Labour are heading for an Exodus

Throughout the Labour Heartlands there is a sense of abandonment!

A clear victory for the Brexit Party on their single issue of leaving the EU yet, somehow the mainstream media along with all the other remain pundits are trying to make out this is a win for remain and the people’s vote.

This knee jerk reaction from the Labour Party very much seems to suggest Labour is moving from it’s fence-sitting splintered behind to that of backing a so-called people’s vote in all circumstances. The Labour Party look set to abandon the Labour Heartlands.

If the Labour Party do take the path of the ‘toxic so called People’s vote’ it will create a fallout that changes the political landscape, opening the doors to Farage who will ride in on his single policy issue of leaving the EU proclaiming himself the champion of democracy, worst still it may well be an undeniable title of truth.

By Labour supporting a second referendum in all circumstances and become unequivocally a remain party it would make the Scottish Labour exodus seem like supporters had just nipped out to the pub.

Not even William the conqueror and his harrying of the north would be as effective or the result so similar than that of the salted ground Labour would leave behind. By backing a remain stance it would be seen as nothing more than an abandonment of Labours old industrial traditional heartlands now left a rust bowl in economic decline.

A unequivocally remain Labour Party would create such an exodus of Labour supporters. A Party willing to tell their supporters and the people

“their vote did not matter, they voted the wrong way, do it again!”

People are now not only divided on opinion but they are emotionally entrenched in their opinion.

The working class could very well accept this from the Tories, they could almost even expect it from the Tories!
But from the Labour Party they could not tolerate the betrayal, emotionally it would rip what’s left of the loyalty out of the working class Labour supporters. The very people Labour was created to represent the people who feel so much left behind even irrelevant to a London centric Labour Party. Just like a line from Game of thrones “The north remembers”

The quislings opening the doors to the opposition.

This shift to a referendum in all circumstances looked like a very quick reaction by the Labour Party, most political watch dogs would say the writing was on the wall even before the first result for the EU elections were announced.

There was an overt campaign to staunch the Labour vote by the right wing of the party. The remain advocates Like Watson, Starmer, Thornberry ‘ET AL’ where announcing calls for a second referendum in the midst of the elections, undermining Labours tenuous balancing act and policy. A gaggle of MEP candidates under the unelectable Lord Andrew Adonis leadership declaring a vote for Labour was a vote for a second referendum while publicly announcing that Leave supporters should vote for Parties other than Labour.

We had Margret Hodge and Tony Blair promoting Labour remainers vote for the Lib Dems or unequivocally remain parties like the Greens or change UK.

You did not need a critical eye to have seen the messaging on main stream media from the Blairites openly cajoling voters away from the Labour Party towards what Tony Blair described has ‘unequivocally remain Parties’ while at the same time some front benches alienating leave supporters by their constant references to a second referendum.

The desired result was a Labour collapse in the EU elections and a open social media campaign called #CorbynMustGo that as been trending since the election calling for a leadership change.

A series of unfortunate events or a coordinated campaign?

We also had national newspaper editors tweeting that here in Chesterfield Labour Party members were actively supporting and campaigning for the Lib Dems in the EU elections. When questioned by the Local newspaper the Labour MP Toby Perkins called it “a storm in a teacup” Hardly a storm in a teacup if this was actively adopted by remain Labour Party members up and down the country. More like a concerted effort!

Labour members and supporters in Chesterfield allegedly delivered leaflets to help the Liberal Democrats ahead of the EU elections last week.

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins has described the claims as ‘a storm in a teacup’. LINK

This did nothing but shift Labour Leave supporters away from their own Party. If the desired effect was to maintain the remainers it also failed dramatically shown in the results of the election. However it was clear this was not an attempt to gain support from remainers but to push the remainers support into the voting booth to snuggle in with the duplicitous Lib Dems.

By using some very questionable stacking of political parties the claim is that these EU elections shown as a proxy referendum that more people voted for a remain stance. The pundits have done this by blatantly dismissing the first past the post process and inventing a losers process of questionable proportional representation.

