Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
ISWYM, but I hope very much that he is NOT ignoring them...
I don't really have a horse in this race (I belong to a left-wing Party of a certain grassy hue), but ISTM that Starmer is really the only hope Labour has of ever getting into government. Whether he's up to scratch or not, I couldn't say.
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
There are local elections in England this May too (councils, mayors, ...)
But whilst Brexit is a sensible part of the discussion for the Scottish Parliament elections ('cause Brexit feeds in to the desire for independence, and a big SNP win would help that), it shouldn't really be an issue in local elections. Yes, I know people keep voting in local elections based on national issues, but with Brexit being so divisive, I'd say English Labour were better off focusing on local issues.
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
There are local elections in England this May too (councils, mayors, ...)
But whilst Brexit is a sensible part of the discussion for the Scottish Parliament elections ('cause Brexit feeds in to the desire for independence, and a big SNP win would help that), it shouldn't really be an issue in local elections. Yes, I know people keep voting in local elections based on national issues, but with Brexit being so divisive, I'd say English Labour were better off focusing on local issues.
Yes, but (alas) so few people seem to bother to turn out for local elections that Labour have a lot of hard...er...labour to do when it comes even to local issues - which, here in Kent, are not unlikely to be Brexit-related...
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
Sticking a massive Union Flag next to you whenever you speak may not go down that well in Scotland I suspect, at least not for Labour.
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
Sticking a massive Union Flag next to you whenever you speak may not go down that well in Scotland I suspect, at least not for Labour.
Yes, what is it with this bloody flag thing?
Plays straight into the hands of the racist xenophobes aka Bozzie and the Chumocrats...
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
Sticking a massive Union Flag next to you whenever you speak may not go down that well in Scotland I suspect, at least not for Labour.
In Scotland, Labour are largely out of the running regardless, currently with an election in a few weeks they're engaged in a leadership contest. But, they do present themselves as a Unionist party, so that's playing to their identity. When Labour get themselves a leader up here, they're unlikely to stand in front of a saltire (certainly not just a saltire, maybe have both union flag and saltire) because that sends a contradictory message.
Also, the government's decision to lock down very late was made under Corbyn's watch, not Starmer's, and once that decision had been made, the only possible strategy is containment.
Even if we accept that (and a functional Track and Trace system in conjunction with the initial lockdown could've changed things quite significantly),
That would require the UK actually to have a decent Track and Trace capacity in place, which in turn would require intervention some time in 2019, when it wasn't on anyone's radar.
there have now been three lockdowns and Labour has generally been wrong footed each time -- culminating in Kate Green continuing to brief that schools should remain open on the morning of the government's u-turn.
Lockdown 1 was on Corbyn's watch. Before Lockdown 2 Starmer had been calling for a 'circuit-breaker' before Johnson capitulated. Before Lockdown 3 Starmer was calling for restrictions to be tightened while Johnson was taunting him for wanting to cancel Christmas - before he did just that. I agree that the eventual Lockdown 3 u-turn was a cockup for Labour as well.
In general, ISTM Starmer has been ahead of Johnson but behind Sturgeon. So definitely 'could do better'. But all these arguments are tactical rather than strategic.
Does that mean he's ignoring the elections between now and the next general election? No thought of the Scottish Parliamentary election in May, the Scottish Council Elections next year, whenever the council elections are held in England?
There are local elections in England this May too (councils, mayors, ...)
But whilst Brexit is a sensible part of the discussion for the Scottish Parliament elections ('cause Brexit feeds in to the desire for independence, and a big SNP win would help that), it shouldn't really be an issue in local elections. Yes, I know people keep voting in local elections based on national issues, but with Brexit being so divisive, I'd say English Labour were better off focusing on local issues.
If the focus is on the local elections, then yes keeping quiet about Brexit makes sense. As you say, it's hard enough keeping the focus on local issues as it is without senior members of the party constantly banging on about national issues. And, yes I can see Brexit being the worst thing to mention for local elections - very divisive, and local elections have no influence on it at all. My first campaigning was for the 2017 local elections, a campaign that had just started when Theresa May called a general election (after triggering Article 50, which was so totally the wrong way round), we couldn't get a word in edgewise about bus routes and the state of the parks with all the talk of Brexit. Our local elections are next year, and there's a fair chance that things will be working up towards an independence referendum - though I hope the Scottish Parliament has the sense to let the local elections happen before that starts to be pushed in earnest for 2023 or 24 when there aren't other elections happening.
