Despite all the numpties trying to pretend that Labour's Brexit position is too complicated to understand, it was always a quite simple strategy of trying to de-escalate and de-toxify Brexit by reconciling Leave and Remain instead of picking either the 52% or the 48% and tailoring their policies exclusively for them.
With Labour's vote share collapsing to leave them in 3rd place between the (exclusively 52%) Brexit Party and the (exclusively 48%) Lib-Dems, it's quite clear that people don't actually want Brexit reconciliation.
It doesn't matter how much it actually makes sense to try to de-escalate Brexit so that it doesn't continue degenerating towards an outright culture war between the two polar extremes, there's no way to pretend that it's popular.
Compromise and reconciliation are deeply unsexy political concepts when most people seem to want the certainty of picking one side or the other and naively hoping that their side doesn't end up on the losing side of the culture war they're gearing up for.
If I was forced to pick a side in a do-or-die showdown between the two polar extremes of the debate I'd obviously end up on the Remain side because "no deal" is such an unbelievably stupid concept that would trash our economy and absolutely burn all of the UK's negotiating capital the instant we did it.
But there's no denying that the Remain faction is just as riddled with ideological militants, opportunists, and outright liars as the opposite end of the spectrum.
The People's Vote graph in the article header is proof of how far these people will go to deceive.
After months of relentlessly misrepresenting Labour's position (oppose "no deal", repeatedly oppose Tory Brexit, push for a general Election, propose a fail safe least harmful version of Brexit, support calls for a final say referendum) as nasty pro-Brexit fanaticism in order to drive voters into the arms of the Lib-Dems, they're suddenly claiming Labour as a Remain party because it's the only possible way to make it look like the pro-Brexit parties (Brexit Party, Tories, UKIP) didn't win a bigger vote share than the exclusively Remain parties.
The weirdest thing about this kind of deception is the cultish myopia of it.
It's not designed to deceive Leave voters into change their mind, nor to deceive the undecided.
It's pure self-delusion aimed at convincing their own tribe that they won a clear majority, when the only way to create this deception is to suddenly appropriate the support of the very people they've been relentlessly misrepresenting, attacking and abusing for over a year in order to erode their support and pinch their voters!
An herein lies the danger of an another roll of the dice referendum.
It doesn't matter how much you dislike the Brextremists, it's obvious that their propaganda is clearly and unambiguously designed to win people over to their cause. They won the 2016 referendum, and Farage's Brexit Party just stormed these Euro elections. No matter how much we may dislike it, their propaganda is effective, and it clearly works.
Even though Remain lost in 2016 and they've got a lot of convincing to do in order to make up the ground, People's Vote propaganda like this isn't designed to win people over at all, it's purely self-righteous reassurance for the echo chamber.
The only people retweeting this blatantly deceptive graph are clearly on a Remainer self-delusion trip.
They don't want to admit that they've wasted the last three years so badly that despite all the Brexit chaos, and uncertainty, and deadlock, the exclusively 52% parties still somehow bagged a bigger vote share than the exclusively 48% parties.
The Tories have done such a spectacular job of ballsing Brexit up that Remain should be winning the argument all over the country by now, but their absolute obsession with a sore-loser referendum, their mobilisation behind the pro-austerity Lib-Dems who helped the Tories cause Brexit in the first place, and their spreading of absurd self-deception nonsense like this clearly answers the question of how Brexit Party swept the vast majority of English and Welsh constituencies.
It turns out that an awful lot of Remainers aren't even remotely interested in reaching out to left-behind communities to explain that it was domestic government policies like neoliberalism, privatisation mania, austerity fanaticism, wage repression, public service cuts, infrastructure under-investment, and vandalism of the social safety net that caused the living standards collapse, not immigrants and the EU.
