by Kevin Meagher
On Thursday night, Nigel Farage’s Brexit party will comfortably win more votes than the Labour and Conservative parties put together. This is the price we will pay as a country – and a political system – for the failure to deliver on the public’s vote to leave the EU in June 2016.
The European elections will represent a second people’s vote and an undeniable rejection of Remainer politics. Surprise is the very last reaction that is warranted. Over the past three years, there has been scant interest from the Remain camp in listening or reflecting on why they lost the referendum, let alone an attempt at persuading and winning round voters who backed Brexit.
For nearly three years, their actions have been condescending, tone deaf, incompetent and foolish. They resemble British tourists in a Spanish hotel in the 1970s shouting louder at the waiter in order to be understood.
British politics has changed, but there are those who still cling to the old certainties. No amount of sophistry about messages on buses or Russian interference has had any effect. Voters are wise to the tactics of the political class. When they hear Remainer politicians talk of a second referendum they simply hear, ‘We’re giving you another chance to give us the right answer.’
Am I a Leaver? No, I’m a democrat. When you’ve lost, you’ve lost. Accept it, learn from it and come back stronger. I’m also a rejoiner. I want Britain’s long-term interest to be served by being part of the European Union. I simply recognise that the short-term position is now lost.
A second referendum, or ‘confirmatory ballot’ – the latest euphemism for a re-run – will return the same result, only this time, the EU will be killed off as a cause in British politics for good.
There has been no sea change in public opinion. Again, I refer you to the phenomenon of the Brexit party. The energy and sense of purpose is lopsided towards Leavers, galvanised by the whiff of betrayal that hangs in the air. ‘The best lack all conviction,’ as WB Yeats put it, ‘while the worst are full of passionate intensity.’
I’m not sure I would go as far as to split Brexit camps into ‘best’ and ‘worst.’ There are decent people across the is messy divide. But only one side won the referendum. Remainers who have consistently rejecting this basic, immutable fact have turbo-charged the Brexit party.
As many have already noted, Farage’s key message this time around is a complaint that that the first result is being ignored. It channels the sense of unfairness – of not playing by the rules – that so many voters instinctively recognise and bristle at. He doesn’t even need to mention immigration, or ‘taking back control.’ It’s enough to castigate the political class for welching on a deal.
Pro-Europeans need to accept defeat, fall back, regroup, assess what has happened, develop a better strategy and come back stronger. To become ‘rejioners.’ To secure the long term, we need to sacrifice the short term in order to prevail in the medium term.
The decade between 1962 and 1972 saw Britain twice rebuffed from joining the then Common Market before Ted Heath took us in. My prediction is that between 2016 and 2026, we will have voted to leave, left, voted to go back in again and, hopefully, put this issue to bed once and for all.
There isn’t really any alternative approach for pro-Europeans. The only way of binding the gaping wound in British politics is to come back to first principles. Leavers won the referendum and expect to see their decision enacted.
It is reckless and unwise to pretend otherwise.
Kevin Meagher is the associate editor of Uncut
Tags: Brexit, EU, European election, Kevin Meagher, Leave, Rejoiner, Remain
Well, it started off well.
So, let it all die down, the plebs will come around to our thinking, and we can all re-join an anti-democratic, corporatist, elitist organisation whose only ambition is to perpetuate its existence and increase its powers.
Come back, Tony Benn.
The EU anti-democrats, like Mr Meagher, have made a major miscalculation IMHO – they don’t realise that the fierce arguments that are taking place now will be a full in-your-face examination of democracy, and what democracy should entail, and the youth of today will be taking those arguments into the adult world of tomorrow.
I was amused in 1975 by the arm-waving rhetoric of Peter Shore and the quiet logic of Benn, Foot, and Castle, but I ignored them and voted to stay in a Common Market – Maastricht and Lisbon proved them correct on the issues and me wrong.
BTW – we are all “pro-Europeans”; just anti-EU.
Good post. It shows that not all Blairites are cultists and/or venal place-seekers.