But, if the inaction on Brexit by Labour is to be able to talk local issues for English local elections then that's another example of hanging Scottish Labour out to dry for national elections here.
Also, the government's decision to lock down very late was made under Corbyn's watch, not Starmer's, and once that decision had been made, the only possible strategy is containment.
Even if we accept that (and a functional Track and Trace system in conjunction with the initial lockdown could've changed things quite significantly),
That would require the UK actually to have a decent Track and Trace capacity in place, which in turn would require intervention some time in 2019, when it wasn't on anyone's radar.
Or just to have designed it correctly the first time (aka Korea, Taiwan, Australia etc.) and bolstered the community based track and trace system rather than try and outsource one from scratch.
Before Lockdown 2 Starmer had been calling for a 'circuit-breaker' before Johnson capitulated.
He'd also been calling for schools to go back at a time when Whitty was stating that the UK was at the limits of opening up (which of course meant that if schools opened there was going have to be tightening elsewhere). Generally this government is light on detail, so if you ask a leading question without suggesting answers, you are going to end up with a mess as indeed you would by calling for Johnson to publish his exit strategy.
In general, ISTM Starmer has been ahead of Johnson but behind Sturgeon. So definitely 'could do better'. But all these arguments are tactical rather than strategic.
Yes, Sturgeon has been better - though a large amount of Scottish policy has still been dictated by Westminster, and as Doc Tor points out there are good examples elsewhere that should be used as the benchmark (including Australia).
Ardern is our benchmark here. Complete community elimination of the virus, without a vaccine.
I have pled on bended face, with tears streaming down my knees, for the Kiwis to at least lend us Ms Ardern for a time (or even half a time), but no...
Ardern is our benchmark here. Complete community elimination of the virus, without a vaccine.
Absolutely, but the point at which an Ardern-like solution was possible is the point at which Corbyn was leader of the opposition.
He knew he was leaving, and the press had already done its work in neutralising him. There's no reason to believe anything he said at the time would have been reported, let alone fairly.
The point at which an Ardern-like solution was possible was the point at which we had Johnson as a PM. We don't have to guess how that went, because that's the timeline we live in.
Ardern is our benchmark here. Complete community elimination of the virus, without a vaccine.
Absolutely, but the point at which an Ardern-like solution was possible is the point at which Corbyn was leader of the opposition.
He knew he was leaving, and the press had already done its work in neutralising him. There's no reason to believe anything he said at the time would have been reported, let alone fairly.
I'm not trying to bash Corbyn. I admitted above that if Corbyn *had* called for a NZ-style lockdown at the point where it would have had NZ-style results, I would have called him a loonie.
My point is just that it's unfair to blame Starmer for strategic choices that Labour did or didn't make before he was leader of the Opposition. By the time he was elected, the Ardern ship had sailed a long time ago.
It seems to this sympathetic Enlishman that for the moment nothing can save Scottish Labour.
Starmer, who has a good brain, appears to atempting a Biden strategy - lie low, and let your opponent destroy himself. Johnson's advisers, though, seem to be keeping him on a tight rein, which Trump's were unable to do for long. But I thought this thread was about Brexit?
Yes, it is, and one result of Brexit may be that, as its effects are something of an unknown quantity so far, Starmer and his party are waiting a while to see what transpires.
Whether that's sensible or not is, of course, open to question!
It seems to this sympathetic Enlishman that for the moment nothing can save Scottish Labour.
Heck, I'm a SLab member and I look at the two candidates, their policies and think: is this the best we can do? But the truth is we could have a genetically engineered gestalt of the best bits of Blair, Brown, Smith, and Keir-bloody-Hardie leading and SLab would still be as much use as nipples on a male mannequin. Their only distinguishing feature is on the constitutional question and they're on the wrong side of that. The subset of unionist scots who hate the tories enough to vote Labour is too damn small.
No country in the world has successfully pivoted from a containment strategy to a Zero Covid strategy - at least, not after cases get as out of hand as they were in April.
The examples given in the first article:
There are signs from other countries, such as Germany and Ireland, that people and politicians are shifting towards adopting zero-Covid as their preferred approach.
may be vastly more competent than the UK, but still experienced dramatic surges over Christmas, which is the opposite of a successful Zero Covid strategy.
