laughingboy
pfm Member
Creasy's central argument is right: Labour needs to have a position because, without opposition, any choices Johnson makes go unexamined.Oh Stella, I could drink a pint of you-
Labour cannot make people’s lives better until it dares to start talking about Brexit
Stella Creasy
But the article avoids the central thorny issue. It says, we need to defeat the impression that any criticism of Brexit is a covert call for another referendum. But the question is, how? It avoids the reality that the right wing press, right wing think tanks and 'Clean Brexit' MPs have very loud voices in Britain in 2022, and that they will shriek hysterically about 'trying to undo Brexit' when the Labour party makes any move to start talking about Brexit. Creasy, without realising it, is in exactly the same hole as Starmer. Because, Starmer has tried, very timidly, to talk about Brexit. Starmer's attempt to cut this Gordian knot has been 'Make Brexit Work'. This founders on the same rocks as Creasy: how? Unless it is abundantly clear what Labour is saying, both in terms of criticism of the current arrangements and in terms of what it is proposing, it is not going to work.
The first step Labour needs to make is to name Johnson's Brexit. Pin Johnson's Brexit down. Call it something that properly skewers some of its central faults, something like 'Johnson's divided nation Brexit'. And don't attach it exclusively to Johnson, in case he is ditched. Divided Nation Brexit. At every opportunity - cost of living, airport queues, lorry queues - Labour must point out the problems of this version of Brexit, and qualify every criticism of Brexit in the same way, so that it is clear that the objection is with the version of Brexit rather than Brexit itself. Divided Nation Brexit. And repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Divided Nation Brexit. You need to establish that the faults are massive and dangerous to the integrity of the UK. By contrast, you need a named alternative. So that, preferably at the same time as criticism, you can assert the type of Brexit you would like to see, let's call it a 'unifying Brexit'. We need to ditch this divided nation Brexit in favour of a unifying Brexit, the rhetoric should run.
The key to all of this is that Labour needs to address the question of 'How?' If it wants to talk of a unifying Brexit, Labour needs to decide whether it wants Customs Union and Single Market membership, and also whether the best route towards this is via EFTA or otherwise.