In fact they're so uninterested in winning this argument they've actually flocked to support the pro-austerity, pro-privatisation Lib-Dem neoliberals, which is all very well in the mainly-metropolitan and well-to-do patches of the country that never experienced the full force of ruinous Tory austerity, but Remainers actively rewarding the austerity-enablers makes winning the argument even harder in the much more numerous places that were wracked by austerity fanaticism, and just turned out in much bigger numbers to vote for the far-right Brexit Party Faragists.
These people aren't interested in effective campaigning at all, all they're interested in is smugly congratulating themselves that they were right all along.
If they wilfully refuse to deal with the issues and injustices that caused Brexit in the first place in preference for spreading ridiculously misleading infographics designed to convince themselves that they won when they're still somehow losing, then they're never going to triumph in the "another roll of the dice" referendum they've invested so much of their time, effort, and resources on demanding are they?
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13 comments:
I mostly agree with this article. However, I'm sad to say that everyone has to pick a side; you either have to support a hard-Brexit (we leave with a withdrawal agreement, and either a UK-EU free trade deal/standard WTO relationship) or remaining in the EU. I appreciate that Labour are trying to bring the country together by supporting a soft-Brexit (Customs Union membership, with NI remaining in the Single Market pertaining to goods only), but this will ironically please nobody. This is because Leavers want a clean cut from the EU, and Remainers want an equal chair at the table for legislation creation & trade deals (plus the preservation of freedom of movement).
In these negotiations, the EU have a lot of leverage over us because they know that having WTO rules will destroy our economy and we can't have a hard border in Ireland. Of course, my solution to this problem (as with all of the world's problems) is Marxist revolution, however, here's a more 'moderate' solution:
1. Revoke Article 50.
2. Hold elections for the Northern Irish assembly.
3. Negotiate with the Irish parliament and Northern Irish assembly on what the status of Northern Ireland would be in the Irish republic.
4. Hold a unification referendum in Northern Ireland.
5. If Northern Ireland votes to remain in the UK, then hold another UK referendum between a soft-Brexit & remaining in the EU.
6. If Northern Ireland votes to join the Irish republic, then while that is being implemented, hold a UK referendum between a hard-Brexit and remaining in the EU.
(Both hypothetical UK referenda should be conducted with the alternative voting system - with the option to 'leave the EU but keep freedom of movement' on the ballot).
The time for a compromise Brexit solution was in the aftermath of referendum and immediately after T May became PM by default…..but it was never going to happen while the Tory’s were the governing party for one very simple reason, there are only 3 ways out of the EU: -
1 – Negotiated withdrawal agreement leading to the UK re-joining EFTA and remaining in the Single Market via EEA membership (the original Soft Brexit many on the Leave side originally claimed to advocate). Choosing this option would tear the Tory party apart.
2 – Negotiated withdrawal leading to a Trade deal similar to CETA (Originally called Hard Brexit relative to option 1). Choosing this option would tear the Tory party apart.
3 – Withdrawing from the EU without a deal and trading on WTO terms alone (something absolutely no one advocated in the leave side as far as I can recall). Choosing this option would tear the Tory party apart.
So there was never a chance of any sort of compromise solution and we are now effectively stuck in, and victims, of the internecine war going on within the “natural party of government”. This has been your timely reminder that Brexit is an entirely Tory created catastrophe and anyone trying to tell you different is an idiot.
The really stupid thing is, if we end up with a “no deal” the Brexit headbangers want, the simpletons who brought us it will only end up going back to the EU for the Trade Deal they still claim they want only to find the EU will ask for the same things they asked for in the withdrawal agreement.
But I’m really looking forward to seeing who the next PM will be even though I’ll have no say in the matter despite the fact the ramifications of his/her selection will significantly affect me and everyone else. Long live democracy.
Our blogger is rightly miffed at the antics of some on the continuity remain side but let’s examine the votes: -
The Brexit party and UKIP were alone in standing on a “No Deal ticket” and garnered 5.8 million votes. Or approx. 33% of the original leave vote. So contrary to Nigel “Thirsty” Farage’s protestations that everyone who voted ‘leave’ voted for ‘no deal’ it is safe to assume that only a third of this cohort really are that stupid.
