{"id":8974,"date":"2016-06-10T16:32:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T15:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8974"},"modified":"2016-06-10T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T15:32:08","slug":"brexit-tories-cannot-be-trusted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8974","title":{"rendered":"Brexit Tories ‘cannot be trusted’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As soon as the EU Out campaign was dubbed BREXIT you could hear broadcast journalists salivating with unadulterated pleasure.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a word that demands emphasis.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0The Remain campaign without an equivalent fizz didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand a chance.<\/p>\n

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When the In\/Out referendum was called journalists at first gave the impression that it was all so tedious.\u00c2\u00a0 Ending stories with a stifled yawn:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bJust another three months to go\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say in that world weary way of those that had seen it all before.\u00c2\u00a0 Only of course they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0 This was seismic and journalists were eventually shook up.<\/p>\n

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It was redolent of how some journalists approached the Scottish Independence Referendum until the polls began to suggest a possible SNP win, and then they raced out of their Westminster safe havens and rushed up to the Scottish borders.<\/p>\n

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There was a great deal of excitement on Scottish streets that became contagious with endless reporters on pieces to camera signing off with; \u00e2\u20ac\u0098it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too close to call\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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Only they were wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 The polls were wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0The excitement generated didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t transfer to the polling booth.\u00c2\u00a0 And while the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Better Together\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 won – how they won exacerbated Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forthcoming destruction.<\/p>\n

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The Tories wiped out in Scotland meant Scottish Labour fronted the campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite defeating Scottish independence, by sidling with the Conservatives in support of the Union, Labour who were already losing its core working class vote have subsequently been annihilated.<\/p>\n

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No wonder the Labour leadership don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to appear on the same platform with Tories on the EU referendum.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just about base politics. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about a Europe where workers have rights enshrined in law.<\/p>\n

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The referendum called by a Prime Minister who calculated that he had to appease his Tory Eurosceptics and win back voters who were attracted by UKIP, has proved to be a massive miscalculation.<\/p>\n

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Presumably Cameron must have thought winning a Tory majority government for the first time since 1997 meant his persuasive style would save the day.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe come June 24th it will but right now a win is looking flimsy.<\/p>\n

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So flimsy that the former Prime Minister, John Major, has come to Cameron and Remains\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rescue by letting rip with accusations that are astonishing in their ferocity.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0He was angry he told Andrew Marr that the British people are being \u00e2\u20ac\u0098misled and deceived\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 Vote Leave, he said, had lost the economic argument and were now \u00e2\u20ac\u0098veering\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 towards immigration, where; \u00e2\u20ac\u015btheir campaign is verging on the squalid\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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He spat out venom on those senior Tories who are claiming that they would put money saved by not being in the EU into the NHS: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese promises of expenditure on the National Health Service and elsewhere are frankly fatuous.\u00c2\u00a0 They are a deceit\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.\u00c2\u00a0 He mocked them when he said that the NHS would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098about as safe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the hands of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith as a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpet hamster would be with a hungry python\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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John Major while Prime Minister was given a torrid time by Eurosceptics over the Maastricht Treaty.\u00c2\u00a0 He belied his \u00e2\u20ac\u0098grey image\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 then when he called them bastards, and the spin will be that he is taking his revenge.\u00c2\u00a0 So what?\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always known.<\/p>\n

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Watching the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 civil war getting bloodier is tantalising but as journalists use up vast air time on the referendum as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098blue on blue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 story, with the added spark of a future leadership contest, voices from the unions and Labour have been crowded out.<\/p>\n

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Trade unions representing six million people are clear that the social and cultural benefits of remaining far outweigh any advantages of leaving.\u00c2\u00a0 They are right to want the EU to move away from the path of austerity, but as they point out by working in solidarity with European partners – hard fought workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights have been achieved.<\/p>\n

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If Major is moved to condemn those Tories who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t support a publicly funded NHS of misleading the British public then the general secretaries from major unions are correct to warn of the dangers a vote to leave would mean.<\/p>\n

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For years the right wing press have pursued an anti-European agenda. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in their business interests to have an untrammelled free market without having to worry about any regulations.\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder people have moved to a more Eurosceptic position.<\/p>\n

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Osborne and Cameron, who are given the status of strategists, have got it repeatedly wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0They have, while in government sought to demonise immigration, and now the atmosphere over immigration is toxic.\u00c2\u00a0 Their moves on voter registration among young people and students designed to damage Labour has also meant a swathe of supporters of the EU are disenfranchised.<\/p>\n

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I am not uncritical about EU membership but I know that the hard right Conservatives who would be negotiating our exit, should Brexit win, cannot be trusted.\u00c2\u00a0 We see regulations as protection they see red tape to be put on a bonfire.<\/p>\n

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