Cheryl Smythe

[Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward]

Here's how the future is going to play out.

(Long - please expand the tweet.)

1. The Tories will wreck everything at an ever increasing pace as the GE approaches, like irresponsible teenagers who know they're not going to be the ones cleaning up the morning after their wild drunken binge.

2. Labour will win the GE on a desperate tide of people wanting to Get the Tories Out, but (and this will be VERY important later) their future freedom to manoevre will be hampered by the bright red lines they laid down on things like Brexit.

3. Labour will start trying to fix some of the stuff the Tories broke. It will prove very expensive. Mending is always more expensive than breaking.

4. Labour will try to Make Brexit Work. The RW tabloids will tear even bigger strips off them than usual.

5. Make Brexit Work won't. Work, that is. Trying to make Brexit work is like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube after you've brushed your teeth with it.

6. Meanwhile, Labour are having to spend more more more just to keep stuff from literally falling apart (think sewers, water pipes, collapsing schools, crumbling hospitals etc.)

7. Tories watch from the sidelines, laughing and jeering. "Typical Labour. Always spending money they don't have."

8. If they're VERY lucky, Labour will go into the GE-after-next with the overall situation in Britain slightly better than it was when they took office. The country will only be knee-deep in metaphoric and real sewage, rather than thigh deep.

9. The Tories and the RW media will tag team to blame everything that's (still) broken in Britain on Labour. "Same old Labour. Can't be trusted with the economy. Can't be trusted with anything. Can't even fix Brexit, despite their lofty promises."

(Important intermission: Labour will never get fair coverage in our British media. But this is a "known known". They need to figure out how to win, repeatedly, anyway.)

10. GE2: Electric Boogaloo. Labour are stuck. The taunts about having failed their flagship Brexit fixing policy hit home, because they're true. That lubricates the way for all the lies the Tories and RW media are spinning about their wider performance to slip down like honey.

IF Labour pivot towards SM/CU/Rejoin, they might as well tattoo "we wasted 5 years because we didn't have a clue about what we were doing when it comes to Brexit" across their collective foreheads. They may pivot anyway, because the alternative is even worse. This is where those bright red lines (remember them?) will bite them in the fundament so hard they won't be able to sit down for the next six months. Because the press can absolutely legitimately scream "U-turn! Come and see the U-turn so big, it's visible from the Moon." And it will be true.

(Absolutely critical point: there is no "Get the Tories Out" vote. "Ooh, the scary Tories will get back in if you don't vote for us" doesn't have anything like the same impact, especially with non-core Labour voters who lent their votes last time but who are absolutely livid about Labour's failing approach to the Brexit they detest.)

11. Labour lose GE2. A one-term wonder, and they're done. The Tories do what they do best: keep blaming everything on Labour, while picking their looting back up where they left off last time.

-----------

Scroll back up through the scenario above, and look at how Brexit runs through it like a vein pumping pure poison.

That is why Labour need to change their fundamental approach to Brexit, and they need to do so now.

Stop ruling anything out (not saying you won't do something isn't the same as proactively saying you will). Think along the lines of "Labour will do whatever it takes to mitigate the damage Brexit is causing". Make the change far enough ahead of the GE that the fuss about the U-turn is reduced to the constant every-day moaning and carping of the RW press by the time the GE comes around.

Also, Labour need to reconsider PR. It's the only hope they (and we) have of anything approaching long-term stability.

Many of the problems Britain faces will take 2, 3, 4+ election cycles to fix. And they need to be fixed. But the only conceivable way of getting the time necessary to do so is to form long-term partnerships via PR.

That way, you get rid of the short-termism that has dominated British politics to the ruin of us all. (In the current 5-year political cycle, the first year is spent learning the ropes and the last gearing up for the GE, so there are really only 3 even vaguely "productive" years to be wrung out of incumbency.)

Phew, and we're done. You may disagree. You probably will disagree. But please take a very deep breath and a big step back, and think about whether your disagreement comes because it feels genuinely too horrible to contemplate the real world in the stark terms I painted above, and whether your support for a particular political party is blinding you to the reality of what they can achieve in a short 5-year (really 3) period in office.

