Sunday, September 27, 2020
Davey missteps at the first opportunity
Nowadays, every new political leader feels obliged to find their own equivalent of Tony Blair's Clause Four moment, when he signalled a break from the party's past. The problem is that, whereas Blair genuinely believed that his party needed to make that change, others create an artificial break with the past, that neither reflects the current mood of their party nor the direction they should be travelling.
A good examnple of that is Ed Davey's rather hamfisted and ill-advised attempt to break with his own past as Jo Swinson's right-hand man by seeking to remove any commitment the Liberal Democrats might have to rejoining the EU. If that misrepresents his views, or even the position he is articulating, then I would suggest that is his fault for not communicating his intentions correctly. Nevertheless, it is the position most commentators have taken as his from the comments he has made.
The point is that, Davey may well be right, that the public do not want to hear the Lib Dems campaigning to rejoin the EU any time soon, but it is still the objective of much of the party and many of our dwindling band of voters, so it may have been more advisable to stay quiet, put the whole thing on the back burner and get on with campaigning on other Liberal Democrats priorities instead.
But no, Davey could not help himself and I, for one, am now even less motivated than I was, and even less impressed with his leadership. That he then falls into the trap of many leaders before him and seeks to rein in conference to do his bidding, just compounds the problem. He is heading for a fall, and it is not a good look.
A good examnple of that is Ed Davey's rather hamfisted and ill-advised attempt to break with his own past as Jo Swinson's right-hand man by seeking to remove any commitment the Liberal Democrats might have to rejoining the EU. If that misrepresents his views, or even the position he is articulating, then I would suggest that is his fault for not communicating his intentions correctly. Nevertheless, it is the position most commentators have taken as his from the comments he has made.
The point is that, Davey may well be right, that the public do not want to hear the Lib Dems campaigning to rejoin the EU any time soon, but it is still the objective of much of the party and many of our dwindling band of voters, so it may have been more advisable to stay quiet, put the whole thing on the back burner and get on with campaigning on other Liberal Democrats priorities instead.
But no, Davey could not help himself and I, for one, am now even less motivated than I was, and even less impressed with his leadership. That he then falls into the trap of many leaders before him and seeks to rein in conference to do his bidding, just compounds the problem. He is heading for a fall, and it is not a good look.
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The EU should still be on our agenda as a future re-entry.
Yes we have taken a battering over it cos,I believe, people did not really know the consequence of the Brexit vote(lorry parks, price increases,you name it).They had just heard too much of it with all the false barrage of info from the bias press (who are one of the gainers.ie more papers sold,more riches)' Ed goes around listening to people.OK but, alas people can be fickle,say one thing mean another.That is why it is possible that now they know more about Brexit they will want to rejoin. WE MUST NOT THROW THE EU AWAY
Yes we have taken a battering over it cos,I believe, people did not really know the consequence of the Brexit vote(lorry parks, price increases,you name it).They had just heard too much of it with all the false barrage of info from the bias press (who are one of the gainers.ie more papers sold,more riches)' Ed goes around listening to people.OK but, alas people can be fickle,say one thing mean another.That is why it is possible that now they know more about Brexit they will want to rejoin. WE MUST NOT THROW THE EU AWAY
Seeing I am now in a ranting emotional mood If Brexit turns out bad I can see Tories doing a U -turn creating all sorts of dissingenuousness (have I spelled it correctly!?)and getting the media,s help to rejoin. They will get the publicity not our battered party that knew what would happen in the 1st place. We must not abandon our stance on the EU.
Let us not forget the EEA. At present, there is not a lot of trust of the UK throughout its membership, but that may change. There may come a time when the British public would accept the standards of the EEA, free movement and all, while still objecting to the return of the Single European Act. After all, I do not recall mass protests when we helped to form EFTA in the 1960s.
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