While I don’t totally agree with the first part of your article Kevin I do agree with most of the second part. Yes I am a remainder, but, at the moment I think there is too much disruption to consider having a second vote at this time. However, I consider, that a no deal would be the worst position for our country to adopt – there is too much disruption and bad economic news going on at the moment to add to it. Boris Johnson as PM will certainly add to the problem, especially is Scotland where there is little love for him – certainly strengthening Nicola’s hand.
Teresa May is on the way out and it looks like Boris is on the way to becoming PM. This will be the second PM who has held this position without a general election. We have had the worst government in living memory. The best solution is a general election – hopefully putting Labour into power. Kier Starmer is most certainly the best person to lead the Brexit talks – at the moment – a compromise is the best position. Also, I like many of Labour policies- Rebecca Long Bailey is establishing herself as a sound business minister – investment is required.
Also, there is turbulence in the EU itself with the rise of far right parties, although they are not for a total brake but more reform – now this may make the EU a more favourable prospect in 10 years time.
Once again Kevin tries to add a bit of common sense to this website instead of the usual head-banging stuff we expect from Uncut. Well done Kevin.
The fact that Farage has managed to coral all the Leave voters into his latest foreign-backed vanity project is neither here nor there. We understand very well why Leave won (narrowly) in 2016, thanks very much. Some people genuinely thought that leaving the EU would improve their shit lives. (Guess what? I don’t agree.) Enough others wanted to give the finger to Cameron over austerity, or gay marriage or whatever the hell, to get leave over the line. As an exercise in democracy it left a lot to be desired; if a government had been elected on a platform of leaving the EU, then found a form of Brexit that could pass a parliamentary vote and be agreed with the EU, a confirmatory referendum would have been appropriate.
We all know that the referendum was only called so that the idiot Cameron could silence his Eurosceptic wing…nice work fella.
Having said that, I agree that all we can do now is leave and immediately start the campaign to rejoin. Should take about 10-15 years for the majority of the “Brexit Party” voters to die off. The antics of the Brexiters over the last 3 years have convinced me that this country needs an object lesson in its true place in the world. We are not born to rule and the rest of the world does not owe us a living.
I made a prediction 3 years ago on here that Brexit would bring down the leader of every political party in the UK.
Bye Cameron
Bye May
Bye Leanne Wood
Bye Karzia Dugdale
Bye Cable
and soon others will follow.
I also said we would leave with No Deal or something very very close to it. And I stand by that. Even Barnier is no longer talking about his and May’s deal – he’s now talking about ‘an orderly exit’.
And Lammy and Grieve were very interesting on Sky Nes this afternoon when they both said Parliament cannot actually stop No Deal. Article 50 is part of European law and is higher than Parliament.
You are so far behind events here, Kevin Meagher, you should try something else, politcal analysis is not for you.
The EU is in its death throes. There will not be an EU to rejoin.
Think about that. And wait until Monday (EU election results) and then think about it again.
Well said Anon, interesting that France voted in polls 51% to accept Maastrict in 92
Now those old enough to vote in 92?still on the French electoral register, are 60/40 anti Maastricht
And of all France polled its 53% anti Maastricht who’d be happy to go back to a common market
I predict Frexit by 2026
This article is based on a false premise; that Brexit is the majority choice. Given the results from Thursday and recent opinion polling, it appears that the majority of the public are pro-Remain. In addition, why should I as a member of the Remain majority (Rather a large one.) in my Remain voting nation of Scotland accept a hard Brexit because large numbers of English voters are going through some kind of collective nervous breakdown which leads them to some form of paranoid persecution complex?
Next biggie to watch is the Peterboro Parliamentary by-Election on June 6th. The bookies have installed Brexit Party as clear runaway favourites.
Peterboro is a swing constituency that switches between the Tories and Labour. In 2015 it was narrowly Tory, in 2017 it went narrowly Labour despite both parties significantly increasing their vote/. It voted Leave in 2016. In the local elections just gone the tories retained the council but lost overall control.
Peterboro Local Authority (which covers most of the Parliamentary constituency) European election returns are as below.
Brexit Party 16196
Labour Party 7272
Lib Dem 6491
Green 4563
Rest to small to bother with.
Another interesting stat for any geeks out there. Over here across Yorkshire, the Labour vote halved. Only one fifth went to Remain parties – four fifths went to Brexit. On those figure you are looking at labour big names such as Caroline Flint, Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh etc losing their seats by a long long way.
