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This tweet is from the inventor of "Liberal Leave", who, having previously ditched Brexit, has now fully switched to Remain. It's important, because it's the first squeak I've heard from a constituency which could be decisive come a #PeoplesVote. 1/15
These are people who voted Leave, who'll never be enthusiastic converts to the pro-EU cause in the same way the wonderful #RemainerNow movement is. Rather they're folks who still think that - in principle - Brexit is a good idea, but that the government have cocked it up. 2/15
They're not anti-Brexit. They're just anti-Bad Brexit. 3/15
This framing - although obviously I disagree - strikes me as politically very promising. It gives former Leave voters a beautifully easy ladder to climb down. They needn't admit they were conned. They needn't even change their minds. They can simply *blame the government*. 4/15
And what could be simpler than that? "No, I don't regret voting Leave last time. Always worth a try. And it would have been fine, if the Tories hadn't messed it up. But now - well - it's got to be better to stay in than have a Bad Brexit, hasn't it?" 5/15
No wounded pride. No humble pie. Just old-fashioned British pragmatism. 6/15
And of course, the speaker will have no difficulty in pointing to various ways in which the government indisputably has ballsed things up: triggering Article 50 with no plan and then calling a general election in the middle of the negotiations. For starters. 7/15
It also gives Labour a persuasive line of defence for their Leave-voters: we supported Brexit for as long as we possibly could. But the government's incompetence means that the only Brexit available at this stage is a Bad Brexit, and we're not prepared to support that. 8/15
You could hear Labour beginning to make that case this morning: @Keir_Starmer saying that the government is responsible for a "...huge failure, and the prime minister has run the clock down." 9/15
However much you may hate it, however Eurosceptic you are in your bones, the truth is that Remain is now the only escape from the government-dug hole the country is in. 10/15
So let's hear a lot more from @rolandmcs and his fellow anti-Bad Brexiters. A few high profile converts to their cause would help too - Boris Johnson maybe? 11/15
And, dear fellow Remainer, do me a favour: when you hear someone say that Brexit could have been absolutely marvellous if only the government hadn't screwed it all up... please bite your tongue. 12/15
At a maximum, offer: "I was never really convinced by the case for Brexit. But I do agree that that the government have made it much worse than it ever needed to be." Completely true. 13/15
Because it is not important why people switch from Leave to Remain. I do not care how grudgingly or reluctantly they make that journey. All that matters is that they *do*. 14/15
And here lie they seeds for a great national healing - leavers and remainers uniting and declaring that, while we may disagree about many things, there is one topic on which we can all agree: the current government is the absolute pits. 15/15
A thread on strategy for welcoming disgruntled Brexiters into a #PeoplesVote-winning coalition - tagging @jonworth, @GuitarMoog, @sjwrenlewis, @Sime0nStylites, @IanDunt, @BestForBritain.
