Here’s a quick summary of the Lib Dems’ reaction to Theresa May’s statement on the Brexit negotiations yesterday:
Tom Brake called for Parliament to be recalled:
The Prime Minister has had the most humiliating European summit in recent memory and returned with a tattered Chequers deal, making a no deal Brexit more likely than ever.
Two years down the line and the only consensus the PM has made across Parliament and the EU is that Chequers is unworkable.
Instead of pontificating to television cameras, May must now recall Parliament to explain how she got the country into this terrible mess, what her plan is to get us out of it, and when we can have a people’s vote and an exit from Brexit.
Welsh Leader Jane Dodds reckons we need a change of PM:
Theresa May pledged to the country to get the best deal possible but her unwillingness to compromise has left her isolated and now she’s doubling down on her fantasy Chequers deal. You cannot simply keep trying negotiate a deal which has already been ruled out by almost everyone involved and expect an eventual success, politics does not give marks for effort.
Brexit did not, and should not, mean whatever the PM decides it means. It took us 18 months to get the Chequers paper and her religious support of it shows the PM has no realistic plan for Brexit, that’s why she must resign. She has failed to listen to the people, failed to listen to the EU and never quite accepted she lost the General Election. I fully understand the difficulties she faces within her own party, but the buck must stop with her as PM and party leader.
We have 6 months to go till the date we are scheduled to leave the EU, the mood of the public is clear – they want to have the final say on the deal. We need to have a PM who listens to the public and accepts that.
Willie Rennie issued a challenge to the Scottish Tories:
The Prime Minister has had the most humiliating European summit in recent memory and returned with a tattered Chequers deal, making a no deal Brexit more likely than ever.
The fiction that this would be the easiest negotiation in history is looking awfully exposed.
All sensible, moderate Conservatives have a choice to make. Risk our economy and security or show some leadership and demand a People’s Vote and an exit from Brexit.
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23 Comments
‘ May must now recall Parliament to explain how she got the country into this terrible mess, what her plan is to get us out of it, and when we can have a people’s vote and an exit from Brexit’. Hear, hear.
A consultation of the people was made in 2016. Who can swear that it is still valid in 2018?
I think, however huge a mess, the pm is not alone in this saga, nor wholly responsible for it, it seems an almost intractable problem, even if we get a vote on it, suppose it goes in the Leave column again, more of the shambles of negotiation!
The EU are behaving poorly too, as Liberals we should be suspicious of unanimity and the closing of ranks, that is obvious.
I think we need a diplomat. In Chief.
Your Majesty…?
@Lorenzo Cherin “The EU are behaving poorly too”
In what way, Lorenzo? They seem to have had a consistent position all the way through, as far as I can tell.
The EU are behaving badly because they are not giving us what we want and are calling the brave Brexiteer leadership liars. Now that the EU are not giving us what we want because it goes against the principles of the EU and pointing out a fact isn’t diplomatic. To the average Brexiteer poster their attitude is unacceptable, we are special you know, nay we are exceptional and by believing something we can make it true. So onward after Tinks they’ll march cursing the EU, singing “We believe we can fly”, while keeping an eye out for passing unicorns and smiling faries. I’m afraid only the application of cold hard reality will cure a subset of them the rest will still blame the EU for their folly.
. It isn’t going to happen. The problem for the remain camp is that rather than trying to get support for a comprise of something like the Norway solution they keep thinking the referendum will be overturned despite having no parliamentary clout. On top of this you have a thwarted centrist faction nostalgic for the glory days of the third way seemingly denouncing everyone and everything perceived as remotely to the left or right of it as extremist but then expecting the denounced to come to the rescue!
It must be hard to be a Lexiteer, the left have swung and it isn’t behind Brexit. To be a Brexiteer in those circumstances can not be easy, they must know if Brexit occurrs they will become the pariahs of the left used as the scape goats and airbrushed from polite society. They face the fate of the cheer leaders of Iraq forever reviled for one decsion and any good they have done will be dismissed as irrelevant. If only someone had warned them they where being used by the Moggs and co; O wait they where and they didn’t listen, tis sad but true.
Corbyn now saying if Labour members want it he will back a second vote… if Labour are seen to do a last minute save of the country they will probably win the next election at the price of the extinction of the LibDems but a price worth paying if we stay in the EU?
Mrs May will blame the EU and then Labour but the voters wont wear it.
It does begin to look as if there will be another referendum, not sure of its actual form. That is good news to people like myself who have been campaigning for a Final Say vote, but if it is preceeded by a General Election following votes of no confidence in the House and the failure to find an alternative government within the 14 day period, then I fear the result will again be severe for ourselves. We have little room for making gains due to the parlous state of the party vote in the vast majority of constituencies, where Labour would inevitably eat up the Remain vote.
Huffington Post poll says 58% would back a new Centre party, just another piece of the crazy jig-saw.
I’m with you on this Lorenzo. At least Mrs May has attempted to negotiate an arrangement. I get the impression most on the EU centre ground support her. The EU representatives are rule takers and do not want to destabilise the existing structure of the EU. Mrs May should not be disheartened, continue to talk and we will probably get a last minute deal. We would have been better staying in the EU and negotiating new rules on associate membership from there, but we’ve been a member so long and never bothered to do so.
Brexit did not, and should not, mean whatever the PM decides it means.
But from a very early stage it was obvious that “Brexit meant Brexit” which meant whatever the party in government wanted it to mean and could get the EU to agree (or not agree to).
It took us 18 months to get the Chequers paper and her religious support of it shows the PM has no realistic plan for Brexit, that’s why she must resign.
I’m a little confused are you for Brexit or against? as this statement can be read both ways. Perhaps what we need is rather than give support to the nutters in the Conservative party to encourage the PM to find her backbone, put the interests of the nation before those of the Conservative party and start putting the extremists in her party in their place.
