I’d really hope that the adults in the UK would realize that they had the best of both possible worlds with EU membership, an independent Pound and Bank of England, and not part of Schengen but still with a common travel area with Ireland, to reject the idiocy of leaving the European Union. I wonder what percentage of Leave voters are already deceased? This timing of the referendum was awful.
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Not necessarily; much of the increased scope was enthusiastically supported by, even driven by, the British at the time it happened. Over the past few years the British have been fairly pissed off about things they were previously enthusiastic for; there is no reason to assume that the attitudes of the past few years are now fixed for ever.
Lest we forget, we’re 9 1/2 weeks ago from local elections. This will play really well on the doorstep: fulfilling the democratic mandate (Brexit), and with a sane, coherent trading policy.
In south London we’re even targetting a borough that has been Conservative led for 40 year, since mid-Margaret Thatcher (i.e. Wandsworth).
Well, a somewhat saner police, and one that is somewhat closer to coherence. I think the stance adopted by Corbyn has a few have-cake-and-eat-it elements of its own.
And Wandsworth, remember, might prefer a saner and somewhat more brexit policy to an obviously insane, irrational one, but they won’t be wildly enthusiastic for it; they voted 75% to remain. Being offered two different versions of a brexit they don’t want on any terms won’t necessarily induce them to abandon rusted-on party loyalties.
This latest move might shift the general “mood music” perception of Corbyn-led Labour (no longer a lost cause in cloud-cuckoo-land, as compared with the shambles in Downing Street): but unless Wandsworth has changed radically since I lived there, the usual Tory themes in local government (=“We keep the council tax down”) are likely to be as powerful as ever. If anything, I’d expect the local demographics to have shifted even more in that direction.
Why? Whichever way it went, the losers would want another re-run.
Yes, we did.
That is correct. He needed to dangle a carrot for the folks who switched to UKIP at the height of its popularity. The polls had him and Ed Miliband running close for a while so I presume he did not want to gamble his own political future, so he gambled the country’s. However he, nor the mainstream media and political entity saw the outcome coming.
Given his mishandling of the Scottish independence referendum, we really should have seen it coming.
A 10% swing at the GE saw a new Battersea Labour MP, and the Tories held Putney by 1,500.
It won’t take much more than that given the level of happiness with the council - a lot of Tory abstentions this time.
Momentum are all over Battersea and Putney smelling blood - again.
May’s speech today indicates she’s doubling down on the no customs union thing and acknowledging there will be a border in Ireland. Nobody voted for this.
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When were those “multiple shots at an independence referendum”? There has been one independence referendum, and amusingly enough, during the campaign period, there were many politicians warning that Scotland’s only chance of remaining in the E.U. was to remain in the U.K.
(Well the whole EU mess is not really amusing, I suppose).
News tonight of a poll showing a 13% swing to Labour in inner London, and the possibility of their taking Westminster Council in May. We shall see, but it looks as though the Tories are likely to pay a high electoral price.
Michael Heseltine doesn’t have kind words for Theresa May:
Perhaps he’d like to star in the sequel of, “How to take down a Prime Minister.” Athough, taking down May doesn’t quite seem as impressive as Thatcher. However, most sequels are usually a weaker version of the original.
It’s unlikely to be as dramatic, not so much of a defenestration as an embarrassed farewell drink (cheapest white wine from Tesco and a bag of Cheesy Wotsits) for the temp who just wasn’t very good.
The swing is significant but there is also likely a ‘former Tory/abstention’ element which might actually make the difference. This is partly connected to Brexit and the effect of austerity policies on local authorities ability to function properly.
We shall see …
Well Labour’s own ideas are equally as airy-fairy with a vague wish and no concrete ideas as to how it can be achieved. As for the border, May said there definitely would be no hard border, the only organisation that would impose one would be the E.U.
I hear this a lot but it doesn’t chime with my own experience at all. Many people I know that voted leave did so in the full knowledge that it meant breaking all official ties with Europe and starting again. Certainly I voted remain because I understood that to be the case. Didn’t you vote the way you did knowing this?
And the flip side that is never discussed is that not having a referendum or voting to remain was equally a decision to take a course of action without a fully defined end-point. The Remain campaign did not clearly state what voting that way would entail but clearly it meant implicitly endorsing the direction of travel of the E.U. Very likely the rebate would go and the UK would be expected to to take a greater part in a Federal Europe. This was never explicitly said though I assumed it to be the case.
Everyone is a hypocrite in this. We have the request (normally from the Remain side) that because the full Brexit implications were not known, there should be another referendum to address this. This ignores the fact that this referendum is addressing the issue of the full implications of the 1975 referendum not being known. Did that vote to remain in the Common Market commit us to this end point? and that in turn exposes the hypocrisy of the Brexit side because if this is a referendum on the implications of the 1975 vote then a referendum on the implications of the 2016 vote can be seen as equally valid.
Putting it very bluntly and from a London pov, in 1975 we agreed to join an economic club. Between then and now - via Maastricht, Amsterdam, Lisbon et al - there has been no direct democratic consultation yet we now find, among much else, approaching 50% of the capital’s population was born abroad. I work with dozens; Nigerians, South Africans, Poles, Italians, etc, etc; lovely people but almost 50% born abroad, in a housing crisis, after a decade of ideologically driven austerity. FFS lets think about this.
The political class didn’t offer a pause, a brake, a consultation; the choice was as stark as possible; lump it or leave it.
It seems clear to me where the blame lays for this dogs dinner of a mess, and it’s not with the general population.
It lies with* all* political entities since 1975. This situation could have been averted.
Sure the current Tories get the blame for actually asking the question now but all those governments before this one saw the rising discontent and kicked the can down the road until it could no longer be ignored.
Yes, it’s a shame the politicians didn’t consult the people before ratifying Nigeria’s accession to the EU.