According to Electoral Calculus, if last night’s vote had been a GE, the result based on how each constituency voted, would be:
Conservative: 0 seats
Labour: 93 seats
Lib: 31 seats
Green: 1 seat
SNP: 56 seats
Plaid: 5 seats
Brexit: 446 seats
Perhaps on the same subject – I must protest with Labour’s position regarding Alistair Campbell being expelled from the Labour Party for voting Lib Dem. in the EU elections. There are thousands of Labour supporters who will have done the same because they believe this is the best way out of the deadlock over Brexit. I don’t agree with everything Alistair says but he is Labour through and through. Do Labour really want to win a General Election because this is no way to go about it – expelling good people – the people who have made this decision should really look at themselves and bye the way it is a pity that they were not as diligent in expelling those with anti semantic tendencies. Just when I thought our party was starting to look responsibly.
O dear this story surrounding Alistair Campbell is intensifying. Apparently an advisor of Corbyn’s called Andrew Fisher openly endorsed a revival candidate prior to an election – is still working for Corbyn while Alistair stated he had voted LD after the election because he believes in a second ref. – did he influence anyone? Labour, apparently now endorses a vote on the deal – after it’s poor performance in the EUs. Many Labour members voted LD because they want another ref – they may return to the Labour Party should there be a general election but not if they are going to be treated like Alistair. Seems like double standards to me – one rule for pals while another for people who may disagree.
Incidentally I am a member of the Labour Party and I did vote Labour, but I disagree with the way that Alistair has been treated – it is unacceptable – he believes in being in the EU which the majority of Labour members support. Corbyn is failing us on the issue. In my view we would be better placed with a new leader. Kier would be my choice.
Rocinante – I want to understand the rationale behind the thinking of Remainers.
You have had 3 years to convince me that I made a mistake in choosing an alternate future. One that I believe will be better for the UK.
The floor is yours – convince me…….
Anne – given his position ,Alastair Campbell should not be endorsing other parties. It’s a truly stupid move on his part but hardly surprising given his mouth and brain are not always on the same page.
He is a pathological liar that started the rot in politics with Blair and Many. Members should be grateful that they have gotten rid of a Judas.
On another note I find his efforts to gain sympathy for his alleged mental health issues and depression difficult to watch. He is a liar and I believe he is seeking sympathy from the public to clear his conscience. I won’t lose any sleep that he has been kicked out.
I am with you on this, Vern – I wish that remainers, like Rocinante, would make a logical case for a political EU ( I hope that I’m not breaking too many blog etiquette rules by advising readers to visit Richard North’s blog post today, ‘Brexit: the gift’)
I voted in 1975 to stay in what was a ‘common market’; I never foresaw that it was to become a political entity.
And if it is a political entity, why do the people have no say on its direction of travel – oh, we get to pick who gets on the gravy train, but which one of us has voted for any of the EU’s institutions?
Are we to believe that the large group we have sent over to the EU – UKIP or the Brexit Party – are representative of the UK as a whole? It just doesn’t hold together that the UK is giving the EU a mandate for anything – let alone there being an EU-wide mandate.
I keep on being told that we can’t have a trading relationship with the EU without having democratic accountability, but when the big decisions are made (Maastricht, Lisbon etc.) the people are totally excluded.
I just wish that people like Mr Meagher would at least tell us the truth – that as far as the EU is concerned, democracy is just not that important.
I remember Alastair Campbell cheering when. A dozen labour members revealed they were supporters of Ken Livingstone in 2000 and were exiled when he stood as a independent
Of course it goes on you just keep quiet about it
For the record I just told everyone I spoilt my ballot paper in 2000 and have voted labour 61 times over the last 32 years (every other chance I had
Brexit is to be delivered by 31 Oct. If it isn’t, the government will fall and we move into a general election (and remeber, the government remains the government in that period, but Parliament is suspended). Current Westminster Polling done in the last week or so by 5 different companies has Labour, Tory and Brexit Party all in the mid-20%’s
In other words, if Brexit doesn’t happen by 31 Oct, we will move to General Election, the Brexit Party will still exist and will take part and the effect will end up destroying both Labour and the Tories with neither able to form a government without all the other parties AND the Brexit Party.
in the north, Wales and the Midlands, the Labour Leave vote deserted in droves to the Brexit Party – far more than the Labour Remain vote to the Lib Dems.
