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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/02/brexit-bigger-than-any-party-richmond-park
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| Brexit is bigger than any single party – Richmond Park has taught us that Brexit is bigger than any single party – Richmond Park has taught us that | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| The volcanic eruption in Richmond explodes with meaning: with hope for some, anger for others. Brexit is now Britain’s only political issue. It has ripped the country in two, rubbing out all other political lines, worn by both sides as a badge of identity beyond the reach of fact or balance. This byelection is a taste of how it threatens to overturn all old political certainties. | The volcanic eruption in Richmond explodes with meaning: with hope for some, anger for others. Brexit is now Britain’s only political issue. It has ripped the country in two, rubbing out all other political lines, worn by both sides as a badge of identity beyond the reach of fact or balance. This byelection is a taste of how it threatens to overturn all old political certainties. |
| There is a potentially dangerous whiff of civil war cordite in the air when large numbers of people are as angry as they get in Question Time audiences. Why aren’t we out already? Never mind the details, out now! The fury of Brexiters at anyone suggesting out doesn’t mean out of everything European is full of fingers-in-the-ears absolutism. | There is a potentially dangerous whiff of civil war cordite in the air when large numbers of people are as angry as they get in Question Time audiences. Why aren’t we out already? Never mind the details, out now! The fury of Brexiters at anyone suggesting out doesn’t mean out of everything European is full of fingers-in-the-ears absolutism. |
| That’s why overturning a 23,000 majority is seismic. The Brexiters and Ukippers will try to foment maximum class rage at the arrogance of this soft, wealthy London seat gesturing two fingers of defiance at a referendum result they claim belongs to white working-class northerners. Never mind that it was the overwhelmingly Tory shire votes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ilk that swung the referendum, while two thirds of Labour voters were remainers. | That’s why overturning a 23,000 majority is seismic. The Brexiters and Ukippers will try to foment maximum class rage at the arrogance of this soft, wealthy London seat gesturing two fingers of defiance at a referendum result they claim belongs to white working-class northerners. Never mind that it was the overwhelmingly Tory shire votes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ilk that swung the referendum, while two thirds of Labour voters were remainers. |
| The great lesson for the left and centre-left was taught by Caroline Lucas, who deserves most praise for this result. The wisdom and foresight of her elegant decision not to run a Green candidate sent out exactly the right message to the voters of Richmond: Brexit and how we survive it is bigger than any one party. The votes she swung behind the Lib Dem Sarah Olney were vital, but less important than the message that anti-tribal alliances will be essential from now on. | The great lesson for the left and centre-left was taught by Caroline Lucas, who deserves most praise for this result. The wisdom and foresight of her elegant decision not to run a Green candidate sent out exactly the right message to the voters of Richmond: Brexit and how we survive it is bigger than any one party. The votes she swung behind the Lib Dem Sarah Olney were vital, but less important than the message that anti-tribal alliances will be essential from now on. |
| Only a progressive alliance can overcome the dark forces being stirred on the other side. Richmond Park will be a useful red rag to Paul Nuttall’s bullish Ukippers, who will milk the class grudge element from those relatively few places with a genuine grievance about sudden large-scale migration into their towns. | Only a progressive alliance can overcome the dark forces being stirred on the other side. Richmond Park will be a useful red rag to Paul Nuttall’s bullish Ukippers, who will milk the class grudge element from those relatively few places with a genuine grievance about sudden large-scale migration into their towns. |
| Labour were humiliated, and deserved to be. Despite an excellent candidate in Christian Wolmar, the Labour voters of Richmond Park were wiser than their party in going with the tactical alliance and voting Lib Dem. Will Labour learn their lesson? Not a chance. They wasted an opportunity to show the same grace as Caroline Lucas, by joining an alliance in a seat they would never win. Losing their deposit was a well-earned embarrassment. | Labour were humiliated, and deserved to be. Despite an excellent candidate in Christian Wolmar, the Labour voters of Richmond Park were wiser than their party in going with the tactical alliance and voting Lib Dem. Will Labour learn their lesson? Not a chance. They wasted an opportunity to show the same grace as Caroline Lucas, by joining an alliance in a seat they would never win. Losing their deposit was a well-earned embarrassment. |
