But if your only ambition is to ‘make Brexit work’, then you are tacitly accepting that Brexit is a ‘good’ idea that now only needs some improvements in its implementation ?
So the amount you can then blame reform ltd for is inherently limited
It’s yet another pathetic Brexit ‘failure of Politics’
Because, Labour for some reason, tie themselves to Brexit, and Donald Trump. Hence, unlike in other countries, where any links to Trump cause massive pain at the ballot box, in the UK, it does not.
Failed? To fail you have to try. Labour are too afraid of Trump and the UK rightwing press to even argue that Brexit and Trumpism are bad things. If they won’t do that they can’t use them as ammunition against Reform.
Labour needs to reverse WFA and benefit cuts widely hated by everyone. Focus on progressive policies that can bring tactical votes from LD/Greens. Labour needs a wide tactical voting anti-Reform coalition to win in 2029.
The point is, the WFA cut for the wealthiest and the two-child benefit limit are supported by most people. Many think ‘Labour is the benefits party’ & don’t vote for it.
That's probably what most Reform voters think but not Labour or "progressive" voters, especially as the WFA cut didn't just affect the wealthiest. Labour needs to decide which way it's facing
The WFA cut predominantly affected the wealthiest. And it was just £200. And Labour voters supported it. Time for “progressives” to address spending priorities and decide what they really want.
What I find depressing is why they need to.
A) the electorate should be aware enough that they know
B) the press should be free enough that they report those factual connections clear as day
Then Labour should be able to campaign on their own policies (as if), rather than attack lines
That’s one (condescending?) way of putting it. Isn’t it also notable that the working class vote is increasingly abandoning the LP and other left parties, and the progressive vote is now primarily university graduates?
It would only be condescending now if, in the period when working class voters voted predominantly for left parties and graduates were more frequently centre-right, you would have had no inclination to make exactly the same kind of comment, only the other way round.
People need to stop romanticizing the "working class voter". The working class voter is 50 years old, thinks the economy is the price of bread and milk, is racist and homophobic and is not educated about 90% of topics outside the scope of his job.
It's not that they need to, it's that they can't. This labour is pro brexit and pro cozying up to trump. It would be foolish of them to try and paint reform policy as being bad because of things they themselves are doing.
Are we sure that in some parts of the country that tying Reform to Brexit is actually a good idea?
Just because we all think (correctly!) that its a colossal waste of time is not shared by all and certainly in the areas where Labour should fear Reform
It was always going to be the case. From the moment Starmer made the PLP vote for Boris Johnson TCA. He should have abstained. He didn’t believe in it, at the time he had no idea Johnson wd implode anyway, he had zero to lose everything to gain.
Have they even tried the latter? It's hard to do this when you're not really making the argument either are bad.
I think the failure to treat the Trump post-inauguration moment as the huge shock it was, and thus reason for major changes/manifesto-junking will go down as a massive, massive mistake.
The political reality is that Labour needs some Brexit voters and has to deal with the evil orange. Anyone for whom Brexit and Trump are animating issues already knows what the deal is, people aren’t stupid
It’s a fair criticism. But legislation takes time to pass, after the financial crisis the country voted four times for the Tories and for Brexit. Give it time
The majority of their voters are left to center-left. Yet they govern as if those people barely exist and that their true base are Brexity center-right voters.
Because they are utterly frozen in fear of talking bad about Brexit and are up the business of sucking up to the bully Trump. They've tied themselves in a straightjacket. Things that should be their strengths are now huge weaknesses and they look incapable of finding their spine.
I'd be interested to know how many of those voting reform are still in favour of both and would therefore see reform as being tied to them as a good thing.
Labour backed themselves into a corner by imposing red lines on getting closer to the EU, and then trying to kiss Trump's ring and bow to him at every opportunity. They'd first have to backtrack on those two policies significantly if any criticism of Reform had any hope of sticking and resonating.
Comments
So the amount you can then blame reform ltd for is inherently limited
It’s yet another pathetic Brexit ‘failure of Politics’
In terms of joining a three way fight for those votes it kind of doesn’t
A) the electorate should be aware enough that they know
B) the press should be free enough that they report those factual connections clear as day
Then Labour should be able to campaign on their own policies (as if), rather than attack lines
Sort of nicely illustrates where we are as a country though
We want to finish the job with all #Labour MPs and a few Tories.
Please help us break Brexit via https://brexitrage.com/support/
Or send a letter with the book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rejoin-EU-Mr-Peter-Cook/dp/B0DSHBXLL1
Just because we all think (correctly!) that its a colossal waste of time is not shared by all and certainly in the areas where Labour should fear Reform
https://bsky.app/profile/tadaaa.bsky.social/post/3lo65ls7v5k2d
I think the failure to treat the Trump post-inauguration moment as the huge shock it was, and thus reason for major changes/manifesto-junking will go down as a massive, massive mistake.
The Starmer government governs as if its core voters are marginal Reform/Labour voters.
But thats a terrible strategy. You govern with your core voters in mind and compromise from there with more conservaitve marginal voters.
Their media strategy is horrible
I'd be interested to know how many of those voting reform are still in favour of both and would therefore see reform as being tied to them as a good thing.
there's nothing about their approach which gives anyone anything to vote *for*