The Labour Leave vote will not vote Labour if it opposes Brexit or tries to delay our exit beyond 31 Oct, or supports a second vote. get that ridiculous idea out of your head. And without that Labour Leave vote, you cannot win an election – you can’t even hold the seats you have now. So how do you intend to square that circle? Brexit vote in Wales was higher percentage-wise than in England. In Wales – that Labour Bastion that 10 years ago was over 50% Labour and now they are down to less than 30%.In the vote last week, of the 22 local authorities, 19 were Brexit Party and three were Plaid. So how will you square the circle that the Labour Leave vote – predominantly in Wales, the midlands and the north, will not vote Labour if it opposes Brexit? Round here where I live (Doncaster, Selby, York, Goole, Hull, Leeds) the Labour Leave vote is rock solid for Brexit and will not vote Labour if they become a Remain Party.
Watch the Peterboro by-election in a fortnight. It’s a key Tory-Labour. Current local polling suggests the Brexit Party will win it with double the vote of Labour and Tory combined.
Neither Tory nor Labour will want a General Election while the Brexit Party exists and we are still in the EU. It would be suicide for both of them – so that only leaves both Labour and Tory one choice, to leave on the 31 October, deal or not.
It’s not the split, it’s where the split is that is of strategic importance. Most of the Labour Leave vote is in marginally held Labour or Tory seats in the Midlands, the North and Wales. Labour cannot win an election – in fact it cannot even end up with the number of MPs it has now, unless it keeps that Labour Leave vote. This Leave vote is also more likely to change party than the Labour Remain vote.
The Labour Remain vote however is largely in metropolitan areas and in the South and London. Worse, it’s in seats that Labour holds buy a huge majority, or can’t win in a month of sundays. It’s also more loyal to Labour.
As a result, the key to winning an election for Labour isn’t the Remain vote, it’s the Leave vote.
Rocinante – The fact that Farage has managed to coral all the Leave voters
Complete and utter garbage. You are either a liar or a fool. The voters that voted Brexit Party support full-on WTO Hard Brexit. Any soft Brexiteers did not vote for Farage.
or gay marriage
Have you explained that to the Brexity Party’s Scotland MEP? Give it a go. By the way he’s gay and black to boot. Incidentally, the Brexit Party fielded a far more ethnically and religiously diverse selection of candidates, covering both the left and right of the political spectrum than virtually every other party standing.
Having said that, I agree that all we can do now is leave and immediately start the campaign to rejoin.
The most sensible position for Remainers.
Anne – This will be the second PM who has held this position without a general election
Notwithstanding that Prime Minister is an appointment and is not elected, and remains PM until they resign, die, or are sent to prison, Major did likewise, as did Brown, as did May, as did Callaghan, as did Churchill. In fact, in the last 200 years, more than half of the PMs we have hadinitially inherited the post as opposed to won an election. Several weren’t even MPs (not a requirement of the post). Prime Minister (and Cabinet_) belong to the Crown – not Parliament. You need to learn the difference between Executive (Government) and Legislature (Parliament).
John Munroe This article is based on a false premise; that Brexit is the majority choice. Given the results from Thursday and recent opinion polling, it appears that the majority of the public are pro-Remain.
Brexit Party + UKIP + Tory + DUP = 44.5%
ChUK, Green, Lib Dem, SNP + Plaid + NI (less DUP) = 41.4%
Labour 14.1%*
(*And if you split the rump Labour vote along the lines of how Labour voters voted in the referendum, you end up with it basically mirroring the 2016 referendum result.)
Brexit (Leave without a deal) 31.6%
UKIP (Leave without a deal) 3.3%
Labour (Leave with a deal) 14.1%
Conservative (Leave with a deal) 9.1%
Lib Dem (2nd vote) 20.3%
Green (Revoke) 12.1%
Others (mix of 2nd vote/revoke) 9.5%
Some interesting hard facts for you.
Only 1 person in 16 that voted in the 2016 referendum is open to changing their mind.