Bless Glenn you want us to become like Norway a rule taker and yet in another thread you go on about the sovereignty of the nation state. You really seem to be struggling to know what you want, I’d keep it simple either you’d like to be a rule taker or sovereignty at any price you can’t have both. After all Glenn we live in the big bad frightening world not Narnia or Brexitainia where thinks come true because we wish them so. Lord I miss Jackie at least his cry for Norway was based on some logic, even if the logic was I want to be able to look my wife and foreign friends in the eye.
Frankie
No I advocate a compromise of something along the lines of the Norway option because the election was close and I feel that it would be fairer to the millions of remain voters out there in no-mans land. But personally , I’m fine with and would prefer Hard Brexit.
As for the rest of your stuff. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
Daniel, Christopher
Cheers, for the responses. I think the EU could help more to avoid a hard Brexit, which is worse than a soft fudge like May and her deal would bring. I feel that because they realise her offer is too much , with bells on, for her hard Brexiteers on the right, they surely know, to say her offer goes too far makes her position abysmally confused, which shows her up even more than she deserves.
I have little regard for her as the ex Home secretary, or prime minister, but as a person she has my understanding as a Liberal, for the being caught between versions of Brexit
Bless Glenn lets be a rule taker but I’d prefer hard Brexit, we are rather desperate for Brexit at any cost are we not. I know you just want too be able to say “We have Brexit” but Lord you really are turning into the fox with no tail. After making a bad decision you want the rest of us to join in with it to make you feel better and let us all go back to loving you. Well I’m afraid your moving from “Not much will change”, to “Lets have Norway” or even better “Make it hard, we can take it Brexit” just screams desperation, “I woz right you know and I always wanted this form of Brexit, what ever that will be” appears to be the only philosophy you have. Flexible principles Glenn may make you popular but they do not engender trust.
I see Labour wobbled off the wall with “We may consider a peoples vote” they then wobbled back onto the wall “But you can’t vote to stay”. I’m afraid they have gone down with a severe case of flexible principles and wanting to be all things to all men (and women).
Frankie
What has labour got to with anything?
And stop it with “bless” stuff it makes all your posts sound like they’re generated by a spam-bot. It’s like there’s this button you hit that starts everything with bless then randomly injects variations on mixed metaphors, sunny uplands, unicorns, etc. into virtually every single missive. It’s the three Rs repetition, repetition and repetition.
frankie 24th Sep ’18 – 9:51am…………………I see Labour wobbled off the wall with “We may consider a peoples vote” they then wobbled back onto the wall “But you can’t vote to stay”. I’m afraid they have gone down with a severe case of flexible principles and wanting to be all things to all men (and women)…………..
Did you miss the bit about Corbyn saying, “If the membership vote for a second referendum, that will be our policy”…Sounds pretty ‘democratic’ to me.
I’ll expect a lot more anti-Labour threads (if that is possible) on LDV; after all, with that one sentence, Corbyn has “Shot the LibDem fox”.
I shall be kind expats and assume you hadn’t seen these bits of news before you posted.
McDonnell: new Brexit referendum should not include remain option
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/24/mcdonnell-new-brexit-referendum-should-not-include-remain-option
Brexit: New referendum must exclude any option to remain in EU, says Len McCluskey
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-second-referendum-options-choice-exclude-remain-eu-len-mccluskey-labour-a8551086.html
Now I’m sure you can find quotes from Labour supporters saying we should have a peoples vote with remain as an option, but as I said they are back on the wall. You can pick your voice and assume they speak for you, but that is the very essence of “All things to all women (and men)”. They have still to decide which side of the wall they will fall, but people are becoming less forgiving, you only have to see how poor Owen Jones is being treated.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1044167520603840512
by the way I don’t think the twittartti roasting Owen are Lib Dems (well at least not yet).
Glenn,
I’m sure there is indeed such a bot, it seems to provide most of your cut and paste material. Thanks for clarifying where you get your info from, it all makes sense now.
Congratulations, frankie. Your arguments have finally reached the level of “I know you are, but what am I?” The “brave brexiteers” must be cowering in their trenches. So, how about you give us all a rest, now? I’d like to hear what the adults have to say.
frankie 24th Sep ’18 – 12:33pm…………I shall be kind expats and assume you hadn’t seen these bits of news before you posted………
Thank you for your kindness; after such condescension I’m rather surprised that you accept the fact that I can read!
However, McDonnell: and McCluskey are just two voices in the party; there are many others who want a ‘Remain’ option.
The Labour party has set out conditions to be met before accepting a ‘leave’ motion and the next logical step, if the final ‘May Deal’ is unacceptable to parliament, is a vote including a ‘Remain’ option.
Sadly, it seems that even if Labour does go for such an option there are those on here who won’t like it. It seems that o be acceptable, the ‘second referendum’ must not only have a remain option but the LibDem logo writ clear on every ballot paper.
expat two voices but O what voices. One is their major pay masters the other is their shadow chancellor. As I said you can pick your voice and think they agree with me. You see the ones campaigning for a “People’s vote” and they are coming around, mean while a Brexiteer will think they might not like my sort of Brexit but committed they are too Brexit. They are still sat on the fence and you can read what you will into their position. One day they will fall off and then you may be right and committed to a meaningful people’s vote they may be but then again they may not. As to your ability to read I have no doubt, I do doubt your objectivity when it comes to the Labour party. You seem to object to people casting doubt on their policies and behaviour, you look for the good in them, not a bad thing but given their recent behaviour perhaps a little nieve.
Malcolm if you don’t like my comments don’t read them, it won’t stop me reading yours.