So they think they'd better rush around Engendering Optimism! Take a look at these headlines, from the Graun:
(That last one from L'il Owen Jones, of course; and the one before was Polly.)
- Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on Brexit could yet pay off, even for remainers. Here’s why
- Boris Johnson is the last person young Brits would vote for
- Boris Johnson’s crew will repel voters – there’s no need to fear him
- Labour shouldn’t worry so much about the Lib Dems, they hurt the Tories more
The trouble is, it's like a kiddie holding a book upside down and saying "Look, I can read!"; or the large proportion of people who tell surveys that they are upper middle class. To claim it is to prove the opposite.
Looks like we're still watching the Denial phase. Anger could get messy. Bargaining will be fun!
ND
3 comments:
Libs are very chipper. They see the win as vindication of their strategy of electoral pacts. And of being a Remain at all costs party. Even civil war would be better than leaving the EU.
They have reason to be optimistic.
Though I would remind them that the circumstances of the by election were about as favourable to liberals as it would ever be possible to be.
The minority parties, green loon and welsh loon, were worth the difference to Remain. 1300 PC votes I 2015, that could not be expected to go the Tories. There aren’t many plaid seats . There aren t many green seats.
The liberals really need, and got, to some extent, labour votes.
But Boris has also pulled in some labour votes from leavers.
It was the Brexit Party that lost the Tories the seat. Plus selecting a candidate that had been recalled for fraud. And the unceasing Blonde man bad narrative of the media for the entire length of the by election campaign. The Tories wrote the seat off under May. And no one really campaigned to win it. The end of sad May and her soggy failure coincided with the voting. As did Corbyn being embroiled in yet another anti-semitism row.
All those factors helped the Lib Dem’s, to what was a decent, if unspectacular win.
I would not be too surprised to see the seat turn blue in a serious election with a strong candidate and a strong, optimistic, passionate message.
Saint Jo the II has made a bit of a blunder. Coming out for ultra Remain and never accepting anything less that unwavering loyalty to the EU, democracy believing liberals have a problem. Can they overturn a democratic vote, simply because they didn’t like it?
And what a powerful message that gives to the pro leave forces. A message Dominic Cummings is most assuredly shaping right now.
Like everyone else, I would suggest an electoral pact. Purely for leave. A pact of bxp and Boris that is formed specifically to enable a brexit to happen. Two bitter enemies coming together, just to get what they both designer done. As if they don’t, then brexit will probably lost for another long period.
The liberals will have trouble replicating the conditions of Brecon, in other places.
They have won a great battle. The war, though, is far from over.
I'm not seeing an electoral pact with the BP. Farage is an egotist, and playing Robin to Johnson's Batman isn't something he'll swallow without something pretty major to keep the limelight aimed Faragewards.
Brexiteer Jesus and vaudevillian villain to Remain, he wants to keep twirling his virtual moustache.
And vice versa.
The left have an issue with Johnson, having been fed fairytales how the Evil Witch Thatcher held the nation under some mysterious spell they can't comprehend how someone like Boris can be popular. They can't reconcile it with their perception of reality. It's a weakness, and one so ingrained that most aren't aware of it.
I also don't think being ultra-remain is a blunder, there has been a need for politics to temporarily pivot to leave/remain after the referendum, the Lib Dems have done this and are sweeping up the Remain votes. Labour went for a fence-based prostate examination and are getting crushed. The Tories went for a sort-of-leave, and are getting punished for the 'sort-of' bit as the BP hoovers up their disaffected leave voters as well as Labour leavers.
Johnson's Brexit or Bust is a smart move, as it makes the Tories pivot to ultra-leave - and any rebels must be dealt with mercilessly. Not just the whip, make it understood they're barred from the Lords and any business thinking of taking them on post-political life can expect to be blackballed from any government-sourced opportunities. Remove any and all garnishes, have their expenses rigourousally run through and ensure any discrepancies gets them flung under a bus. A full on Joe McCarthy job.
This is the Lib Dems opportunity to replace Labour, lets see if they're capable of doing so. They will never have a better opportunity, with Corbyn and Brexit, to make cosmopolitan Labour regions theirs.
And if Johnson plays right, the working class Labour regions are there for the Tories to take if they can show able to deal with the issues of those regions, many of which are the result of past Tory failings.
And speaking of those regions, I see Priti Patel is waffling again as is Labour.
Labour: "Not enough police!"
Johnson: "Okay, we'll get another 20000"
Labour: "Oh, er..., it's not just police numbers"*
Meanwhile Priti Patel wants criminals to be fearful. I've known police from several nations, and one thing they all pretty much agree on is that no criminal actually goes out expecting to be caught. Deterrence doesn't work to any great extent.
It's when they're caught we're failing. Prison has become either a training camp to learn new criminality, a den to develop exciting new addictions to feed on the outside and/or a place to hone your eSports skillz.
It's job is to keep dangers to the public off the streets and rehabilitate criminals so they can go straight. I'm confused how a few months of smoking spice whilst playing Red Dead Redemption achieves that.
Alas, we appear to have a new Home Sec who thinks accruing more powers is the trick.
*Diane Abbott and numbers. Uh oh.
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