As an ardent Remainer and now Rejoiner, I think that among the many grievous errors made by the Remain campaign its failure to highlight the lack of an agreed plan for leaving was one of the most serious. Leave voters were effectively voting to jump out of the EU plane not knowing if they were equipped with a parachute or millstone.
That the Referendum Act made no provision for how or by whom the shape of Brexit would be decided was another huge failure. Pro EU lawyers in Parliament bear a particularly heavy responsibility for this lacuna. Were it not for Gina Miller parliament would have effectively made itself redundant in the whole process.
The Remain campaign was utterly dreadful and on performance they deserved to be completely buried. Alan Johnson and Will Straw were pisspoor throughout. Even its name was hopeless - recalling a brain disease of cattle. Cameron and Corbyn kept undermining it (particularly Corbyn and his tankie mates) . All they could come up with in favour of Remaining was a highly-challengeable (although correct) marginal economic prediction. Nothing on heart, hope and history which in the end people vote on more. And yes, failing to highlight the lack of a plan was a pretty fundamental error.
Yet they weren’t “completely buried” were they and Leave hardly did a lot better.
In fact when you look at the electorate overall (which is what an advisory referendum should surely require) Leave overwhelmingly failed to make out its case to change the status quo with just under ⅔ of the electorate being unconvinced.
That their failure was allowed to be treated as a binding win is one of the worst democratic failures of our age.
I was living in Canada at the time of the 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord, a draft constitutional document with significant details still to be agreed. The victorious No campaign emphasised the provisional nature of the document, claiming that the electorate was being asked to "sign a blank cheque." Remain should have done the same. Gove, May Johnson & co added the 00s to the cheque later...
My apologies for bringing this up, but weren't you in the Liberal Leave camp yourself? I am fairly sure I followed you on the other place back in the day, not because I agreed with that position but because you always seemed sensible; and sensible voices opposed to one's own position are a good thing.
Anyway, I think many good Leavers failed to appreciate the extent to which their movement was playing into Putin's hand, which may well have been if not orchestrating it, certainly influencing it from off-stage East. Their purist Leave vision has failed because the EU did not oblige by collapsing itself.
As an ardent Remainer and now Rejoiner, I think that among the many grievous errors made by the Remain campaign its failure to highlight the lack of an agreed plan for leaving was one of the most serious. Leave voters were effectively voting to jump out of the EU plane not knowing if they were equipped with a parachute or millstone.
That the Referendum Act made no provision for how or by whom the shape of Brexit would be decided was another huge failure. Pro EU lawyers in Parliament bear a particularly heavy responsibility for this lacuna. Were it not for Gina Miller parliament would have effectively made itself redundant in the whole process.
The Remain campaign was utterly dreadful and on performance they deserved to be completely buried. Alan Johnson and Will Straw were pisspoor throughout. Even its name was hopeless - recalling a brain disease of cattle. Cameron and Corbyn kept undermining it (particularly Corbyn and his tankie mates) . All they could come up with in favour of Remaining was a highly-challengeable (although correct) marginal economic prediction. Nothing on heart, hope and history which in the end people vote on more. And yes, failing to highlight the lack of a plan was a pretty fundamental error.
Yet they weren’t “completely buried” were they and Leave hardly did a lot better.
In fact when you look at the electorate overall (which is what an advisory referendum should surely require) Leave overwhelmingly failed to make out its case to change the status quo with just under ⅔ of the electorate being unconvinced.
That their failure was allowed to be treated as a binding win is one of the worst democratic failures of our age.
It was a millstone, evidently 😉
I was living in Canada at the time of the 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord, a draft constitutional document with significant details still to be agreed. The victorious No campaign emphasised the provisional nature of the document, claiming that the electorate was being asked to "sign a blank cheque." Remain should have done the same. Gove, May Johnson & co added the 00s to the cheque later...
My apologies for bringing this up, but weren't you in the Liberal Leave camp yourself? I am fairly sure I followed you on the other place back in the day, not because I agreed with that position but because you always seemed sensible; and sensible voices opposed to one's own position are a good thing.
Anyway, I think many good Leavers failed to appreciate the extent to which their movement was playing into Putin's hand, which may well have been if not orchestrating it, certainly influencing it from off-stage East. Their purist Leave vision has failed because the EU did not oblige by collapsing itself.
To my eternal regret, yes I was. It's now been 7 years since I recanted.
You have done your time in Brexit Purgatory 🔥