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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

18 Jan

1/ I attacked Corbyn and I'm attacking Starmer and now Davey because without a reasonable degree of opposition buy-in all our pro-EU campaigning is futile. We can attack the Tories with all our force and it will come to absolutely nothing without opposition leadership support.

2/ Some people say we should trust their party's leader. I say trust and votes have to be earned, and neither Starmer nor Davey have done that. I believe the only sure means of getting them to do the right thing is the political brute force of threatening them with lost votes.

3/ I think Starmer and to a lesser extent Davey would like us hard core Remainers and Rejoiners to disappear. But let's remember that the Tory leadership wanted the Brexiters to vanish, but they didn't, and in the end they prevailed. That's a lesson for us.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

18 Jan

1/ There's a lot of work to be done before actually seeking to rejoin the EU, I'd reckon it will take around a decade at best. But what Davey is doing now is chasing away a large part of the LibDem voters and activists. He's killing the LibDems. It's very sad.

2/ If the LibDems try to challenge Starmer on the cautious, pragmatic centre ground they will be eradicated. They need to adopt a distinct and more radical position on the EU and rebuilding our broken democracy than anything Starmer will dare risk.

3/ We need PR, we need big money kicked out of politics, an end to private sector jobs, gifts and payments to MPs. We need media reform, a much stronger Electoral Commission, and a clampdown on the political lies undermining our democracy.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

17 Jan

Two big misunderstandings about politics

1. Facts influence opinions. False. Facts only affect opinions when given meanings by political narratives or frameworks.

2. The past is irrelevant, the horse has bolted. False, as Orwell wrote "who owns the past owns the future"

Politically aware folk have absorbed narratives that automatically assign political meanings to facts and events. This is not so true of the politically naive who are far more open to propaganda that purports to explain political events. The right cynically exploits this.

Regarding the past affecting the future. The more people regard the way Brexit was obtained as undemocratic, the more favourable they will be to rapidly rejoining the EU, and the more antagonistic they will be towards Brexit politicians and media.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

5 Jan

1/ Brexit politics is built on fear. Frightened people tend to seek security in the tribe. Once that tribe might have been the Labour movement, but now in a fragmented post-industrial society it is the nation. Tribal identification is emotional, not rational.

2/ A tribe that feels under threat wants to control its borders, and who enters into its territory. It demands loyalty and solidarity, and its prime virtue is self-sacrifice - economic arguments won't persuade tribalists. Its members want to feel it is strong and powerful.

3/ Tribalism at a time of crisis is intolerant of dissent. The tribe must pull together against its enemies. Dissent and questioning cause division and disrupt the collective effort. Criticism is seen as treason. The Brexit right have ruthlessly exploited tribal psychology.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

4 Jan

The Brexit right have conducted a relentless Goebbelsian propaganda campaign year after year. What has Labour done to combat it? Nothing.

Is it then a surprise that politically naive voters have come to believe the Brexit nationalist narrative?

Silence is collaboration.

The Left suffers from a naive tendency to believe that voters will respond rationally to economic facts. Marxism has left a legacy of economic determinism and even centrists tend to believe that economic experiences translate pretty seamlessly into political preferences.

But facts don't directly affect political views. They do so only when given a political meaning by political narratives & frameworks which tell us what political significance to put on a fact.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

@nickreeves9876

2 Jan

Why is getting people to sign and share this petition like getting blood out of a stone? The epidemic of mendacity unleashed by the Brexit right has brought us Brexit and disastrous government. We must end the rule of lies. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/5617…

Please don't quibble about the practicalities of the proposal. The point is that we must work to make political dishonesty a huge political issue. The petition is just one small step towards achieving that. If we fail we won't have a democracy.

Petitions must not be seen as tools to persuade governments. They should serve rather to mobilise activist and more general public opinion.

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Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

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More from @nickreeves9876

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

Nick Reeves 3.5% #RRR #FBPE

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