Only 1 person in 5 is still tribaly loyal to a particular party through thick and thin.
4.5 million Labour voters from 2017 voted Leave in 2016. Most of them live in the North, Wales and Midlands and will not vote Labour if it backs a second referendum ( last week, in parts of the north the Brexit vote was 4/5ths Labour) and will vote Leave again. On last weeks results, Flint, Cooper and Creagh to name but a few would have lost their seats by a long long way.
Busy day so far is Wednesday.
Momentum is seeking to destroy Tom Watson 9as they believe he is plotting with the likes of Starmer etc to remove or at they very least totally neutralize both Corbyn and his clique).
Labour Party Chair Ian Lavery turns on left wing intellectuals and in particular ‘peoples vote’ campaigners -https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/29/labour-chair-peoples-vote-backers-sneering-ordinary-people-ian-lavery
It’s going to be a long hot summer. Pass the popcorn.
@ Tafia V interesting post, thanks for putting it up.
What’s your opinion on the following idea:
An entirely new party that completely ignores London in a general election because London is totally lost to common sense, getting things done, and the issues that it finds important are simply not compatible/an issue anywhere else. As a result, no candidates for this new party are fielded within the London area.
It’s policies are based on this fact, that London politics is shaping the UK in an entirely different way to how we want to be governed. The new party is essentially a mix of Labour and Tory views. It is a working class party, with the emphasis being on ‘working’ and not the newly formed benefits/underclass. It’s core policies are:
Implement Brexit
Incentivise work at the lower end of the scale by massively raising the threshold at which income tax is paid to about 16/17k per annum.
Commit to renationalising core industries if it is possible to do so.
Abolish tax dodging by companies by making it illegal to hide/transfer profits to tax havens in Luxembourg and elsewhere. If this is not possible then simply tax multi nationals on a % of their turnover.
Split the corporation tax rules by distinguishing between these large multi national corporations and small local businesses.
Abolish the rule that allows foreign national companies/wealthy individuals to avoid paying tax when buying UK properties.
Ensure that all UK properties have a traceable owner.
UK properties owned by a foreign owner who are empty or do not have the owner living in them are taxed far higher annually (i.e. via council tax) rather than one UK owned.
Abolish all policing targets and replace with just one metric-the amount of police who are patrolling the streets.
Set harsher minimum sentences for violent crime e.g. Rape=8 years minimum per individual rape, carrying a knife as a known gang member=1 year minimum jail time, whilst also introducing programs for prisoners that means they help pay their way in prison by either confiscating and selling off their assets (trainers, tvs, phones etc) whilst also putting them to work.
Of course there are other core policies. The main point is that it is working class values, progressive taxation, it completely ignores the cesspool of London politics and it is not the Brexit party run by Nigel farage who can be a polarising figure.
What do you think? Or anyone else for that matter!
One of the very few Tories talking any sense about Brexit is Rory Stewart – for the countries sake they should be backing him for leader.
I also feel it is unacceptable that our PM is going to be chosen by about 100,000 people – mostly of these will be senior citizens- this can’t be right.
Anne – I also feel it is unacceptable that our PM is going to be chosen by about 100,000 people – mostly of these will be senior citizens- this can’t be right.
Your ignorance of the very basics of how this country is run never ceases to amuse me.
The Tory membership are picking their leader – not PM.
The Queen – after consultation, picks PM.
PM (and the entire Cabinet), are by appointment only. There isn’t even a requirement to be an MP.
You have never, ever in your entire voting life ever voted for a PM (or a Cabinet member)
Havering is in The commuter Belt of the East End of London, The Adjoining Borough Dagenham was the second most safe seat in the country in 1974 with A 14,.5% swing against Labour in 1979 and similar in 1983these two areas are the Ex Industrial parts of the Borough with Upminster and Hornnchurch in the Middle as the more Traditional working class areas, these days they would be called the middle class areas. Two of the biggest council estate built in England were two of the most sold off under Right To Buy in the 1980’s ,The demographics of people moving out of inner London Dagenham and Havering then saw them move out those boroughs to the coast. we consider ourselves more Essex than London.
