Quote of the day 10th December 2016

“Labour risks becoming the party of the 0% if we manage to upset both remainers and leavers by equivocating our position."

“There’s an urgent need for Labour to address some very fundamental questions now about what our party is for and who we represent."

(Labour MP Steve Reed, quoted in the Guardian here.)

Comments

Jim said…
Maybe they do upset those who voted leave as well as those who vote remain, then I guess they could target those who didn't vote.

Just don't tell them I said, and there good a chance Jeremy Corbyn will take that seriously.
8:34 am
Jim said…
though i think the Leave - Remain question has now been answered.

there are no Leavers and no Remianers any more, We are all Brits and we have voted to leave, in a democratic referendum. Does not matter which way you or I voted as individuals, the democratic mandate is to leave. That is exactly what we now need to concentrate on, and do so in such a way it does not cripple our nation or its economy.

The referendum is well and truely over, its just that the legacy media have not quite caught on to that idea yet.
8:44 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Many a true word is indeed spoken in jest - the Corbynistas really are targeting those who have not usually voted in the belief that they can change the electoral dynamics by persuading those people to turn out and vote for them.

It isn't absolutely impossible to do this - both the "Leave" campaign, and Donald J Trump, got some of their votes from people who had been previously been disengaged from the voting process and had not usually voted.

Another reason to avoid complacency about Mr Corbyn.

But for every election in which the strategy of going for non-voters has worked there have been ten when the party trying it has been marmalized by someone concentrating on putting forward policies which appeal to those who do usually vote.

And even candidates and campaigns which won partly by bringing out people who usually don't vote invariably also had a strong appeal to people who usually do.
2:10 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
On the referendum result and whether people realise the debate on whether we leave is over:

You get it.

I get it.

The overwhelming majority of MPs get it (which is why TM will get a bill to trigger article 50 through parliament if she loses in the Supreme Court.)

Most people get it.

The penny is even starting to drop for some in Brussels: Charles Goerens, the MEP who is proposing that citizens of former EU member states should have the option to pay to keep EU citizenship said this week that Wednesday's vote indicatd the prospect of Britain triggering article 50 was "very real indeed". (No **** Sherlock!)

There are two groups of people in Britain who don't get it.

As you rightly say a significant chunk of the media don't - the article by Matthew Parris in yesterday's Times, "You turn if you want, I'm still a Remainer" illustrates the point perfectly.

The pro-Europe wing of the SNP doesn't get it either - as they see it Scotland voted to remain so they will back Remain and claim a mandate for the Oxymoron of "Independence in Europe."

Needless to say none of the large minority of Scots who voted Leave see it that way, and a great many Scots who voted "No" and "Remain" take the Ruth Davidson line that they had wanted to keep both Unions but the one with the UK is more important.

Labour, meanwhile, are like a rabbit quivering in the headlights of an oncoming car, trying to work out what to do.
2:42 pm
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