Thread by @seanjonesqc

I have just listened to Keir Starmer on @campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK's podcast and have been reflecting further on his Brexit position. /1

There are two things which stand out for me. The first is that like all Conservative politicians, he invokes the need to heal the divisions Brexit has caused but wants to do so by leaning into the Hard Brexit project. /2

I know all the "he has to to get elected" arguments, so I beg you, on pain of blocking, don't make me run through all that again. What I want to do instead is take him at face value. He says he means it, I pay him the respect of assuming that he does. /3

How does backing a hard Brexit heal the division? There is literally nothing on offer to those who backed Remain. This is just as doomed a strategy for him as it has been Johnson because it is not materially different. /4

It was hoped that "Remainers" would lose heart and find a way to see Brexit as a success. But they conspicuously haven't. Scepticism is stronger. Starmer says he'll make it work because it has to work for his kids and ours. But that's just "believe harder" with a red rosette /5

Reconciliation can't work without compromise and no amount of demanding that people commit unhesitatingly to the very thing they've determinedly opposed will result in unity. /6

If anything it's worse for Starmer than it is for the Tories. The de-regulationists don't care if we're divided or not. For them the Brexit opportunities are the de-regulation they wanted from the outset and which the very harms Brexit has caused are now being used to justify /7

But Starmer doesn't want to de-regulate, which means Brexit offers him nothing other than a chance to share the blame when it continues to hold us back. /8

The second thing is his line about "not looking back". That is a weak argument for a couple of reasons. First to insist you cannot undo a mistake is not wisdom, it's stupid. It's like taking a wrong turn on the way home and deciding to make living somewhere else work. /9

Second, Brexit is the very epitome of looking back. It is shot through with confected nostalgia for a Britain that never existed. It is about ignoring economic and geopolitical realities in favour of misty, exceptionalist histories. /10

If he really believes you can't go back, why embrace a project which is pure nostaligia opium-eating? /end