There's a good piece in the Financial Times by Miranda Green today asking whether Ed Davey's determination not to talk about Brexit or post-election deals with Labour is damaging the Liberal Democrats:
The psephologist Sir John Curtice has pored over last month’s results in battleground areas, combined with how people voted in the 2016 referendum and what they now think about it. He is unconvinced: "It’s not obvious what the benefits are at the moment to the Liberal Democrats of staying schtum on Brexit."
Curtice can track even Rejoiners heading to Labour, despite the main opposition party’s even more extreme caution on the topic. He warns that the Lib Dems, in contrast to Starmer, have little to show for their reticence.
And pressure is mounting on Davey as impatient activists, candidates and party grandees see public opinion turn against the decision to leave the EU. Selection hustings are peppered with critiques of "timidity".
It's not possible for the Lib Dems to fight the next election on a pledge to reverse Brexit. The European Union would have to be convinced there has been a fundamental change in public and political opinion in Britain before it would entertain the idea.
And the kamikaze campaign fought by Jo Swinson in 2019 was in nay case predicated upon absurdly optimistic opinion polling.
But we must be prepared to say at the next election that Brexit lies at the heart of many of the problems Britain faces. Until we can be honest about the causes of these problems, we won't be able to talk credibly about solving them.
4 comments:
Timidity seems to be de rigeur for all three main parties. There is a gaping hole in the centre of politics begging for someone with grit and vision to turn up. We have little to lose by being bold, so we should not only make it clear we are a pro-EU party which will work to restore our place in the union, but also party that doesn't invent enemies like unions, teachers, the French, lefty lawyers, civil servants, unions, single parents, farmers,trans people, north Londoners, the Scots, the Irish, environmentalists, etc.
We need to have a bold agenda, too, of genuine inter-connected policies based around the principles we stand for, not knee-jerk reactions to populist rhetoric.
There’s space for someone to advocate return to the single market/EEA surely? We should be arguing for EFTA membership
The key question is - Is it timidity or is it typical politician intransigence where 'I have made my decision and I'm never going to change it, discuss it or even (dread the thought) re-evaluate it based on changing circumstances'
Yes, I must say, this silence is beginning to annoy me. Allow me to make a comparison: I think I am right in saying that the Lib Dems are opposed to Capital Punishment. Let's suppose that there's a Referendum on the subject, and the public decide to reintroduce the Death Penalty. Would we stand idly by and decline to discuss the subject? Or would we start to campaign, once again, for something we believe in?
The European ideal, in all its various forms, has been in the Lib Dems' DNA since its inception, and in the old Liberal Party as well.
All I can hope is that the Leadership are waiting for the precise psychological moment for some sort of orgasmic release, like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle.
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