The 2006 election we Knew we’d do bad due to National polices but we thought at least we’ll keep the few seats that we had, we didn’t even win them, The Conservatives targeting the area for the first time plus the BNP putting up it’s 1 candidate who came first by miles and Labour only winning1 plus 1 more seat south of the borough. Labour Gaining 16.5% of the vote in the Borough (in the neighboring Dagenham and Barking the BNP would gain 12 seats and more if they’d put up candidates and their demographics in the Borough was changing quicker than most areas.
In the 2014 after 8 years work the council elections on the same day as the EU election saw Labour get 17% of the vote an increase on before ,but only gaining 1 councilor as Ukip won comfortably 5 seat in Harold Hill, they would have won 6 had they put up the 6 candidates, The work done actually played well in south of the borough as Jon Cruddas the Labour MP for Dagenham who panicked that they would lose his seat in the 2010 election increased his majority by 3,000. It actually went down in the 2017 election even though the percentage went up with possibly many Ukip voters going to the Conservatives who now were the main threat, In 2018 Labour finally won back the seat in Harold hill with comfortable majorities of 150-200
The New Labour strategy first thought if by Neil Kinnocks Staff to continue under along New Labours time of targeting the middleclass as the workingclass have nowhere else to go worked well enough increasing the vote in 1992 and 1997, where it started
to fall by 2005 Still meant in 2004 Ken Livingstone could be re-elected Mayor and although he lost in 2008 and 2012 Labour’s vote in Havering in those 2 elections was 8,000 more, Than the times he won it. The 2010 election being the first general election of 3 where labour got more Middle class votes than Working Class ones, It fell apart by the Referendum.
the James O’Brien interview Of billy Bragg on Dagenham recenlty was Half right -yes he said A 3rd generation Indians moved to Ford
Dagenham-there was hostility to them not using toilet paper &putting cups from the kitchen in toilet to rinse their hands after wiping themselves unhygienic The reason the BNP failed in area was most ones white POC moved out others moved in
The strength of unions saw like the Transport for London, meaning they could ask more than their share of money from London as such surrounding areas became poor & they voted against labour The antisocial behaviour of those who didn’t benefit from labour saw youngsters going to areas near Dagenham commit antisocial behaviour ,they wanted their share-caused violent backlash
White flight or working class flight as it should be called also down to social housing meaning the WC are moved out by councils because they want to move new arrivals in, do you think they go to new areas like Burnley which are Working class communities also not white areas,crashing community is what happens The centre ground isn’t where the middle ground is, the popular opinion is its more left that the Lib-dems on tax , But well to right in the middle on small C, social measures, all made to do to it up, its no doubt, Working class communities crashing community .
But want to in the middle Ground in cultural issues to the liberals to the middle grounds in wanting Control immigration. You seem like a middle class guardian liberal who has no idea why the working class won’t vote labour anymore Why do they vote Brexit Moved our east end see immigration take waged their job culture innocent fitting in housing with White working class flight cleaning little Harold Hill, we’re entitled to see ourselves with in the 80’s as people who voted in who they thought would give us the cheapest gas bill and Saw us have the lowest rate mortgages
The expression of those leaving London for the shires, -Council homes sold and Workers in the City moving in as It’s less distance too commute, yet they’re now witnessing the Crime and the anger towards the Tories who started this, after safer neighbourhood teams split, ironically as Boris Johnson the mayor at the time loved the Havering borough, They call Clacton in Essex, little Harold Hill and little Barking to Colchester, There’s hundreds of people in Burnley who were moved from their homes in Dagenham
with EU citizens get 1st pref social housing as there’s not enough housing if councils use to rent private homes to give back to those on the social home waiting list, of young EU People can work so it suits councils to give them homes,& move pensioners out
As Paul Boateng said labour members from Rotherham, Sheffield, trying to incorporate multi culturalism, with savage economic cuts and no way of funding schemes that help integration are powerless, to not having communities forming their own religious groups, segregating as the poverty of austerity, There’s has been labour members supporting northern farmers in the countryside alliance, and northern members from Rotherham worried about the demographic changes that culturally see such changes over night, that it appears there’s appeasing of cultures that don’t hold socialist views of equality as the white working class
Im often asked why here I try to answer the questions Why did they vote brexit Due to a lot of people in neighbouring Boroughs like Dagenham having extra benefits as they’re in unions or minorities so get grants from the Mayor, Havering has always felt left out by standard, as such want less immigration and soverignity ex Londoners feel that it isn’t their home now an example of identity politics as the blue collar working class voted Brexit
Has this site died?