The stacking of Lib Dems, Greens with Change UK into one block shows little more than a combined percentage. Not all that voted for these parties voted on any single issue or just to signal their intention of remaining in the EU.

It is more than presumptuous, in fact, it is very disingenuous to suggest that the Greens gained support for their remain stance rather than the Green parties ‘actual raison d’être’. Their basic, essential purpose in politics that of tackling the very real current climate crises their one true political reason to exist.

You know the very same climate issue we have seen demonstrated around the UK and Europe over the last 2 months. The one plastered on every media outlet in the EU and more than probably the explanation why Germany’s Green party doubled its share of the vote in Sunday’s European Parliamentary election, leaping into second place behind Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and above the centre-left Social Democrats.

LINK

So again to presume just because the Green Party advocate a remain stance ‘in general’ is no reason to say that all Greens voted Green to show their support to remain in the EU.

The Greens like all mainstream parties have a large contingent of leave supporters, The referendum in 2916 revealed that although the Greens had a 75% remain vote 25% voted to leave the EU. These Greens are known as ‘Green leaver’s’ a very active group who are opposed to the UK continued EU membership.

The metropolitan liberal elite of the Labour Party still living in cloud cuckoo land

Yet still, the ‘metropolitan liberal elite of the Labour Party have translated this to mean we must have a second referendum. In the current circumstances, this is a very dangerous position for the Labour party to take. They are actively risking losing the Labour Heartlands the very people who they claim to support.

The overwhelming vote to leave the EU came from these traditional Heartlands who felt left behind, disenfranchised. These Labour supporting leave voters would not tolerate their vote to be overturned by what is now becoming apparently clear a Labour Party that does not listen to their concerns or respect their vote.

Let’s make it very clear even if the majority of Party members support a second referendum in leave supporting areas this is not indicative of Party supporters. There is a clear divide between members and supporters.

An example would be my own constituency of Chesterfield which has a Labour membership of around 800, not by any stretch of the imagination are all 800 members remain supporters, even if there is a majority of members who would support a Labour policy to back remain and a second referendum in all circumstances it would not be reflective of the overwhelmingly leave supporting constituents residing in Chesterfield a overwelmingly leave leave the constituency. The reality would be that 800 Labour party members would open the doors to a Brexit party take over.

The CLP with a population of around 75k Electorate witnessed a referendum turnout of 71.9% (57,424) of which 60% 34,478 voted to leave the EU

It is a familiar story in Chesterfield with the EU elections where the Brexit Party took 9,783 votes, Lib Dems were in second place on 4,590, followed by Labour on 4,158, Greens on 2,500, Conservatives on 1,435, UKIP on 1,388, Change Uk on 811.

The people of Chesterfield are entrenched leave supporters, even though Chesterfield is a predominantly Labour constituency. Any shift by the Labour Party sponsored by the minimal Chesterfield Labour members of 800 or so would see the Party punished in any proceeding general election. Chesterfield was a Labour hold in 2017 with 26,266 Votes, a Labour majority of 9,605 

We could also look at our neighbouring constituencies like Bolsover or North Derbyshire, N.E Derbyshire, Mansfield or the 95% of Yorkshire constituencies that voted leave. But we all know some mathematical gymnast will work a formula to show they have all changed their minds and what they really voted for was greater EU integration.

The Labour party have obviously learnt no lessons from the Scottish exodus of recent years. It is understandable why the London centrist Labour Party would contest a remain position but the cost would be to jeopardise the traditional Labour constituencies outside the metropolitan cities. It seems the remain advocates within the Party are determined to break the Labour Party. 

The only way forward for the Labour Party is to create a vision of the UK outside the EU

In the main people want to see the Labour Party bring clear policy a campaign of transformation to the UK. People want a vision with a defining route that brings social change and allows people to meet their aspirations of a better fairer system, a vision of free education from cradle to grave a health care not only free at the point of use but one that runs in the interest of the people and by the state not an NHS that is seen as a feeding troth for profiteers a source of wealth from taxpayers coffers. The slow shift to privatisation must stop immediately with procurement rules changed. This can only happen with a Corbyn lead government Labour must revert back to its core values and reclaim the working class.

