much easier decision to vote “No”.

This review appears in July’s Quadrant.
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For example, I always read or listen to Noel Pearson’s contributions to the debate with curiosity and appreciation, as I like to guess which ex-friend or persuadable set of voters he will freshly insult. Pearson, who has often played quite a talented demagogue, must be exhausting himself with all his invective of late and seems to be noticeably short on cheer. Writing in the Australian in one of his politer moments, he charged his own readership at the national broadsheet with casual racism, a strategic move unlikely to bring any fence-sitters to the cause. In the same piece, Pearson warned that the “Yes” campaign proper…