of course you do Corbyn, cause then you'd lose a bit of your euroskeptic image.
insisting he will stand on the “common ground”
More like sitting on the fence. Brexit is absolutely central to the EU elections and it has to end with either remain or leave. Corbyn's trying to draw voters from both sides, but he'll have an easier time losing them unless Labour pick a stance and commit to it. Right now he's just leaving people unsure what a Labour vote means for Brexit and why they should support it, as opposed to the other parties that are absolutely clear on where they stand.
Discard the leave label anyway. Keep the remain stuff.
Corbyn once again says something about having a sort of position on brexit.
Yeah I'm voting for a pro-EU party for the EU elections, not a maybe kinda sorta party.
Labour's main problem is that their biggest voter base is the working-class, as it always has been, but in recent years there has been a shift, resulting in gaining support from metropolitan elites & the middle-class in cities. A problem arises because the former mostly voted Leave, whereas the latter are mostly Remainers, and so Corbyn, rather than trying to dedicate to one side or the other, has sat right in the middle, completely unaware that this is one of those instances where fence-sitting is actually worse than being a die-hard supporter of either side. You can always sense the mood towards the current Labour Party by paying attention to typical heartlands (Sunderland, Liverpool, Hartlepool - Labour lost to varying degrees in each of these in the recent local elections), and it ain't good. He's only gone and confirmed people's fears by doing this.
Also let's not forget that Jerry himself supported leave, while most of the party were pro remain. He can't openly say he wants Labour to support brexit because that will cause a massive party schism, but the only way he'll let the party become officially remain is over his more dead than usual body.
What are Jeremy's reasons for being against the EU and pro-leave, I'm not well read into UK politics but it seems like an odd stance for him to take.
I can't speak for other cities but I'm a Liverpudlian myself, and the mood towards Labour here is basically the status quo. Regardless of class we're generally very anti-Brexit, but I'd wager my spuds that not even the Lib Dems can make Labour budge from their seats here. Even our elderly vote Labour and it'll probably stay like that for a long time yet. I think that Corbyn trying to play "common ground" when he has to pick a side will definitely be damaging elsewhere in the country, though.
I still need to decide on who I'm voting for, but I'll be double checking the voting record for Article 13 and deciding accordingly.
I'm not really that versed in it either. Apparently there's a group of far left brexit supporters prejoratively known as "lexiteers" whose complaint with the EU is essentially that it's too laissez faire and not socialist enough. I believe Corbyn aligns with them, although I can't say for certain because as far as I know he actually isn't very open about why he dislikes the EU.
And this is the sort of shit that will get Labour utterly buggered at the polls unless he takes a fucking stand. Even if he takes a Leave stand he'll lose less voters to tin-pot parties than he will otherwise. Too many fucking options elsewise so you're gonna dilute the vote, whereas the right-wing wankers only have one big swinging dick to vote for.
There are quite a few left-wing arguments for Brexit that mostly stem from protectionism in the sense that the EU does make buying goods from poorer EU nations cheaper, which has caused problems for some of the working class in the UK. It's not a very common point of view on the left though.
IIRC, the UK originally joined the EEC (the precursor to the EU) under a Conservative government and Labour were opposed for this reason. The party leaders have basically switched places on it.
He's from an older and more Marxian left. In other words, he has much more contrast with liberals.
Most old school socialists (people like Tony Benn etc.) with a strong set of principles have always been Eurosceptical. Which makes sense seeing as the EU is overtly neoliberal, pro-big business, bureaucratic and undemocratic . I voted remain but people need to stop pretending it's some sort of infallible bastion of progressivism.
I agree for the most part, but I also think it's the only democratic authority big and powerful enough to tackle the huge international corporations and pressure of less humanitarian economical powers. It is by no means perfect and it is important to be critical of it, but to me it seems that it manages to preserve a balance between acting in favour of economic power and humanitarian values.
This is really what separates socialists from progressives and informs the latter's much deeper antagonism with conservatives and nationalists.
Progressives, which probably relates to a middle class character, think the growth of the state in proportion to economic development means it can be reformed to curb the excesses of the latter. In other words, modern heights of political power can tackle modern heights of economic power rather than just support each other.
It seems to me then that progressives are willing to work within the current economical system while recognizing it's flaws, while socialists take a harder stance against the system itself. Progressives generally seem to share values with both socialists and liberals, in a way that conservatives share values with both nationalists and liberals?
They also have a bunch of terrible and almost arbitrary economic rules for member states.
Some of Corbyn's main policies involve re nationalisation of some key industries, like water and rail. This is barely possible under EU law. The ECB and the Euro are also absolutely terrible and the EU forces austerity upon member states.
I'd guess these are the reasons he's ambivalent at best about the issue.
Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on these issues and make the effort to change these rules, they seem like good topics for the upcoming EU election, rather than antagonize EU as a whole then? Though I suppose that it would be so much easier to make these changes without a higher regulating/governing body to have to deal with in the first place.
But aren't a lot of rail companies in the EU nationalised?
And Wales effectively has nationalised water and rail already.
I think this is pretty right, yea.
This narrative makes sense, but it isn't really supported by evidence
see:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/brexit-and-the-squeezed-middle/
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