No country in the world has successfully pivoted from a containment strategy to a Zero Covid strategy - at least, not after cases get as out of hand as they were in April.
And there are epidemiologists in those articles stating that it's practically possible from their standpoint (ironically you are actually going further than your hypothetical reaction to Corbyn here). If you mean that no country which has managed to put in place test-trace-isolate measures until now is likely to do so in the near future, then you'd probably be correct, but that's largely a question of political competence.
The examples given in the first article:
There are signs from other countries, such as Germany and Ireland, that people and politicians are shifting towards adopting zero-Covid as their preferred approach.
may be vastly more competent than the UK, but still experienced dramatic surges over Christmas, which is the opposite of a successful Zero Covid strategy.
I think at some point there's going to have to be a reckoning on how obsession with the hypothetical Swabian housewife eroded state capacity across the EU.
Thinking about Starmer's continuing reluctance to criticise Brexit, either the general principle of it or the particular version we've been landed with. Partly it's the inevitable consequence of the decision to vote for the TCA bill, despite the absurd lack of scrutiny. Any carping by Labour would immediately be met with "well you voted for it" from Johnson, and a shitstorm in the Tory media.
It may just be the correct course. Much as I would personally like to see a forensic dissection of the awfulness of Brexit from Starmer, I'm not sure it would persuade anyone to vote Labour who wasn't already going to do so. He'd be asking people to acknowledge that they fell for a con, then voted for the con man to be prime minister. That's a big psychological leap for anyone to make, and as with all railing against Brexit, it is using rational arguments against something that isn't rational. Maybe one or two europhiles might defect from the LibDems, but it would scupper Labour's chances of winning back swathes of its traditional (i.e. older white) supporters.
I do believe similar arguments apply to Covid, FWIW. Jeremiads against Johnson will not win the votes of the 40-45% of the electorate who seem to believe that he can do no wrong.
But how is he then going to persuade people that, under him, Labour can be a better party of government, if he's not going to say what a hideous mess the Tory party have made of everything?
That's a good question. At the moment, I doubt if Starmer can shift Tory voters. Whether this will change, who knows. Brexit has cast a pall of invulnerability over Boris, fuelled by strong feelings of victimhood and anger. Of course, nothing lasts forever, maybe some unforseen disaster will strike.
But how is he then going to persuade people that, under him, Labour can be a better party of government, if he's not going to say what a hideous mess the Tory party have made of everything?
I have no idea. I just hope he's cleverer than me and is a better politician. (Very likely to be the case.) He's obviously playing a long game.
He could go for the things that are not what we were told it would mean. Play up all the problems with fishing, transport etc. Demand that we re negotiate with the EU. He needs to be seen as doing something. Let the Tory press rip into him. Stand up to them as well. Call out their bias. He needs to be seen to be on the offensive
Demanding re-negotiation of the TCA would be like demanding that a cow jump over the Moon. The EU has no interest in re-negotiation - as far as they're concerned the TCA has been signed and must now be honoured.
There is a deluge of information out there about just how terrible the effects of Brexit are - including from some prominent brexiters. So anyone who wants to know what is going on doesn't need Keir Starmer to tell them.
Starmer has (rightly IMO) decided that Brexit is something that Labour can never win on, so he has to kill it stone dead as a political issue.
Reading Rafael Behr, the other day in the Guardian, and he recapitulated the idea, not original, that Brexit is based on grievance, and will ccontconti
Sorry, and will continue to be so, outside the EU. But then populism is based on grievance, hence endless streams of bitterness, anger, victimhood, revenge, etc. It ain't fair.
Demanding re-negotiation of the TCA would be like demanding that a cow jump over the Moon. The EU has no interest in re-negotiation - as far as they're concerned the TCA has been signed and must now be honoured.
There is a deluge of information out there about just how terrible the effects of Brexit are - including from some prominent brexiters. So anyone who wants to know what is going on doesn't need Keir Starmer to tell them.
Starmer has (rightly IMO) decided that Brexit is something that Labour can never win on, so he has to kill it stone dead as a political issue.