| Will it make Jeremy’s Corbyn team think again about their priorities? No. Will it make them take up the question of proportional representation so people never again have to vote tactically for parties they hate? Ed Miliband was for PR, along with Chuka Umunna and growing numbers of Labour MPs, but the Corbynites won’t touch it, for bad old tribal reasons. | Will it make Jeremy’s Corbyn team think again about their priorities? No. Will it make them take up the question of proportional representation so people never again have to vote tactically for parties they hate? Ed Miliband was for PR, along with Chuka Umunna and growing numbers of Labour MPs, but the Corbynites won’t touch it, for bad old tribal reasons. |
| Labour’s severe problem is not reflected in Richmond, but in some erstwhile heartland seats where the Brexit vote was strong, leaving many Remain MPs afraid to champion a soft Brexit loudly enough. Though safe as houses in Islington, Corbyn’s deep disinterest in Europe loses Labour’s chance to be the unequivocal champion of soft Brexit. Who and what is Labour for? It is rendering itself increasingly irrelevent – except in those many cities where it runs excellent local authorities, whose autonomous leaders detach themselves from the central party. | Labour’s severe problem is not reflected in Richmond, but in some erstwhile heartland seats where the Brexit vote was strong, leaving many Remain MPs afraid to champion a soft Brexit loudly enough. Though safe as houses in Islington, Corbyn’s deep disinterest in Europe loses Labour’s chance to be the unequivocal champion of soft Brexit. Who and what is Labour for? It is rendering itself increasingly irrelevent – except in those many cities where it runs excellent local authorities, whose autonomous leaders detach themselves from the central party. |
| The soft Brexit mantle falls to the Lib Dems, whose heartfelt pro-Europeanism is about the only policy on which they never ratted in their shameful coalition years. After Richmond, many seats they used to hold look winnable again, as May’s split and directionless cabinet tumbles towards the EU exit gate with no ticket, no destination, no flight-plan and a pilot who dare not decide where to fly. This result should strengthen the arm of the majority on the Tory benches who want a sane Brexit. It should stiffen May’s backbone to resist the 70 Brextremist MPs trying to hijack the plane and crash it anywhere, so long as it’s not in Europe. | The soft Brexit mantle falls to the Lib Dems, whose heartfelt pro-Europeanism is about the only policy on which they never ratted in their shameful coalition years. After Richmond, many seats they used to hold look winnable again, as May’s split and directionless cabinet tumbles towards the EU exit gate with no ticket, no destination, no flight-plan and a pilot who dare not decide where to fly. This result should strengthen the arm of the majority on the Tory benches who want a sane Brexit. It should stiffen May’s backbone to resist the 70 Brextremist MPs trying to hijack the plane and crash it anywhere, so long as it’s not in Europe. |
| As for the despicable Zac Goldsmith, what a satisfactory comeuppance for this entitled, insignificant, Brexit trustafarian. How fitting he should not just inherit his father’s fortune but reap the whirlwind of the original referendum campaign launched by Sir James Goldsmith, an unsavoury tycoon who tried to bankrupt Private Eye. Labour’s Wolmar was quite right to use his post-vote speech to say many Richmond Park voters had swung against Goldsmith junior after his “ghastly, disgusting” mayoral campaign with its failed racial assaults on Sadiq Khan. | As for the despicable Zac Goldsmith, what a satisfactory comeuppance for this entitled, insignificant, Brexit trustafarian. How fitting he should not just inherit his father’s fortune but reap the whirlwind of the original referendum campaign launched by Sir James Goldsmith, an unsavoury tycoon who tried to bankrupt Private Eye. Labour’s Wolmar was quite right to use his post-vote speech to say many Richmond Park voters had swung against Goldsmith junior after his “ghastly, disgusting” mayoral campaign with its failed racial assaults on Sadiq Khan. |
| Some byelections move mountains, some are flashes in the pan. Yesterday’s looks set to give new heart to all who hope for the least damaging, softest landing possible from the Brexit vote. But it will leave many enraged Brexiters even more ferocious in their view that any discussion of the country’s future destination is some kind of betrayal of a referendum so badly designed that it had no X to mark the spot where we should land. | Some byelections move mountains, some are flashes in the pan. Yesterday’s looks set to give new heart to all who hope for the least damaging, softest landing possible from the Brexit vote. But it will leave many enraged Brexiters even more ferocious in their view that any discussion of the country’s future destination is some kind of betrayal of a referendum so badly designed that it had no X to mark the spot where we should land. |