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Sunday 24 March 2019

Labour Finally Committed to a Referendum?

Amid the political turmoil today, which includes entirely credible rumours that Theresa May is about to be forced from office, it is worth remembering the important pledge given by Tom Watson at the People's March yesterday:

To vote for a deal to go through provided it is put to a confirmatory referendum

That is a really big change that might get us out of this whole Brexit mess.

It is unclear whether Jeremy Corbyn supports this pledge.  To the surprise of some, he was in Morecambe Bay yesterday.  Jon Trickett apparently said this had something to do with the cockle picker tragedy.  I read a tweet from Aaron Bastani claiming it was do with purdah for the local elections, which of course has nothing to do with politicians, and seems an odd reason for turning down the opportunity to speak to a million people in a well publicised event. 

That means not just losing to the immediate audience but also the press attention.  Judging from the people I saw, there are plenty of people there with no very great sense of partisan allegiance, who could be persuaded to come to Labour if the right pitch were made.  The whole thing really showed that lots of people have a deep attachment to the European Union which they can't at present express through their vote for either of the two main parties.  

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