Yes I know the EU won’t re negotiate but Starmer needs to have some agency about him. Standing up to the Tory press would be a start. Countering their opinion. Saying things like “well the Mail would say that, they are just showing their bias”, could work
Sorry, there's nothing to be gained for Labour in picking at the Brexit scab. Johnson is desperate to keep the culture wars going and Brexit is his most reliable old warhorse. It needs to be taken out and shot. That's the best way for Starmer to demonstrate agency right now - move the fight onto ground of his choosing. (Sorry, horrible metaphor mash-up.)
If Brexit turns out to be as bad for the economy as early indications suggest, then a better attack line for Labour will be "x businesses failed and y jobs lost on the Tories' watch". No need to mention Brexit, and it will be easier to get across in 2 years or so when Covid is (hopefully) a distant memory and sounding increasingly lame as an excuse.
Much as I would personally like to see a forensic dissection of the awfulness of Brexit from Starmer, I'm not sure it would persuade anyone to vote Labour who wasn't already going to do so. He'd be asking people to acknowledge that they fell for a con, then voted for the con man to be prime minister. That's a big psychological leap for anyone to make, and as with all railing against Brexit, it is using rational arguments against something that isn't rational.
Sorry, there's nothing to be gained for Labour in picking at the Brexit scab. Johnson is desperate to keep the culture wars going and Brexit is his most reliable old warhorse. It needs to be taken out and shot. That's the best way for Starmer to demonstrate agency right now - move the fight onto ground of his choosing. (Sorry, horrible metaphor mash-up.)
If Brexit turns out to be as bad for the economy as early indications suggest, then a better attack line for Labour will be "x businesses failed and y jobs lost on the Tories' watch". No need to mention Brexit, and it will be easier to get across in 2 years or so when Covid is (hopefully) a distant memory and sounding increasingly lame as an excuse.
Much as I would personally like to see a forensic dissection of the awfulness of Brexit from Starmer, I'm not sure it would persuade anyone to vote Labour who wasn't already going to do so. He'd be asking people to acknowledge that they fell for a con, then voted for the con man to be prime minister. That's a big psychological leap for anyone to make, and as with all railing against Brexit, it is using rational arguments against something that isn't rational.
I think @Rocinante is expressing - rather more cogently than I - my feeling that Starmer does need to somehow take charge, as it were.
I do still wonder if maybe (as a good lawyer?) he's biding his time until he's got more evidence against Bozzie and the Chumocrats, and it may be that he will wait until the worst of the pandemic is over, but the true awfulness of Brexshit begins to bite.
I hope he will prove to be England's Biden against England's Trump, IYSWIM.
This year Labour need to plug the reductions in central government funding for councils and the impact it has had on budgets for the current and forthcoming years. This particularly needs pushing in places that elected a "Tories = Brexit" MP but still have a Labour council, as historically the north has always done worse in funding formulae.
Brexit is ripping us apart as a country, and destroying the part of the economy that the pandemic hasn't. It can't just be left along - government is more important than politics. This fantasy that politics is a sport that can go on independently of reality has to stop.
By way of explanation, anyone who thinks that Brexit can be set aside because of its political difficulties is playing into the hands of Brexiteers. They then get to keep their victory without watching it turn to shit in their hands.
Small but tedious matter that's bugging me is that before Christmas I could buy fruit & veg that would last about 2-3 weeks in a fridge- meaning I could go to the big supermarket (25 miles away) once every 3 weeks & top up with a few bits locally in between. Now I'm lucky if it's still edible after 10 days.
Small but tedious matter that's bugging me is that before Christmas I could buy fruit & veg that would last about 2-3 weeks in a fridge- meaning I could go to the big supermarket (25 miles away) once every 3 weeks & top up with a few bits locally in between. Now I'm lucky if it's still edible after 10 days.
Tedious, and a nuisance, indeed - but even worse for the poor growers, hauliers, and everyone else trying to cope with the Red Tape.
I foresee good English Fruit and Vegetables rotting in the fields, and on the trees, this year, because there will be no Horrid Brown Foreign People to harvest it...
Ms Sturgeon is definitely way ahead of Johnson, of course, as all can see...
Only in Scotland.
I have no doubt that Starmer would like the UK to be back in the EU. Would he dare to say this BEFORE a General Election or would he dare to take action on it if he won a General Election without it being in his manifesto ?
And now our new Brexit Supremo, as his first official act, has done his best to wreck relations with the EU by unilaterally 'temporarily suspending' checks on goods crossing to Northern Ireland, in breach of the Protocol agreed at the end of last year. Only a 'limited and technical' breach, I suppose, but still . . .
