Their little secret

Talking of The World This Weekend, this week's edition ended with an interview with historian Julian Jackson of Queen Mary, University of London. 

He was on to talk about General de Gaulle and, guided by Ed Stourton, went on to give his views on what the former French leader would make of Donald Trump and Brexit. Professor Jackson ended by saying:

I think when he sees the mess of Brexit he would say, 'I told you so'.

A spot of Googling shows that Professor Jackson was part of IN - Academics for BritaINEurope - his views on Brexit surely being known in advance to the team at TWTW before they invited him on. 

And Professor Jackson wasn't the only historian from Academics for BritaINEurope to be invited onto Radio 4 today. 

Another supporter of that anti-Brexit campaign, Professor Justin Champion of Royal Holloway, University of London was invited to give the closing talk on this morning's Broadcasting House. 

He talked about the Supreme Court's Brexit ruling, casting Mrs May's government as arbitrary King James I and Gina Miller as that heroic champion of the rule of law Edward Coke (with not one mention of the fact that, unlike James I, the present government has a democratic vote behind its Brexit policy).  

Typically, neither Ed Stourton nor Paddy O'Connell felt it necessary to forewarn listeners that these disinterested academics were anything other than disinterested academics. Their pro-Remain activism was something listeners would have to guess for themselves, if they smelt a rat!