Corbyn endorses 2nd Brexit vote

I can totally understand both why Jeremy Corbyn was reluctant to agree to this, and why he eventually agreed. I have mixed feelings about it.

U.K. opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn has bowed to pressure from his members of parliament and agreed to support a new Brexit referendum.

Corbyn is a lifelong opponent of Britain’s EU membership and has until now resisted attempts to get him to back a fresh vote on leaving the European Union -- even though it is the policy the party agreed to last year. But nine lawmakers quit Labour last week in protest at his leadership, and there were reports that others might go unless he changed course.
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In just over a month, the U.K. is meant to be departing the union it’s belonged to for 40 years but the outlook has never looked more uncertain. May’s hands are increasingly tied by an unpopular divorce deal she sealed with the EU but that Parliament has rejected by a landslide. Brexit has proved to be such a divisive issue that both mainstream parties have suffered defections, businesses are panicking and voters are confused and exasperated.

Corbyn resisted endorsing a 2nd Brexit vote, despite enormous pressure from the political establishment, until:

1) the Tories proved themselves incapable of delivering what they promised
2) Labour suffered from centrists (who never supported Corbyn anyway) defecting to an independent party
3) U.K. voters began to change their minds

brexit.png

January marked the 18th straight month that a majority of British people, when asked by YouGov, responded that the 2016 vote to leave the European Union was "wrong." There is now a nine-point majority (i.e. 54-45, without "don't know") who believe the vote to leave the European Union was a mistake. It's the biggest majority against Brexit since the poll was instigated.

From all appearances, Jeremy Corbyn's hand was forced on this. I wouldn't be surprised if he expected this exact scenario.
It'll be interesting to see what this does to the polls. My guess is that it will be a net positive for Labour.

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Shahryar's picture

that doesn't seem democratic.

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@Shahryar
Corbyn couldn't be seen as ignoring the will of the people.
He never much liked the EU anyway (he voted against it back in the 70's).

At the same time, he couldn't allow his party to fall apart.
And it was obvious that the public's opinion was changing (the Brexit vote had a slim margin to begin with).

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@gjohnsit There's a series in the NY Times and the UK kids are having as bad a time as ours. The EU may suck but it offers a way out for the young to maybe a better life from austerity Britain. Seems they're a big part of the Corbyn supporters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/world/europe/britain-austerity-social...

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@gjohnsit I feel a decision so monumental should never have been done on a simple majority, the threshold should have been set higher. The Tories, like Republicans lied and cheated.

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It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan

@Shahryar

We voted over and over. People want it.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@Shahryar
However, the reality has been that actually executing the Brexit has turned out to be much more difficult than many people realized it would be. They voted based on what they judged to be the best information they had at the time. Would you want to be held inflexibly to any and every decision you ever made, regardless of any new information that might arise in the process?

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Shahryar
I wonder if Round 2 is going to cause as many problems as Round 1 did. Especially since they will just aggravate the people who voted for Brexit in the first place.

But you have to give the Brits credit for not trying to overturn the election results by saying all their problems were caused by 13 RUSSIAN!!! telemarketers.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

ZimInSeattle's picture

though given time to think about the economic consequences, the people would have voted remain, as I believe they will do now. The economic integration between UK and EU is way too deep to abandon it now. Far too many unforeseen consequences. At least the UK has their own currency.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

SnappleBC's picture

@ZimInSeattle

If we cannot defeat globalism then how, exactly, are we ever going to actually do anything sensible? It is the global ruling elite who are driving war, poverty, climate change, etc. etc. I saw (and see) #Brexit as a good first step. I'd like to see NATO and the UN dissolved too. Until we find some way to control the excesses of a global hierarchy then I see no alternative but to keep the pieces of the pie smaller and more manageable.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

dance you monster's picture

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@dance you monster
The worst case scenario: The second vote is to remain. Eastern European workers are allowed back in, wages go back to their decline, racism elevates, and Jeremy Corbyn gets the blame. After the next election England goes fascist.
The best case scenario: The EU makes it publicly clear to PM Corbyn that Britain will not be allowed back, so a revote is declared moot. English wages continue to rise (as they supposedly have since brexit) Labor, having sloughed off the blairites, strengthen workers' rights and environmental protections, and socialism becomes a worldwide fad.

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On to Biden since 1973

@dance you monster I think they have that option and the EU would prefer that. Some feel it would nullify the result of the referendum.

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It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan

Alligator Ed's picture

@chambord "Once you get in, you can never get out." The EU wants to make an example of the UK by showing the rest of the doubting partners who has the muscle. That's Brussels and its horde of globalist bureaucrats. Will Labour continue being so divided? Will the "leave" Tories still vote leave, as many have already done? If the UK leaves and makes it semi-independently of the customs union, then Salvini, Orban, and associates will be happy to push the EU train off the rails. 60% of current UK trade is with non-EU countries. The pound, not the euro, is the medium of trade (along with petrodollars). The transition will be rough, but the austerity of Thatcher-Major-Blair is alienating the younger populace to look more favorably upon socialism, in some of its guises.

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snoopydawg's picture

All that work he did the first time people voted on Brexit his way and now he has to start all over. And right in the middle of the primary season. Busy, busy, busy...

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

SnappleBC's picture

@snoopydawg

I mean, toppling world governments left and right like this adds up, amirite?

Of course, having written that it made me wonder how much the US spends to topple world governments. I'm guessing we spend more than 5k a pop.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard