The Lib Dems’ ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ is crass, but it might just work | Stefan Stern

The party of moderation has found a novel, if slightly risky, way to tap into how remainers feel about Brexit

"When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer," wrote George Orwell in his famous essay, Politics and the English Language, just after the second world war. Things are bad, and our language is getting worse.

The Liberal Democrats have adopted the slogan "Bollocks to Brexit" in their campaign for the on again, never really off European elections on 23 May. This has certainly won them some attention. Critics were quick to denounce what they saw as a sorry decline in standards of taste and decency. James Forsyth, political editor of the Spectator - and a columnist for the Sun - tweeted that the slogan "does nothing for civility and makes the public square a less pleasant place". He acknowledged there was a chance he might sound a bit prim in offering this view.