Why a wave of non-conformity is sweeping London

Stick with me as I talk about the EU Withdrawal Bill. If you are a Brexit junkie like me, you will have been watching a slowly forming band of rebels kicking up a fuss about how we leave.

Their numbers are small. In the early days of the Bill they posed and strutted but never made an impact on votes.

But on Wednesday night, led by the unlikeliest of heroes, the bespectacled former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, they found their fighting formation. They became Star War’s Rebel Army holding off the evil First Order of the Supreme Leader Theresa May and her top-down Brexit.

As the votes dropped, it became clear that they had finally stormed a position. Eleven Conservatives voted against the Government, one abstained, and a victory for having a meaningful vote on the Brexit negotiations came their way at last. They became the enemy of the Establishment. Scorn was poured from on high, but they had arrived.

Aficionados of Star Wars, who have watched Luke Skywalker fighting the Stormtroopers over four decades, will have seen in the doughty Remainer Ken Clarke an echo of their own rebel hero, a grizzled Skywalker, still fighting his cause.

Sarah Wollaston, the doctor who originally supported Brexit only to change her mind over the lies being told by the Leave side in the run-up to the referendum, is John Boyega’s Finn, the Stormtrooper who defected and joined the Rebel Army. As the leader, Grieve is the Princess Leia, little as he may like the analogy.

But you get the idea. We’ve been here before. Rebellion is a cultural and political paradigm. Rebellion is the lifeblood of a functioning society. It is the beginning of change.

One of the lines from the new Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, shows how this movement begins. “We are the spark,” says Oscar Isaac’s Poe, “that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.”

Or, if you prefer ice to fire, take the mantra of the fragile generation of millennials dismissively dubbed as snowflakes. They found their spark, courtesy of a tweet by George Takei, Mr Sulu in Star Trek. “The thing about ‘snowflakes’ is this: they are beautiful and unique, but in large numbers become an unstoppable avalanche that will bury you.” Those snowflake Remainers, for whom the EU is the symbol of progress and liberal rights, threw a snowball on Wednesday night.

Who doesn’t want to be a rebel? It has always been cool, long before James Dean in his red blouson, cigarette in hand, looked meaningfully into the camera for Rebel Without a Cause. There’s nothing exciting about conformity; there are few films written about the drama of upholding the status quo.

But it takes two things for that moment to happen: a particular character and an authority that is asking to be disobeyed. Rebellion is sparked by instinct against an oppressive force. That could be cultural or political. But slowly a feeling grows that what is being demanded is unreasonable, unjust or evil. And then a few people arise happy to sacrifice their careers or, in the case of war, lives for the sake of making an argument and rebalancing the world.

It is not always about a move to progressive liberalism, nor led by trendy young figures. Churchill was, in 1938, the rebel kicking back against the Munich Agreement of Appeasement of Neville Chamberlain; the last round of EU rebels comprised Bill Cash and his ilk during Maastricht.

Or take, for example, the past two years in politics in the UK and the US. The Remain argument was lost because the pre-referendum rebels were actually the Brexiteers, giving two fingers to the dominance of the EU and staking out an anti-authority position.

Donald Trump’s presidency didn’t happen by casual consensus. It was helped by Breitbart and the dark genius of its editor Steve Bannon. The website positioned itself as the rebel newspaper against mainstream media orthodoxy; Bannon, in his sports jacket and stubble, was the shock jock of US politics driving through an agenda purportedly for the Americans that liberal Obama forgot. They adopted the pose of the voice of the little people and incited them to rise up.

But there are other examples that history is more likely to recognise. One of the most dignified rebellions of recent years started with Colin Kaepernick’s taking the knee during the national anthem as a protest about the treatment of black men by police in the US. It spread through the NFL and even to baseball. One imagines Donald Trump throwing Diet Coke cans at the screen with rage during the game.

For the Weinstein case, the women who broke cover were rebels against an ingrained system of authority, whereby the guy with the cheque book and the star-making power could set the tone of the industry. No more. That movement has already turned into its own revolution in #MeToo. The statues of reputation are being pulled down.

And in a sign of the times — that rebellion is good — there’s a book dominating the Christmas bestsellers list this year. It is Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, with portraits of 60 female role models. In it are Ada Lovelace, the first lady of computing, Elizabeth I, Serena Williams and even Margaret Thatcher.

Alhough I’m not sure all those women are, strictly speaking, rebels, what the title says to girls is that history has placed laurels on the heads of men, that children’s books have left them out, and that this is their time for revolution.

And so the rebel is in. But there is one caveat: history is a series of pulses between two opposing ideas. Yesterday’s rebel is today’s conformist and tomorrow’s authority. Opposition dies with a victory. The Star Wars saga would be over if Luke Skywalker ever did defeat the Evil Empire.

How much of a rebel are you?

It’s Friday evening and you’re

a. At the pub #beeroclock

b. At an immersive musical

c. At home. Friday night is mainstream

For this year’s Christmas dinner, you’re having

a. Turkey

b. Seitan roast

c. Huel

Your last relationship ended because

a. You were growing apart

b. You were going through an existential crisis

c. Polyamory isn’t for everyone

What gets you through a tough day?

a. Coffee #caffeineaddict #guilty

b. Mindfulness

c. Microdosing LCD

For New Year’s Eve you’re

a. Going to a ceilidh

b. Going to Berlin

c. Celebrating in mid-Jan, as per the Julian calendar

Answers:

Mostly As: 0 per cent rebel.

Mostly Bs: Nice try, pretender. Rebels don’t share everything on Instagram.

Mostly Cs: Positively dangerous.