I was told by my MP that Andy Burnham was a magician and that if we got rid of Keir Starmer, all would be well with Brexit. Turns out she was wrong and we have merely continued down the road of the Fabian Society / Logical Incrementalism. I was called up by Dubai TV to explain more last week and made a full film on my thoughts, as, inevitably a TV piece gets cut to a few soundbites. Let’s see the Burnham magic applied, not continuity Starmer.
That said, the Remain movement have not changed their spots. We have Jon Danzig proclaiming that we cannot contemplate Rejoin until we have aligned all the political parties in that vision. I cannot recall a time when that has ever happened, including on the vexed question of whether water is wet …
And Niall Ó Conghaile also subscribes to the “Catholic” view that we have not atoned suffciently for our Brexit sins yet. Of course, cakeism is a problem with the “Rule Britannia” outlook of some Rejoiners, but this does not mean we should not apply to Rejoin the EU as a priority.
Champion fence sitter, and friend of Lord David Frost, Prof Anand Menon is also saying that support for Rejoining drops away when you factor the Euro and Schengen into the picture. All such things are above his pay grade in so far that he is not at the negotiating table. The conversation to Rejoin will be a series of trade offs and NONE of us will be at the table. It’s both stupid and presumptuous to factor all the obstacles to progress in at the beginning. Academics can only tell you about things as they are and give some history lessons. They know nothing about the impact of leadership on the Overton Window. Our only job is to create the political momentum to apply to Rejoin as an urgent priority, NOT to imagine that we are at the negotiating table. No wonder Remain lost three times (two elections and a referendum). We are still gold plating the strategy that lost.
With people like this in our corner, who needs enemies? I wrote about the OD (Organisation Development) problems of Remain / Rejoin some years ago under Indonesia. I’m disappointed to report that this is a hardy perennial, needing radical treatment. I’m available for hire if the various big islands of Indonesia need some group therapy although somewhat doubtful that they will take me up on my offer.
Here’s the Dubai TV piece.
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