Comment
Labour and Tory ‘centrists’ have again showcased their massive talent for unwitting self-mockery – and a large dose of the incompetence the red variety has shown in various anti-Corbyn coup attempts – by leading themselves down a second-referendum blind alley then performing an ungainly and slightly panicked u-turn.
And then throwing a huge tantrum, yelling “it’s not fair” and blaming it all on that naughty Jeremy.
A group of MPs from the ‘more of the same’ camp had hoped to twist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s arm to back a second referendum by putting forward an amendment to Theresa May’s latest clone of her dire Brexit deal – and had confidently proclaimed that ‘over a hundred’ Labour MPs would back a new referendum. But only 71 signed a letter of support for a so-called “people’s vote” (PV).
The amendment would have forced a vote in in the House of Commons on a new referendum.
Of course, most of the same MPs publicly declared they would not support Jeremy Corbyn’s amendment to, well, allow time for MPs to vote on whether they wanted a new referendum – so it’s safe to say the little ‘centrist’ group wasn’t too worried about consistent messaging.
But it seems the shortfall in support among Labour MPs was a wake-up call, as the intrepid band has now boldly announced that it will not, after all, be tabling its own ‘second referendum’ motion.
Because there’s little support for it.
Dad’s Army and Keystone Cops eat your heart out.
Of course, ‘centrists’ being ‘centrists’, there was no admission they had miscalculated; no conceding that their idea might need work; no recognition that they’ve demonstrated yet again the inability to organise a knees-up in a brewery.
Of course not. Instead – oh the shock and horror – it’s all Jeremy Corbyn’s fault.
Tory Sarah Wollaston said, “We could have the numbers if we had the unequivocal backing of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leadership.” Perhaps, but if my uncle was a woman she’d be my aunt.
Others in the group demanded that Jeremy Corbyn back their failed idea, as if Labour only has a duty to those who want to annul the 2016 result and not to all the people, leavers and remainers alike, insisting that Corbyn ‘must do the right thing‘ and give his ‘unequivocal backing‘ to a new referendum.
Wavertree MP Luciana Berger proclaimed that ‘Labour should be championing a People’s Vote‘ – a matter on which a majority of voters and, we now know, of MPs would disagree. In fact, even a pro-PV group was forced – by a leak – to admit that a new referendum would damage Labour electorally.
But of course, the demand for a PV has never really been about democracy – and it has most certainly never been about getting Labour into government, even among the notionally red members of the ‘more of the same’ group, even though being in the EU hasn’t prevented millions suffering under the last almost nine years of Tory government.
No, Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the Brexit issue has been consistently sound and consistently in line with his responsibilities to ‘the many’ – and his refusal to march to the self-absorbed, one-note and ultimately incompetent tune of the ‘gang of bore‘ is just another demonstration of it.
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What can you say, they’re embarassing
It’s taken a hell of a long time to arrive at the position that was obvious to any logical human being. It’s just a shame that so much anger and division was generated for political motives which served the few not the many.
GIGANTIC sigh , just pathetic , utterly pathetic , words fail ……… pathetically pathetic …….
The EU for you…
https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1088184788622761997
Appalling intervention by American client states. The Constituent Assembly is about as democratic as you can get, it just doesn’t give any faction preference over the people. Shows the EU for what it is supporting a coup and regime change again.
That Twitter link made for depressing reading. So many ‘likes’ for American imperialism.
Thank goodness for the first comment which follows underneath from ‘Winnfrith’.
I just wish leave and remain fanatics would just get behind the party on brexit. Leave types think the policy is too ‘remainy’ and remain types that it’s too ‘leavey’. To me it looks about 52% leave and 48% remain. So we should all be happy that democracy works.
Surely time for comments from RH and the little band of PV trolls ? Or are they just too depressed that Mandelson’s PV wrecking stunt is falling apart ?
Perhaps ow the party can now concentrate on the 100%! Time now to put all our efforts into a General Election! You can’t do anything without power!!
“now”
What general election? None has been called. The only campaigning I do at present is for local and district election in May of this year in my branch area.
Pay attention please , a snap General Election is now a real possibility. Even the PV supporting New Statesman now thinks so . May hasrunout of options to break the Parliamentary deadlock.
Maria, it’s all about the oil. Similarities to American influenced coups like on Chile many years ago spring to mind. And the Russians ain’t any different. Coal and kettle or whatever sayings you have spring to mind .
I realize that and I am pretty sure the tipping point was Venezuela’s decision to stop using US dollar for oil trade instead trading in a basket of currencies… that was a major reason Gaddafi had to be toppled/murdered, he was looking to form a gold backed pan African currency, they/our regime went on an destroyed the whole country and enabled human slavery to flourish.
Any country that has programmes to distribute wealth to benefit the masses and threatens US/western/allied banking, Oligarchy/Plutocracy complex will be under the ‘full spectrum’ kosh and if all else fails then direct or indirect military assault, even complete destruction, ensues. That’s what ‘promoting democracy and human rights’ really means when spewed out of the forked tongue mouths of most ‘democratic’ western leaders.
Any form of Socialism remains the greatest enemy of modern Capitalism and wealth and power accumulation in fewer and fewer hands.
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Poll-gate continued:
Putting aside the yougov poll – that yet AGAIN is out of kilter with the other polling results – in the eight polls conducted (at the time of writing) since the now infamous yougov poll putting Labour six points behind – FIVE of them have had Labour ahead – and THREE of them by three points – TWO of them have had the Tories ahead (by one and two points respectively), and one of them had them even. And they were all conducted within eleven days of the yougov poll that put Labour six points behind.
And just for your information, in the six months or so prior to the ‘infamous’ yougov poll, there were TWO occasions when a poll had Labour six points behind the Tories (excluding the PV poll), and one occasion in which Labour were SEVEN points behind (er, Yes, they were ALL yougov polls, in case you were wondering), and yet they passed us by with little comment from the media and Tory MPs et al. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that ALSO included QT, in the programs aired at the respective times the polls were published, although it might be worth enquiring, just for the record, that is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
And I wonder what’s happened to the yougov poll for the Times…… it should have been published a few days ago. Be interesting to see what they come up with!
I used to think that the “usual suspects” like Umunna et al. were just utterly out of touch, which clearly that have been from the start, but it is much, much more than that, they have bought into the idea that they are entitled to lead Labour and that supersedes any other concerns, including the will of the people, the good of the party or the good of the country.
They are toxic and self-serving hypocrites.
I’m a remainer…
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” the will of the people”
Now why is it that when I see that phrase, the bullshit indicator goes off and I see a peculiar little man with a toothbrush moustache and an arm pointing at space?
The opposition to a second referendum is getting louder and louder, as seen in Ian Lavery’s article below.
I wish the PV had been put to a House of Commons vote as the scale of its defeat would have FAR exceeded that of May’s Withdrawal Agreement.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/25/second-referendum-destroy-public-trust-politics-labour-brexit-vote
Just came across the following article on the Morning Star’s website. It’s food for thought (and that’s the only reason I’m posting a link to it):
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/its-time-smash-tories-stay-eu-and-deliver-corbyn-project
Manuel Cortes’ reference to the IPPR report on State Aid, published this January, is obviously of considerable interest. The report, “State Aid Rules and Brexit” revisits and expands on which aspects of the manifesto might be implemented under the exemptions to the all important clause 107. We’ve been there before, of course, but the report acknowledges this. Thanks, therefore, for an extremely useful link Allan.