It's a sop to the DUP, and will help to keep right-wing Tories upset about the tax rises in the Budget on side, but was in really necessary to do it without any notice to the EU orthe Irish government, whie negotiations were continuing?
Comments
ISWYM, but I hope very much that he is NOT ignoring them...
I don't really have a horse in this race (I belong to a left-wing Party of a certain grassy hue), but ISTM that Starmer is really the only hope Labour has of ever getting into government. Whether he's up to scratch or not, I couldn't say.
There are local elections in England this May too (councils, mayors, ...)
But whilst Brexit is a sensible part of the discussion for the Scottish Parliament elections ('cause Brexit feeds in to the desire for independence, and a big SNP win would help that), it shouldn't really be an issue in local elections. Yes, I know people keep voting in local elections based on national issues, but with Brexit being so divisive, I'd say English Labour were better off focusing on local issues.
Yes, but (alas) so few people seem to bother to turn out for local elections that Labour have a lot of hard...er...labour to do when it comes even to local issues - which, here in Kent, are not unlikely to be Brexit-related...
Sticking a massive Union Flag next to you whenever you speak may not go down that well in Scotland I suspect, at least not for Labour.
Yes, what is it with this bloody flag thing?
Plays straight into the hands of the racist xenophobes aka Bozzie and the Chumocrats...
That would require the UK actually to have a decent Track and Trace capacity in place, which in turn would require intervention some time in 2019, when it wasn't on anyone's radar.
Lockdown 1 was on Corbyn's watch. Before Lockdown 2 Starmer had been calling for a 'circuit-breaker' before Johnson capitulated. Before Lockdown 3 Starmer was calling for restrictions to be tightened while Johnson was taunting him for wanting to cancel Christmas - before he did just that. I agree that the eventual Lockdown 3 u-turn was a cockup for Labour as well.
In general, ISTM Starmer has been ahead of Johnson but behind Sturgeon. So definitely 'could do better'. But all these arguments are tactical rather than strategic.
Calling for Johnson to publish his exit strategy asap =/= calling to unlock asap.
But, if the inaction on Brexit by Labour is to be able to talk local issues for English local elections then that's another example of hanging Scottish Labour out to dry for national elections here.
Indeed, which is why I wondered whether Starmer's inexperience might have something to do with it all.
Ms Sturgeon is definitely way ahead of Johnson, of course, as all can see...
Or just to have designed it correctly the first time (aka Korea, Taiwan, Australia etc.) and bolstered the community based track and trace system rather than try and outsource one from scratch.
He'd also been calling for schools to go back at a time when Whitty was stating that the UK was at the limits of opening up (which of course meant that if schools opened there was going have to be tightening elsewhere). Generally this government is light on detail, so if you ask a leading question without suggesting answers, you are going to end up with a mess as indeed you would by calling for Johnson to publish his exit strategy.
Yes, Sturgeon has been better - though a large amount of Scottish policy has still been dictated by Westminster, and as Doc Tor points out there are good examples elsewhere that should be used as the benchmark (including Australia).
I have pled on bended face, with tears streaming down my knees, for the Kiwis to at least lend us Ms Ardern for a time (or even half a time), but no...
Absolutely, but the point at which an Ardern-like solution was possible is the point at which Corbyn was leader of the opposition.
He knew he was leaving, and the press had already done its work in neutralising him. There's no reason to believe anything he said at the time would have been reported, let alone fairly.
The point at which an Ardern-like solution was possible was the point at which we had Johnson as a PM. We don't have to guess how that went, because that's the timeline we live in.
I'm not trying to bash Corbyn. I admitted above that if Corbyn *had* called for a NZ-style lockdown at the point where it would have had NZ-style results, I would have called him a loonie.
My point is just that it's unfair to blame Starmer for strategic choices that Labour did or didn't make before he was leader of the Opposition. By the time he was elected, the Ardern ship had sailed a long time ago.
Starmer, who has a good brain, appears to atempting a Biden strategy - lie low, and let your opponent destroy himself. Johnson's advisers, though, seem to be keeping him on a tight rein, which Trump's were unable to do for long. But I thought this thread was about Brexit?
Whether that's sensible or not is, of course, open to question!