So many momentous happenings and nothing new since 23 May?
Anne, regarding Prime Ministers
If you add them up just since 1916 (the last 100years worth of PMs) :-
PMs taking office after a GE :-11
PMs taking office without a GE:-12
And in the next month or so, that 12 will become 13.
New people in area get themselves elected to councils and have a coup to insist on their preferred choice of Councillor
These Self appointed people who feel because they’re intellectuals in a area somehow feel they talk for communities who they decide share their values,yes they may have moved from a area with similar understanding,but what if they’re a metropolitan who decides to lead the poor to the promise land,without realising local community may follow strict Christian values on discipline in school, smacking kids or the police telling people not to misbehave rather than turning a blind eye
Corbyn was a councillor when he refused to back Margaret Hodges cuts for the voluntary childrens group on Islington council
The insistence that new groups run councils lead to the Rotherham abuse cover up
To thisday In the Labour party no one has ever done anything to condemn the fact their own council covered up the grooming gangs
but Would black and white youths want to reveal who is doing this crime
Yet People blame the heavy Police presence for no-one coming foward to reveal what they had seen going on
I’ve Noted the attention to build housing,If they have the state to back as many as possible new homes
The
idea being that’s there’s ways the private sector can meet the demand to get the homes but if there’s not then the couples who can’t get them won’t have kids and have a theoretically conservative view that the Free market liberal maniacs don’t want people to breed
So How can we justify not having the cuts when we need more spending to get the homes we need and them people are supposed we blame the cultural problems of demographic changes that aren’t to do with money, And the solution isn’t to throw money to AT it either, we need to control migration as it’s a way to Concentrate on population size communitarian in the area.
to run scheme for co-ops to build housing it’ll cost nothing
John Reid – how right you are.
When Labour were in power they sent their regional cabals into my city, injecting their Common Purpose poison into our democracy.
Our city – a laid back, easy-going, and green city – was immediately subject to regional and spatial plans that tore down our environment and imposed an increase in population.
The councillors who seized power were mostly from outside our city and long-standing, born and bred, councillors were eased out, and a city that had got along with each other – no matter which party was in power – became cynical and voting has now reached record lows.
We now have a two-tier city – a Labour-led council aristocracy and the rest who scrape by – and, despite building thousands of houses, the highest number of pavement sleepers I have seen in my lifetime.
How I wish for a George Orwell of today: he would eviscerate the two-faced hypocrites that have now seized hold of a party that I once regarded as my family.
I totally agree. Given the result of the Referendum*, Labour has no choice but helping making Brexit happen. More importantly, labour needs to help post-Brexit Britain develop in a way that respects the Labour values.
All talk of remain is a counterproductive waste of time. People who voted remain have lost and are now living in a “leave” country. Tough but that is Democracy. Live to fight another day.
Yes, we are going to lose many benefits of EU membership and it will be very important that the money saved is not spent on tax cuts and handouts to the rich sponsors of Brexit. A strong labour will be essential to maintain our quality of life.
Labour will need to monitor closely future trade deals. The UK will be the small country asking favours to China, the USA, India and the EU. UK assets are there for the taking.
A note about blaming the immigration on UK’s membership of the EU. The UK created jobs that sucked in immigrants. These needed housing, school, GPs, hospitals, police, etc. Did we provide that? No. Austerity and low taxes were more important to the government. The immigration “problem” was created by the Conservative government, not the EU.
*Yes I know that it was invalid, but the High Court cannot annul it. The parliament could, but no one is interested. They seems stuck in treating is a valid. Odd.
Jeremy Corbyn is in a tricky position, on one hand, he needs to play the numbers games, but at the same time, this current political climate provides him with an opportunity to be bold and brave and push wholeheartedly for a second referendum. If he promised that as well providing a fair chance to remainers he could topple the tories and especially the weak PM Boris.
But he has to take the chance, otherwise, he will not survive another term.
https://wtxnews.com/tag/jeremy-corbyn/