The LibDems, Greens, CHUC, SNP and Plaid Cymru stood on a Remain/Revoke/Second Ref Ticket and gathered approx. 6.6 million votes. These party’s position was clear before the EU parliament election last week, vote for us if you want to revoke or have a second ref.
As for the rest of the electorate, who knows. Perhaps, like me, they just want this sorted out in the least damaging way possible but it’s pretty clear that, as noted in my other comment, this was never going to happen while the instigators of this crisis are the governing party and are only concerned with holding on to power while delaying their imminent disintegration.
Had the country gone down route 1 detailed in my other comment we would by now be out in the least damaging way and the majority of people would be, if not totally happy, at least accepting of the outcome. The extremists on the Leave side were never going to accept anything other the hardest of hard Brexits, and the Remain voting idealists were always going to fight to re-join as is their right.
As it is, this shits never going to end………….
On Peston last night, their "geek of the Week" award to some nerd that went to the trouble of translating the votes cast in EU election into our actual Parliamentary constituency seats. Now, the caveats, there was a very low turn out and many folk were clearly protest voting, nevertheless, there is a warning in the outcome.
On a FPTP basis, The Brexit Party would have taken 414 seat leaving the Tories with just one!
I have predicted on previous threads that, in a GE, unless the Remain vote is focused in to one party, then the Leave vote will win more seats in Parliament - and probably a good majority. It can therefore be argued that No Deal becomes more likely if a GE is called and held.
(@ Gulliver Foyle)
The EFTA/EEA option would lead to a hard(ish) border on Ireland (e.g. Norway & Sweden), and would unite Leavers & Remainers in their hatred of it. Leavers would hate it because we would still pay a membership fee and have to obey almost all EU rules and regulations; whereas, Remainers would hate it because we would lose our representation in the bodies of the EU.
As it is, this shit's never going to end………….
You can say that again. And the MSM will, no doubt, continue to blame Labour just as much as the Tories for this crisis - even though they've been in opposition the whole time!
I think AAV is a Lexiteer but not sure how there who follow that banner outside the ranks of the Trotskyites.
@Mr Magoo,
F.w.i.w. I think a deal involving a customs union arrangement could have been done as the EU and RoI had a vested interest in keeping the border open. Remaining in the Single Market was always, imho, the pre-requisite for this too be possible. Unfortunately T May drew her red lines in an effort to hold her party together the rest is history.
(@ Gulliver)
Remaining in the Single Market and Customs Union is exactly the same as remaining in the EU.
@ Mr Magoo,
It's at this point I usually point out that EEA countries apply only around 25% of the EU aquis in return for unhindered access to the largest free trade area in the world but I'll just reiterate my previous point, this shits never going to end (unless we all accept that none of us are getting exactly what we want and therefore some compromise between both sides of this new culture war is needed).
It's impossible to "detoxify Brexit" or unite people behind a compromise because Brexit is a stupid idea that was sold on the false premise that we could negotiate a deal that let us keep most of the things we want without any of the things we don't want.
The "compromise" options which Labour has suggested have only ever appealed to Remainers, and even then they only appealed to Remainers because of fear of something worse. Soft Brexit has never been an acceptable solution to more than a small minority of Brexiteers, and even May's deal, which is about as hard a Brexit as we can get without No Deal, is not acceptable to most of them.
The problem, fundamentally, is that all of the compromise options are obviously bad. We end up being forced to follow EU rules but without a say in them. That's not what Brexiteers voted for, they voted to "take back control", end immigration and so on. So, they end up being nothing more than an inferior version of Remain, and are dismissed by most Brexiteers as such.
Still, for a long time, many Remainers were willing to compromise. But, the unwillingness of Brexiteers to compromise has resulted in Remainers deciding that it's not worth accepting a clearly inferior option if it's not going to actually get the support of Brexiteers anyway, and instead pushing for another referendum and an end to Brexit entirely.
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