I liked this sidebar from the Guardian at 1.30pm today:
If the sidebar had been just a little longer it would also have shown that the Institute of directors were also in favour of what Labour was saying.
I think we can safely assume that most governments in Europe would also welcome Labour's announcement.
In that case, whilst I tend to agree that the announcement does not go far enough, because problems in Ireland will remain, the reality is that this announcement gets a thumbs up from just about everybody barring the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative party, the DUP and, I presume, UKIP (as if that now matters), plus Kate Hooey and maybe Dennis Skinner.
On the balance of both probabilities and economic and political sanity that makes it a pretty good morning's work by Jeremy Corbyn.
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I’m pleased. Despite all the accusations to the contrary JC is managing to lead the party over a particularly treacherous bit of political terrain with skill and genuine fairness to the democratic process.
People firmly in the remain camp, particularly if they’re outside the Labour Party really don’t understand how perilous Labour’s position on Brexit is. Us urban southerners may have been generally pro-remain but there are huge numbers of formerly strongly labour supporting people who voted Brexit and it is not only politically unwise to discard them but it’s unjust to do so too.
I liked John Harris’ opinion piece today:
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/26/have-nots-denigration-brexit-trump
He’s someone who has made the effort to get about the country and see what people really think so I gave a lot of time for what he has to say.
Personally I’ve been on the fence about Brexit – been siding more for Brexit the more I’ve got into MMT (blame Bill Mitchell!) but I can see both sides quite clearly and there’s truth and good people on both sides.
I really hope Corbyn’s latest approach can start to bring some pragmatism and fairness to the Brexit process. Obviously as a Labour member I also hope it helps usher in a Labour government.
However, above all else I’m a patriot and I hope this can bring the country together behind a reasonable Brexit that can pave the way for a fairer deal and a brighter future for all Britons.
Great Article by John Harris
Poor old Giles Fraser was none to happy though.
Fraser is very short sighted.
The only way to deal with a free market EU is to be a member and fight from the inside to make it better.
I have given up on Giles Fraser
Hope springs eternal 😉
the full quote
Hope springs eternal in the human breast
Man never is, but always about, to be blessed.
I get why you think Labour have taken that approach Adam and I sort of sympathise but this ‘Customs Union’ stuff isn’t helpful as it is confused, TBF it isn’t just Labour as I am hearing the same from trade types but I wish they would talk to us…The people who do this stuff.
Customs Unions are only about tariffs, it is the internal market that gets you frictionless trade. The EU CU has been around since its start and is in the Treaty of Rome. Customs Unions made sense when tariffs were 15% but nowadays when the average is 2.7% less so A lot of the time it is hardly worth doing the paperwork on trade with Turkey but we do and the cost of that paperwork is more than they would be paying in duty (on export it involves applying for an ATR form which includes a declaration, a copy invoice and the important bit for this convon is a copy of the Customs entry proving free circulation…yes peeps a Customs Union does not mean no entries).
If you look up the WTO definition of a Customs Union it says that they set a common external tariff but look further they also have a proviso that you could have different rates and the difference in rates can be collected at the internal border so even then they aren’t really clear. It gets worse with the EU as the CET isn’t set by the ‘Customs Union’ that is set by the Common Commercial Policy which is another part of the Lisbon treaty.
If anyone thinks it will solve the NI/ROI border then they are wrong (unless I dreamed that I typed up hundreds of T2L forms in the 1980s). The only thing that gets you frictionless trade is the internal market.
I agree
The CU is a condition but not a sufficient condition for frictionless trade and a solution in Ireland
Labour’s ‘political opportunism’ – well spotted by the DUP. I wonder what made them think of that?
………………..but we still need to hear what Labour’s policy on any ‘controlled migration’ might be. This could be the soft vulnerable underbelly of Labour’s position. It needs to be covered.
One thing is for sure: the dogs of BREXIT are now to be unleashed!
The idea that the DUP can accuse anyone of ‘political opportunism’ is a strange one. Theirs wasn’t cheap though.
The DUP accusing anyone of “cheap opportunism”. Are they having a laugh?
I know.
But the DUP didn’t come cheap.
Or did they? I mean how much money for May to have her kingdom?
Definitely
Under
Priced
Perhaps?
It was basically a Vote Labour promo with the odd mention of the EU and Brexit. Detail was largely absent but there was a lot of woolly language and downright guff. Like the Tories, Labour, rather disappointingly, cannot or will not spell out that any Brexit carries costs. Talk of a jobs first Brexit is really just nonsense. Furthermore, talk about cherry picking which bits about the SM you like and want to keep, is unrealistic given the EU’s position. We simply cannot have our cake and eat it.
The electorate really does deserve to have a leading politician spell out in very clear terms what are the options facing us. Alas Corbyn missed a golden opportunity to do just that.
On the positive side, at least Corbyn moved Labour to a slightly more sensible position about a CU. So they are offering a slightly softer brexit than the Tories. It’s still Brexit even after a transition phase, it’s still no to the SM (access is meaningless), it’s still no to a 2nd referendum.
Remainers should only be mildly encouraged.
I strongly suspect the EU would take staying in the CU as a viable negotiating position that at last makes sense
Some Scottish commentators are unimpressed:
Scottish Greens MSP, Ross Greer – https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12398/fantasy-msp-blasts-corbyns-big-brexit-speech-labour-leader-ignores-scotland
Dr Kirsty Hughes, Director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations – https://www.scer.scot/database/ident-5236 (also in The National)
I am aware…Common Space covered it well
So Corbyn wants to end free movement of honest workers from the EU, despite polling showing no desire for this as around 1/3 of leavers would be content to retain free movement.
He wants to ensure workers’ rights are protected.
The only way to square this is that he is a xenophobic bounder.
With respect, I am not sure how that comment makes sense
But of course once Corbyn is potentially told by the EU that this scheme doesn’t wash we have a ‘Jobs First Brexit’ – which as long as Labour keeps to it, is no Brexit at all…
I wish I knew what it meant….
[…] might have made an astute political move yesterday. He got the crowd behind him. He even got George Osborne behind him. But let’s be clear what he […]
We should also tackle the unashamed re-writing of history with the claims that staying in either the customs union or single market would be some kind of betrayal of voters.
Has everyone forgotten the leaders of vote Leave, including Farage, saying before the referendum that no one was suggesting that we were going to leave the single market? The next day it was all change, they had the vote and then they started re-writing what they said they had asked for.
The Economist just published a study which says that a majority of voters want a soft Brexit, I’m not claiming that is definitive, but it certainly undermines the claims of the hard Brexiteers that the voters must want a hard Brexit…
This was what they said
And they have denied it ever since