Heck, I'm a SLab member and I look at the two candidates, their policies and think: is this the best we can do? But the truth is we could have a genetically engineered gestalt of the best bits of Blair, Brown, Smith, and Keir-bloody-Hardie leading and SLab would still be as much use as nipples on a male mannequin. Their only distinguishing feature is on the constitutional question and they're on the wrong side of that. The subset of unionist scots who hate the tories enough to vote Labour is too damn small.
That doesn't seem to be a particularly firm conclusion.
No country in the world has successfully pivoted from a containment strategy to a Zero Covid strategy - at least, not after cases get as out of hand as they were in April.
The examples given in the first article:
may be vastly more competent than the UK, but still experienced dramatic surges over Christmas, which is the opposite of a successful Zero Covid strategy.
And there are epidemiologists in those articles stating that it's practically possible from their standpoint (ironically you are actually going further than your hypothetical reaction to Corbyn here). If you mean that no country which has managed to put in place test-trace-isolate measures until now is likely to do so in the near future, then you'd probably be correct, but that's largely a question of political competence.
I think at some point there's going to have to be a reckoning on how obsession with the hypothetical Swabian housewife eroded state capacity across the EU.
It may just be the correct course. Much as I would personally like to see a forensic dissection of the awfulness of Brexit from Starmer, I'm not sure it would persuade anyone to vote Labour who wasn't already going to do so. He'd be asking people to acknowledge that they fell for a con, then voted for the con man to be prime minister. That's a big psychological leap for anyone to make, and as with all railing against Brexit, it is using rational arguments against something that isn't rational. Maybe one or two europhiles might defect from the LibDems, but it would scupper Labour's chances of winning back swathes of its traditional (i.e. older white) supporters.
I do believe similar arguments apply to Covid, FWIW. Jeremiads against Johnson will not win the votes of the 40-45% of the electorate who seem to believe that he can do no wrong.
What, like a pandemic?
Alas, I had the same thought, I'm afraid. Be careful what you wish for, as they say.
I thought Rocinante had covered that. But also, Boris is being touted by right wing media as the King of vaccinations.
I have no idea. I just hope he's cleverer than me and is a better politician. (Very likely to be the case.) He's obviously playing a long game.
There is a deluge of information out there about just how terrible the effects of Brexit are - including from some prominent brexiters. So anyone who wants to know what is going on doesn't need Keir Starmer to tell them.
Starmer has (rightly IMO) decided that Brexit is something that Labour can never win on, so he has to kill it stone dead as a political issue.
Yes I know the EU won’t re negotiate but Starmer needs to have some agency about him. Standing up to the Tory press would be a start. Countering their opinion. Saying things like “well the Mail would say that, they are just showing their bias”, could work
If Brexit turns out to be as bad for the economy as early indications suggest, then a better attack line for Labour will be "x businesses failed and y jobs lost on the Tories' watch". No need to mention Brexit, and it will be easier to get across in 2 years or so when Covid is (hopefully) a distant memory and sounding increasingly lame as an excuse.
Can't be done:
I think @Rocinante is expressing - rather more cogently than I - my feeling that Starmer does need to somehow take charge, as it were.
I do still wonder if maybe (as a good lawyer?) he's biding his time until he's got more evidence against Bozzie and the Chumocrats, and it may be that he will wait until the worst of the pandemic is over, but the true awfulness of Brexshit begins to bite.
I hope he will prove to be England's Biden against England's Trump, IYSWIM.
https://theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/01/brixham-fishers-take-brexit-hit
Any sign that this situation might ever improve? Unlikely, it seems...
By way of explanation, anyone who thinks that Brexit can be set aside because of its political difficulties is playing into the hands of Brexiteers. They then get to keep their victory without watching it turn to shit in their hands.
Tedious, and a nuisance, indeed - but even worse for the poor growers, hauliers, and everyone else trying to cope with the Red Tape.
I foresee good English Fruit and Vegetables rotting in the fields, and on the trees, this year, because there will be no Horrid Brown Foreign People to harvest it...
Only in Scotland.
I have no doubt that Starmer would like the UK to be back in the EU. Would he dare to say this BEFORE a General Election or would he dare to take action on it if he won a General Election without it being in his manifesto ?
It's a sop to the DUP, and will help to keep right-wing Tories upset about the tax rises in the Budget on side, but was in really necessary to do it without any notice to the EU orthe Irish government, whie negotiations were continuing?
Nothing predictable about this scenario at all.