Trying to put my muddy thoughts in order.
1. I voted Remain, and will do so again if the opportunity arises.
2. Theresa May claims that public opinion has not changed. Caroline Lucas claims otherwise.
3. Given how close the result was, it really doesn't have to change much.
4. I have been dismayed by the failure of the Labour Party to provide an effective lead on this.
5. The best explanation I read about this was an essay by Billy Bragg
- The relevent snippet...
Billy Bragg wrote:
"...the time is also drawing near for Labour to make the choice between leave and remain. For the past eighteen months, the party has sought to maintain a balancing act, fearful that, by becoming the party of remain, they would unite the fractious Tories and alienate those Labour supporters who voted leave.
I’ve supported this pragmatic approach, but, as March 29th approaches, the party must decide who it is going to alienate: its supporters who voted leave or those who voted remain? Sadly, in such divided times, it’s simply not conceivable that the party could retain the support of both camps. The outcome of the next election will hinge on this choice.
In 2016, I re-joined the Labour Party after 25 years following the election of Jeremy Corbyn. Having spent the previous four elections casting my vote against the Tories, I finally have someone whose policies allow me to vote for a Labour government. Key among these was the promise that party members would determine policy, not the leadership. That undertaking helped Corbyn to achieve a landslide victory and led to a massive increase in Labour Party membership.
As a party, we are painfully aware of what can happen when a leader decides to make policy with a small cabal of advisors, dismissing the views of party members in favour of focus groups and favourable headlines in the Murdoch papers. The election of Corbyn was a clear rejection of that style of leadership."
6. That rings true for me. To the bafflement and bemusement of many progressives, much of the strongest support for Brexit was in solidly working class areas.
7. Those progressives have done little to help their own cause by accusing those that voted Leave of being racists and xenophobes. Kind of forces people to say "Fuck you. You know nothing" rather than engaging. Give people room to move into or they will not move.
8. I've watched the months go by with increasing bemusement, and have come to realise that this is probably going to be remembered as a real watershed in British history, regardless of where we end up.
9. I have no clue where that will be. I know what I'd like to happen, but my preferred option (another referendum) is no more likely than any other. A request for an extension to article 50 now seems the most likely, but that's just kicking the can down the road.
10. The next few days are going to be interesting!
11. If there is another referendum, the same old bollocks that happened in 2016 will happen again. The same forces will line up against each other. UKIP, which after it's apotheosis became a shambolic nothing will reform, or some other party with the same reason for being will form. It's supporters will be branded "Racist" by vocal shallow progressives.
12. Nah. That'll do for now. I have a sink full of dishes to wash.
(edited for spelling and because I'd forgotten how to do links with words instead of big long URLs)
