Dear All
They say politics is all about wheeling and
dealing, how to get an edge over the opposition is almost foremost on the mind.
Today, Nigel Farage has given Boris Johnson a massive boost by saying the Brexit Party
will not contest the 317 seats won by the Conservatives at the last general
election. This may seem like a selfless act, it is strategy; Farage doesn’t
want to split Conservative Brexiteer away from the Conservatives.
Good news for Boris Johnson but bad news
for everyone else, where a Brexit Party candidate could be the ‘kingmaker’ or ‘stopper’
that helps gain more seats for Boris Johnson. This is clever politics as it
frees up resources, money and people to be deployed elsewhere. How many seats
will the Brexit Party get, this is open to question, but the notion the Brexit
Party will end up holding the balance of power seems remote as a concept now.
This is a Brexit election as I have stated, other issues maybe raised but the
nub is about getting Brexit done. A few days ago, I highlight why there had to
be a change in Labour Party strategy, now that change is even more pressing.
Nigel Farage appears to be on a mission
which is aimed directly at Labour-held seats, he said at a supporters event in
Hartlepool:
“I will tell you now exactly what we are
going to do. The Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats the Conservatives
won at the last election. But what we will do is concentrate our total effort
into all the seats that are held by the Labour Party, who have completely
broken their manifesto pledge in 2017 to respect the result of the referendum”.
He added:
“And we will also take on the rest of the
Remainer parties. We will stand up and we will fight them all.”
In the Scottish context, the Brexit Party
will not win a seat, sev eral reasons spring to mind, no long campaign, no
attempt to build a Scottish profile post EU election, no real network of
activists. I know this as previously in the year, I did the Brexit EU Campaign 2019
which was made up of people from other parties carrying the load. I was the
lead campaigner for the Brexit Party in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.
Just as I help Louis Stedman-Bryce become
an Brexit Party MEP, I will be in this election be supporting Paul Sweeney who
is standing to be re-elected as the MP for Glasgow North East.
Paul Sweeney is by far the best candidate
for the people of GNE in this election, born and bred in Springburn, his Westminster
record far outstrips the previous SNP MP in terms of issues and volume. In
Glasgow North East, we have a key marginal, you can already see by the press
coverage that people realise that there will be a no prisoners taken fight to
win the seat between Labour and the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon wants all the seats in
Glasgow SNP, and it will be up to the voters whether this happens.
The temperature is rising in Glasgow North
East as the SNP start foaming at the mouth, however, we should recognize that
the SNP candidate Anne McLaughlin who previous was kicked out is in need of
being sent up. Clearly she knows she is going to lose hence her desperate
attempt as this video shows.
Anyway, more on that fight later, Nigel
Farage’s change of heart about standing against Conservatives stems from the
Prime Minister’s move towards a free trade deal with the European Union. This
doesn’t include regulatory alignment which he says was a “significant change”
to the approach on Brexit.
Farage added:
“He said we would negotiate a super
Canada-plus trade deal with no political alignment. That is a huge change. Ever since Mrs May’s
abject speech in Florence, we have been aiming at a close and special
partnership with the European Union. We had been aiming to stay part of many of
its agencies. Boris last night signalled a very clear change in direction. I
thought to myself overnight, ‘That sounds a bit more like the Brexit we voted
for’.”
Already, the fallout of Nigel Farage’s
announcement has lead to mild panic, full panic will set in later, give it
time.
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson tweeted:
“The Conservative Party are the Brexit
Party now.”
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon tweeted:
“Any form of Brexit that is acceptable to
Nigel Farage will be deeply damaging for Scotland. Makes it all the more
important to get rid of Boris Johnson’s Tories, escape Brexit and put
Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands.”
What we are seeing in the main SNP campaign
is a re-run of a previous campaign, ‘get rid of Tories’, ‘will support Labour
Party’ and ‘indyref 2’, quite frankly, it’s boring, the SNP are trying to
recover lost ground in both voter share and seats. You would have thought the
press would have tippled to this series of sound bites as the ‘SNP plan’. Add
in a bogus manifesto which no one is ever going to get through Westminster, you
have to wonder why people are going to wise up about how things get done. The
SNP can’t do constructive politics only grievance which is why we have a failed
health service, failing education and failing council services. The SNP brand
of dialogue only goes one way, and they don’t listen, which is why I say ‘Dump
the SNP’.
Finally, we are seeing how the big picture
is developing, and an insight into how things are being set in Glasgow North
East. This seat is a two horse race; the Brexit Party will not be affecting the
outcome in any real meaningful sense as they would hope to do elsewhere.
Although Louis is the Brexit Party MEP, Westminster campaigning is a whole
different ball game, and I would suggest he picked the wrong seat to stand in.
14,287 people voted leave in Glasgow South West, and only 12,699 in Glasgow
North East in the EU referendum 2016.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
2 comments:
A bold move on Farage's part. Better get the popcorn out.
I voted to remain, however unlike the SNP I respect the result. Like other elections I will be staying up all night as the results come in. I am hoping Blackford is ousted.
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