Comment by techsupporter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by techsupporter | Hacker News Reader

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> Labour would have probably stopped Brexit and people could have voted for them, but they did not.

Except that Labour did not campaign on stopping Brexit; quite the opposite. Corbyn (who, depending on who you ask, is possibly a bigger Euroskeptic than David Cameron ever was) pointedly did not position Labour's election stance as being anti-Brexit. That was up to the LibDems who, in a FPTP system, were not going to win anyway largely because everyone still hates them over the college fees reversal.

Corbyn's Labour party always insisted that it would negotiate the "best possible Brexit," one that was more or less a "soft Brexit" but, just like the Tories, still a Brexit with all that entails. People were pleading with Corbyn to do exactly as you described and make the GE a mini-referendum on Brexit by Labour campaigning to reject Brexit...but Corbyn didn't.

I don't think you're entirely correct. Labour promised to hold a second referendum after making a deal, where rejecting the brexit altogether would be an option. The Shadow foreign secretary even promised to campaign against the very deal she'll herself make, and 100 labour MPs pledged to reject referendum result outright, not even through a 2nd referendum.

Given how much support brexit had in traditionally labour seats in the north, I think, with the benefit of hindsight, labour could have avoided that embarrassing election result if they firmly committed to a soft brexit.

It is interesting to me that despite considering myself well informed on politics, and having voted in both of the elections you’re talking about, I can’t remember which of you is more correct! Such was the strength of the Tory media coverage, and the weakness of the Labour messaging on Brexit.

I feel like techsupporter lands closer to my memory of Corbyn’s position in the recent election, but also remember the flexibility in positions for individual Labour candidates you describe.

Probably that disunity and lack of leadership contributed somewhat to their loss. I strongly remember my impression going in to the election being that Labour supported Brexit because it was too afraid to lose the North (then lost it anyway because in the North they thought Labour was opposed to Brexit because they didn’t want to lose in the South)

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