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

And if you *still* need convincing that bigoted liar Boris Johnson might not actually be the Churchillian figure we've been told he is by sycophantic pundits, journalists, MPs and utterly delusional morons, here's what is quite possibly his finest hour:

[Sue Perkins 💙 @sueperkins]

@RishiSunak
Hi Rishi. Would you be able to talk me through the reasoning behind the Peerages decisions? I’m struggling with a few of them. For instance, I’d love to know how a 29-year old with no real history of public service is now ennobled. Thanks!

[Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @Haggis_UK]

Chris Bryant - "Boris Johnson is leaving as a disgraced Prime Minister... so why on earth did Rishi Sunak allow him to have a resignation honours list, which is full of some of the most discredited people in British politics... all of this just stinks"

#BBCBreakfast

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Stinks. Rewards for political allies & cronies to a rogue PM who is himself still under police & parliamentary investigation over #Partygate. Sunak should’ve stopped it https://t.co/mnslAJlsEE

[Supertanskiii @supertanskiii]

Caroline Lucas, making a very important point about our undemocratic voting system. There is a progressive majority in Britain, but first past the post does not represent us or what we want. We need electoral reform. We need proportional representation.

[Marcus Chown @marcuschown]

It feels we are in limbo waiting for the Tories to go and hoping they don’t destroy too much of our country or steal much more of our money before they go. Am I the only one who feels this?

[Jon Sopel @jonsopel]

Don’t want to go over the top, but this is absolutely jaw-dropping. Someone who was in the cabinet when legislation on voter ID was agreed and went through parliament acknowledges it WAS an attempt to gerrymander the elections https://t.co/onD8iPUsJO

[Embassy of Ireland, USA @IrelandEmbUSA]

A special Europe Day this year when Ireland celebrates 50 years of EU membership.

We look forward to the next 50! 🇮🇪🤝🇪🇺

Le Chéile. Together. Ensemble.

👉 https://t.co/JwMxJJhk96

#IrelandEU50

[Cheryl Smythe @cdws100]

First Past the Post is “a democratic obscenity” - let’s make #EveryVoteMatter and #GetPRdone https://t.co/gVKGbmS6bG

[Cheryl Smythe @cdws100]

“It’s surprising what you can get away with if you wrap it in the union flag” says it all about the UK right now 🙁 https://t.co/NmDV50yth1

[MimiJ @MimiJ9]

Rishi Sunak was voted in by Tory MP’s.

Now he’s lost over 1000 Council seats.

He has no mandate.

RT if you want a General Election, now!

[Carol Vorderman @carolvorders]

New website launched tonight
#StopTheTories

Put in your postcode and it will tell you details of your council ward, and how to vote tactically on May 4th to STOP THE TORIES.

It's very good.
RT RT RT

Maybe Question Time could give it a mention? 🤔

https://t.co/j1atCUIrdV

[Tobi @TobiFrenzen]

The @Conservatives absolutely detest this honest campaign ad, which was recently released by a disgruntled CCHQ job applicant.

So please, let's not hamper their upcoming #LocalElection prospects, or embarrass them any further, by accidentally sharing it!

[Cheryl Smythe @cdws100]

@iain_reynolds Mo and some of the other women rightly recognised in … https://t.co/9x3Xl7meh9

[Armando Iannucci @Aiannucci]

Back of my Polling Card for local elections. For 1st time, photo ID is required. Card gives many options for elderly or those with disability. None, NONE, for younger or student voters. The policy is simply biased against younger voters, designed to suppress their vote.

[Nick Tyrone @NicholasTyrone]

Andrea Leadsom in the House of Commons talked about how Northern Ireland has "a huge opportunity" because it will "have open access to the EU markets". Why does the ball never drop for them that if having this access is a good thing, that means Brexit wasn't a great idea?

[Dr. Farbod MBBCh FRCEM @EmergencyBod]

This is Baroness Jenny Jones of the Green Party perfectly calling out this current Tory government.

This lurch to the right, populist rhetoric and scapegoating is a product of a Tory party terrified of not only losing their grip on power, but of their political annihilation.

[Cheryl Smythe @cdws100]

Exactly what I thought when @BBCNews led with Lineker on the 6 o’clock news. Unbelievable! Do better @BBCNews !!