A 21st-century socialism

We all want to see regeneration with it the creation of an industrial strategy to build a modern infrastructure fit for the 21st century. The stagnation throughout the UK relying on its nineteenth-century rail and road has become not only a hindrance to mobility but a national embarrassment. The new green strategy promised can only work with a clear vision and massive state aid,. The sort of state aid that will not be allowed within the restrictions of the EU where it would be stopped at every event being seen as distorting competition. Again this can only happen with a Corbyn lead government.

We all know that nationalisation of Rail and utilities is a vote winner along with the end to Austerity that would see massive state aid being channelled into progressive restructuring and re-balancing of the economy but this cannot happen within the restriction the EU imposes upon its client states. Quoting Tony Benn this is the difference between nationalism and the right to self-government.

The 2017 manifesto was a Brexit manifesto one that was clear in Labours intentions to leave the EU that manifesto gave Labour its best result in decades. Labour should not fear leaving the EU it should fear the consequences of shifting its position to being a remain Party.

https://labour.org.uk/manifesto/negotiating-brexit/

Carpe diem “seize the day”

This is a moment in history that can result in a step change for society yet the advocates of the status quo seem to have the loudest voices demanding nothing change, that we remain within the restrictions of a neoliberal EU

The Labour Party cannot force a General Election never mind a Second referendum but by continual promoting a so called people’s vote it will haemorrhage support from the leave supporting Labour Heartlands and it’s traditional core supporters.

In 2017 Labour promised to deliver a jobs-first Brexit. It must not go back on that now

Steve Howell writes a very balanced article in the Guardian:

The 2017 manifesto’s unambiguous policy allowed us to win back leave voters who deserted us in 2015 and to reassure remainers of our intention to stay close to the EU and prevent the race to the bottom desired by hardline Brexiters.

It’s been argued that remain supporters “lending” us their votes was the main reason for Labour’s electoral advance in 2017, but there isn’t any conclusive evidence of this. On the contrary, the campaign’s private polling on Labour voter motivation found that Brexit was not a significant factor. And in a 2017 YouGov poll, Brexit did not even feature as a top 10 reason voters gave for supporting Labour. For most people, Brexit had been settled 12 months earlier and issues such as the NHS, tuition fees, housing and living standards were more pressing. Some tactical voting is always a feature of a first-past-the-post system, but the idea that Labour’s vote could go up from 9.3 million to 12.9 million primarily for that reason beggars belief.

All the evidence I’ve seen suggests that three major factors fuelled our 2017 advance: Labour attracted the votes of a large proportion of the 3.3 million who deserted Ukip; our success in increasing voter registration among young people by 51%; and an inspirational manifesto that was cited by 28% of Labour voters in one poll as being decisive for them.

The coalition we built in 2017 produced a roughly even increase in Labour’s share of the vote across England and Wales, but our chances of building on that to win outright in the next election are now in jeopardy. Moving from accepting the result of the referendum to campaigning for remain would be a huge gamble, putting at risk a once-in-a-generation chance to radically transform Britain. If we’re going to take that path, we need clarity from its advocates. READ MORE

Moving from accepting the result of the referendum to campaigning for Remain would put at risk a once-in-a-generation chance to radically transform Britain. Our 2017 manifesto was clear. The spin from new converts to ‘Remain and Reform’ isn’t.

-Steve Howell

The truth is remain and reform is a very good sound bite but when asked how this could be achieved you are more often than not met with a fresh dollop of pie in the sky or the sound of brushwood passing by.

That some are unable to even try to comprehend why so many in our heartlands, voted leave by large margins, without labelling them as bigots, is hugely problematic. The leave campaign was fronted by charlatans and those seeking to scapegoat migrants. But to pretend there were not deep structural issues inherent in the EU that prompted people to vote leave, is disingenuous at best.

Labour winning a General Election and forming a radical, redistributive government remains our number one goal. Dividing the nation, and the party, based on leave or remain and sneering at those who fell on the opposite side of a binary choice is not the way to deliver the future for the many we so desperately need.