A quick reflection on the new general election (GE) phase of Brexit. Thread. 1/
We are having the GE because Johnson could not (or perhaps was not willing to try to) get his new Brexit deal through Parliament. 2/
He decided to call a GE to win a mandate for the next five years. In the months before the GE, opposition parties (and Tory rebels) were able to unite to stop his deal from passing (at least without sufficient HoC scrutiny). 3/
If Johnson wins a HoC majority in December, he will be able to pass his deal (and his WAB). The UK will very likely leave the EU. 4/
My hope was that, in a GE campaign, the opposition would unite to oppose Johnson's deal. That they would subject it to detailed scrutiny, expose its many contradictions, and point to its political and economic shortcomings. 5/
But instead, perhaps inevitably, the focus seems to have moved away from Brexit. As many have said, a GE is about a lot more than just Brexit. 6/
The opposition parties are attacking each other. Lab do not trust the LDs (though a close Swinson/Johnson relationship surely looks a lot less likely than the Cameron/Clegg alliance). 7/
And LD do not trust Labour; which is said not to be a remain party, and one with a significant anti-semitism problem. Both parties are spending more time attacking each other, than attacking Johnson. 8/
There are some good reasons for this. There is no love lost between the parties. And they are rivals, often fishing in the same pool for potential voters. 9/
But... at least viewed through a Brexit lens, the overriding danger is that if they continue to attack each other, and if they refuse to work together, Johnson will win a majority. 10/
He will get his deal through, and the UK will likely leave the EU in January, with little chance of securing even a free trade deal by the end of the WA's envisaged transition period. 11/
The stakes could hardly be higher. The opposition parties have been handed a chance to stop Johnson. Unless they (or at least their supporters) work together, they are going to throw that chance away. 12/12
