In episode 93 Northern Ireland, missed opportunities by the DUP to negotiate a unique deal where Northern Ireland could have been a haven for international business looking to trade in both the UK and the European Union. I also take a look at the current state of play around the whole call for a general election and give my take on why Labour have got it right.
The Labour Party is a center-left political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasizes greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights.
I talk about To get his way at Labour conference, Jeremy Corbyn had to turn his showdown with Labour Remainers at his party's conference into a loyalty test. Afterwards, many Labour MPs who wanted an unambiguous pro-Remain stance were more pessimistic than ever about the party’s chances of winning an election, or even coming close.
Labour’s Remainers will fight on, saying that pressure to overturn the conference policy will only continue to build in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and shadow cabinet. They hope it will be tweaked when the election manifesto is eventually decided. But I suspect that now he’s cleared the conference hurdle, Corbyn’s “all things to all people” approach will prevail.
His allies claim that Remainers refuse to take Yes for an answer. Indeed, a year ago, they would have given their left arm for a cast iron pledge of a Final Say referendum with an option to Remain; now, Labour’s center of gravity has forced Corbyn to give up his anti-referendum position. But he has stuck stubbornly to keeping Leave in the frame so that Labour can “unite the country” – and, crucially, so it can appeal to the Leave voters Boris Johnson is eyeing in the North and Midlands
Yet for all the talk of appealing to as much of the electorate as possible, Labour is now saddled with a policy that many MPs believe will be unsaleable on the doorstep. However, I think it is possible to get it across on the doorstep but when it is taken into the arena of a television debate with Jeremy Corbyn selling it, it just doesn't seem to work.
While the Tories say they will deliver Brexit and the Lib Dems promise to halt it immediately, Labour is stuck in the muddled middle. MPs fear a repeat of the European Parliament elections in May, where Labour fell between the two stools of a polarized country and was roundly beaten into a poor third place. As one said: “We will go into a Brexit election saying ‘we’ll tell you what we think about Brexit when it’s over.’ It’s nonsense, and not credible.”
I also give a brief commentary on my take on some of the language used by MPs in last nights debate in the House of Commons.
As I have said before this podcast is starting to move more towards documentation of current happenings and with something as fluid as Brexit as the deadline approaches I'm quite happy to go with the flow, while also adding in some planned content, I hope you the listener enjoy the format and would welcome your comments. You can do this by using the Podcast Audio Comments facility or by linking with me on either Twitter, I am also available on Facebook or you can email me on
[email protected].
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