OK, I’m not going to get dragged into this because I simply don’t have time, but I think I need to reply to that last point because on the face of it, yes, labour are offering a simple 2-part flowchart
1. get general election yes/no
2. if yes….campaign on “labour brexit”
3. if no….call for 2nd ref
There are many problems I have with this.
1. Every announcement of labour policy comes with words like “…to avoid damaging tory brexit” and it turns out that it means whatever the person you ask, wants it to mean
2. There is in my opinion / understanding no brexit which delivers benefits the people who labour claim to be representing, above being in the eu
3. I may have missed later announcements, but labour were extremely imprecise as to what would be the 2nd ref questions
4. every response to brexit is worded in a way to mean as much as possible to as many as possible while leaving as much as possible equivocation.
I think overall my main reason for disillusionment is the lack of clarity and leadership. No-one is coming out and saying what they really believe for fear of dropping in the polls (which are meaningless for now, while no election is on the horizon). In this they are being as dishonest as the tories.
The lib dems, greens and brexit party are 100% clear on their brexit views (brexit party don’t have any other position of course, but then all they want is brexit, so I guess that’s fair enough) and that is why people are going to them. Brexit in itself is not that important but since it is preventing literally everything other issue getting any attention it needs to be dealt with one way or another, and now…like right now. Leaving the EU will not help and will mean a huge amount of wasted effort in itself but if it’s going to happen anyway then let’s not waste a few MORE months / years where everything else is neglected and politicians’ positions radicalise as a result of having to adopt ever more extreme viewpoints.
I’m going to have to get back to work now but I hope I’ve shown why I can’t vote labour until something dramatically shifts.