Truth be told I'd rather Labour lost this election. Fortunately that is the most likely outcome despite the surprisingly good campaign the Party has run. The polling firms that place the parties neck and neck (Survation and YouGov) use a higher weighting for the likelihood that young voters will actually get out and vote - so unless something remarkable happens I can't see anything other than a Tory majority (though under 30's break 70:30 in Labour's favour so there is still an outside chance).
Labour should not be backing Brexit - if they were to win this election and have to negotiate a deal to keep tariff-free access to the Single Market it would come at a hefty price, in keeping with the EU's oft-stated principle that the terms must necessarily be worse than remaining a member. That would go down like a lead balloon with the tabloids and the hard-Brexit brigade; throughout their time in office Labour would be dogged by the accusation they negotiated an overpriced deal and had sold the country short. They would spend all their time fighting a battle against those who will never be satisfied until we have left the Single Market. It would be Corbyn's equivalent of "Gordon Brown sold off all our gold!", whether justified or otherwise.
I would prefer that the architects of Brexit owned it and all of the repercussions that will flow from it. I hope Theresa May gets her majority and then has to deliver her imaginary trade deal. No excuses; nowhere left to hide. The economic downturn, the early signs of which we are now starting to see, must be laid squarely at the feet of those that wished for it. If Theresa May seriously believes that "no deal is better than a bad deal" then she should have spent her campaign explaining how subjecting 44% of our exports to the average WTO tariff of 4% will result in anything other than a fall in wages. To stay price-competitive that 4% will have to be absorbed somewhere and you can bet your bottom dollar it won't be coming out of the dividends paid to shareholders as no firm wants to damage it's own ability to raise capital. So it's going to come out of wages instead; on second thoughts don't bet that bottom dollar - you may be needing it. Or else May has some sort of productivity miracle up her sleeve - highly unlikely, unless it involves removing the environmental and workplace protections the EU has given us over the years. And forget the idea that in the space of the next two years that 44% of our exports can be replaced by exports to non-EU countries instead - anyone who believes that needs to take a protracted course of reality pills.
So we are going to suffer another crushing decade of stagnating wages and falling living standards, which will deserve to be hung around the neck of the Tories for a whole generation. Like the Poll Tax it will be another catastrophically-misjudged Tory disaster. Labour should have no part in it - give the Tories enough rope and let them hang themselves. It's just a pity that yet again it is the 'ordinary hard-working families' that will be paying the price.
Labour should not be backing Brexit - if they were to win this election and have to negotiate a deal to keep tariff-free access to the Single Market it would come at a hefty price, in keeping with the EU's oft-stated principle that the terms must necessarily be worse than remaining a member. That would go down like a lead balloon with the tabloids and the hard-Brexit brigade; throughout their time in office Labour would be dogged by the accusation they negotiated an overpriced deal and had sold the country short. They would spend all their time fighting a battle against those who will never be satisfied until we have left the Single Market. It would be Corbyn's equivalent of "Gordon Brown sold off all our gold!", whether justified or otherwise.
I would prefer that the architects of Brexit owned it and all of the repercussions that will flow from it. I hope Theresa May gets her majority and then has to deliver her imaginary trade deal. No excuses; nowhere left to hide. The economic downturn, the early signs of which we are now starting to see, must be laid squarely at the feet of those that wished for it. If Theresa May seriously believes that "no deal is better than a bad deal" then she should have spent her campaign explaining how subjecting 44% of our exports to the average WTO tariff of 4% will result in anything other than a fall in wages. To stay price-competitive that 4% will have to be absorbed somewhere and you can bet your bottom dollar it won't be coming out of the dividends paid to shareholders as no firm wants to damage it's own ability to raise capital. So it's going to come out of wages instead; on second thoughts don't bet that bottom dollar - you may be needing it. Or else May has some sort of productivity miracle up her sleeve - highly unlikely, unless it involves removing the environmental and workplace protections the EU has given us over the years. And forget the idea that in the space of the next two years that 44% of our exports can be replaced by exports to non-EU countries instead - anyone who believes that needs to take a protracted course of reality pills.
So we are going to suffer another crushing decade of stagnating wages and falling living standards, which will deserve to be hung around the neck of the Tories for a whole generation. Like the Poll Tax it will be another catastrophically-misjudged Tory disaster. Labour should have no part in it - give the Tories enough rope and let them hang themselves. It's just a pity that yet again it is the 'ordinary hard-working families' that will be paying the price.
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