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Paul Mason
@paulmasonnews
, 9 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Local election results: 1/ Tories losing because they can't deliver Brexit, Labour losing because Brexit position confused, Libdems/Greens winning because they have clear pro-PV/anti-Brexit message. Confirms my view: a strong anti-Brexit line is in Labour's strategic interest...
2/ Labour's 3x council losses show: "delivering Brexit" line loses progressive votes but is not gaining any traction among Zleave voters
3/ Massive LD gains show that unless Labour stops "bailing out" Tories its main achievement will be to resurrect the party of Nick Clegg - and if you think it's bad now, imagine a day when Barry Gardiner comes out waving a piece of paper signed by Corbyn and May...
4/ Another casualty of last night is the illusion peddled by the Lexiteers that "nobody's interested in Brexit outside London". A further casualty is the Lexiteers delusion that "all bad polls are manipulated because Yougov is Tory"...
5/ Translating all this into a general election: in a GE the Tory seats now come under pressure BOTH from Farage and Libdems; Labour can beat off pressure from Greens/TIG/Libdems *if* it stands up for progressive values and delivers PV... Gardiner line is suppressing our vote
6/ Also... there is a strong anti-politics mood and if Labour remains on the wrong side of it that's FATAL for a party of the radical left... Brexit stasis has become the status quo...
7/ My advice to Labour: get out of the talks now. Find shadow cabinet voices that can connect with our progressive mass base. Let the pro-Remain MEP candidates lead the EP election so we can mobilise our core supporters...
8/ The strategy of creating an alliance of Remain/Leave voters to transform Britain is correct. But it can't be vacuous: the anti-politics mood will reward anyone who says they're going to end the agony...
9/ Finally a big shout to Bridget Phillipson and Julie Eliott - Sunderland MPs blamed by Labour council leader for losing votes by advocating PV. Principled, progressive leadership - and telling the truth to working people - will put Labour in power. MORE LATER...
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More from @paulmasonnews see all

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Paul Mason
@paulmasonnews
Just a reminder of the real issue on Brexit: can May do a customs union deal with Labour that a) pro-Remain Labour MPs will support and b) that her own party will support... 1/ My info is still no... but...
2/ May is now so terrified of the Tory party disintegrating, as well as the government, that she will do anything to stop the elections going ahead on 23 May - including fast-tracking an amendment to the WA through parliament...
3/ The Labour position is clear. If the party does not support the deal on offer (and it can't get a general election), it has to be put to a second referendum. This is now in the revised election leaflets...
Read 6 tweets
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Paul Mason
@paulmasonnews
THREAD: With crunch meetings of TULO, PLP and NEC coming Labour faces a critical decision point. 1/ Why are we still in the talks? What's the update? What did we achieve? If no concrete offer of a customs union Labour should leave the talks...
newstatesman.com/politics/brexi…
2/ Remain/Leave is a non-issue in the EU elections. The assumption of fighting them is we stay in - so Labour needs a much more radical reform proposal than the one offered by the PES: i.e. scrap the Lisbon Treaty and rewrite the rules of Europe
newstatesman.com/politics/brexi…
3/ Labour has to re-commit strongly to a second referendum on any deal achieved in the Commons. That will make the difference between winning the EU election and losing votes to the Greens, SNP and Plaid... newstatesman.com/politics/brexi…
Read 7 tweets
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Paul Mason
@paulmasonnews
THREAD. With the restart of #GoT imminent, here’s a swift Marxist analysis of the situation. I will do updates during the Season. 1/ The White Walkers represent #Barbarism – what Marx called "the mutual ruin of the contending classes" …
2/ In #GoTMarxistAnalysis the mode of production on Westeros is feudalism. The surplus is extracted through peasants obligation to give their produce to the lord, who is obliged to perform military service to the King…
3/ Under feudalism the main form of entrepreneurship is to take someone else’s land (and their peasants’ allegiance) but there is also trade/plunder as with the House Greyjoy (aka the Vikings but with castles) …
Read 11 tweets

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Lord Snoutintrough #FBPE
@Rowland72James
So what are the latest symptoms of the brexophrenia that afflicts our country #Brexit
Maybots deal is dead there is no prospect of another deal but maybot is terrified of both no deal and no #Brexit so she goes to EU and is perplexed to discover they say what they mean and mean what they say
She cops the biggest defeat in the history of parliament but the Ln survives a confidence vote and the funniest bit is that having survived an internal tory confidence motion the tories can't remove her
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Lord Snoutintrough #FBPE
@Rowland72James
Jeremy Corbyn's idea of breaking the #Brexit impasse with a GE on a platform of renegotiating WA is A/unlikey to happen B/ a REALLY bad strategy to win power C/ catastrofuckingly dangerous for the country for the following reasons
#Brexit GE needs Some tories to support it which is unlikely given thst keeping corbyn out is the one thing that unites they would have a leader who intends to step down which is unlikely
The DUP definitely don't want a GE as they lose their leverage and ability to extract bribes
Read 23 tweets
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tony nog #FBPE
@tony_nog
1) Was determined to back off Labour & Corbyn this week & support them going forward on #Brexit

But now this, following Corbyn's speech.

Corbyn's team want Brexit. They don't want to listen to the members on a #PeoplesVote & now it's been raised, they are switching position
2) let's just look at the chronology
I) Starmer (but no one else in Leadership) talks occasionally over last 2 years about "exact same benefits" 6 tests
ii) privately, @BarryGardiner describes them as nonsense
@BarryGardiner 3) iii) in run up to conference, probably because they know there is a huge influx of CLP motions asking for an early vote, Corbyn & others start talking about the 6 tests really for the first time.
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Isolated Brit
@IsolatedBrit
Tories blame BBC for undermining #Brexit ...
Tories blame British businesses for undermining #Brexit ...
Tories blame Brexit for undermining #Brexit ...
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Axel Antoni
@antoni_UK
1/ Why is @UKLabour not opposing #Brexit when Tory Brexit is in tatters & 72% of the Labour supporters do oppose Brexit ? This is a very intriguing question & it feels counterintuitive, especially since most Labour MPs oppose Brexit too. But is it?
2/ Despite Labour party & and supporters opposing #Brexit, supporting it is the surest way to to winning the next general election. And this has nothing to do with wanting to attract Leave voters at all - nothing at all.
3/ There is only one Brexit scenario that will keep the @Conservatives in power: A hard #Brexit that at the same time is a success. And we know how likely that is. All other scenarios will almost automatically lead to a @UKLabour Govt.
Read 12 tweets
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tony nog #FBPE
@tony_nog
1) Clegg - a thread
There's a lot of flack going around about Clegg "propping up Tories" & "enabling austerity". Let's look at this with our reality glasses on because imho this is an example of why tribalism is killing our political system.
2) firstly, coalitions are not unusual, in fact they are the norm in many countries. Entering into a coalition is just what happens in PR Democracies. We'll probably have a few more over the next few years. So entering a coalition is not "propping up" but a solution
3) attacking a party for entering a coalition is not a mature or reasoned approach to how hung parliaments work, if this was the norm no PR Democracy would ever get a Government

LDs are in coalition with multiple Labour groups at local level, and no one talks about "propping up"
Read 22 tweets

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