Danielle Grufferty
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Apparently Labour party members overwhelmingly want to stay in the single market. I want to as well comrades but you all need to move on. If only you’d campaigned harder, we might have seen a different referendum result.

I know it’s not the time but I can’t help myself. Because we all know that the real “if only” is this one: if only Gordon Brown had called that snap election, won Labour that historic fourth term, David Cameron would have been forced to resign and none of this would have happened, because let’s remind ourselves (because I feel like people are forgetting), this is all his fault. All of it. Don’t listen too closely to Cato the Younger, I’m sure he means well. But it’s much more fun to blame it on one old Etonian.

So the Labour party membership has spoken. But shouldn’t we give voting a rest for a bit? I thought I elected my MP (well the one I voted for didn’t win so maybe I don’t) to make decisions on my behalf.

Sometimes party members are correct — but more often they are wrong. I’ll give you some examples; Labour leadership, correct; single market membership, wrong.

The Conservatives are so much better at this. For instance, they are not allowed anywhere near their leadership elections until they are presented with the two candidates deemed good enough by their ever scrupulous parliamentarians.

There is a silver lining to all this for Labour. At least they are not in government, having their cake and eating it in the Brexit negotiations. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping them causing confusion. It seems that, for the party leadership, it is an impossible task to talk about membership of the single market or customs union, without turning it into a debate about immigration. Turns out the “Controls on Immigration” mugs were prophetic because there are in fact too many immigrants in the country.

As the Conservative party often say, it’s not racist to talk about immigration. Apparently it’s actually quite a socialist thing to talk about because it refers to the struggle of the working class. Just some of them though. Fourth internationale anyone?

Danielle Grufferty

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgMvo4ieFbE&feature=youtu.be