The people have spoken and those of us who wanted to remain in the European Union must accept this. I have no truck with the petition currently doing the rounds asking for the referendum to be rerun and nor should the Labour party. It would be a slap in the face to many Labour or former Labour voters who voted to Leave. But those of us who want a more progressive, more outward-looking and more internationalist country need to understand why we lost as we look to build our new future. We need to set out a clear progressive agenda for what we want out of renegotiation talks and when agreement is reached it may be appropriate for a second referendum to confirm.
As part of this new world I also want to see a kinder, less personally vicious politics. This referendum never felt like a good idea and I have never been involved in a campaign that felt as nasty. But I also know there are people who were on the other side have come to their view through reasoned thought not prejudice. They deserve respect not dehumanising, as do people involved in our opposing democratic parties. But they must also demonstrate their humanity by standing up against the blatant racism that has been unleashed following the referendum result. Its perpetrators feel legitimised and we must make it clear that both leavers and remainers believe such views are not welcome in today’s Britain.
At the count on Thursday night, I saw a ballot box from one of our most deprived areas where only around one in four of the votes were to remain. That is indicative of what has happened in disadvantaged communities across England and Wales. Throughout the western world those with fewer qualifications have seen their ability to earn undermined by both jobs going overseas and workers coming over here. They feel like they have been left behind by globalisation – and they are right. Anger about this has been expressed in different ways in different countries but there can be no doubt that the vote for Brexit is part of this phenomenon, stirred up further by the Tories’ spending cuts.
If Labour is ever to renew itself as a political force to be reckoned with, it must address these concerns. Part of it is increasing and improving skills, not just university degrees, and providing an infrastructure to help disabled people and those who have to care for members of their family to work and to earn. We need to be clear about maintaining and enforcing minimum pay and conditions and housing standards. We need a benefit system that is fair and is seen to be fair. Those who are enjoying the fruits of globalisation also need to understand if they want to carry on doing so, they have to find a way to take along those who have been left behind. But most of all Labour need to be seen to know and care about these issues 365 days a year, not just as we approach an election.
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Mary Wimbury is former parliamentary candidate for Aberconwy. She tweets @MaryWimbury
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The call for a new referendum is the best symbol we can send now to protest against all the lies of the Leave campaign. How can they invoke a Fear campaign from the Remain side when all the predictions of a recession, increased racism,broken promises,… are taking place right now ?
The Leave victory was a suicidal decision, and we shouldn’t assist that suicide.
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Sorry, but we lost. There were many lies from both sides (and you can’t exactly say the establishment was sitting on the fence), so we’ll have a bit less of the holier-than-thou self-righteous guff. Every citizen of this kingdom, from Shetland to the Isles of Scilly had the chance to vote, under the same rules as the next person. It pains me to say this, but we’re starting to look just like the Leave side would be doing if we’d won, and that’s the last thing I want to do just now. Self-pitying and throwing toys from the pram will never look classy and will never impress anybody.
Except we had gross media manipulation from the BBC who gave disproportionate coverage to Boris Bonkers and Farage while rarely showing Labour LibDems, Greens or SNP whose MPs far exceed UKIPs. Moreover every third party contribution on the BBC from experts, professions and academics had a Leave Speaker appear saying it was Project Fear. The BBC were grossly biased.Moreover as has been said before the BBC now rehash the combined Sun, Mail, Express and Telegraph very “right wing news agenda ” on a daily basis. The lies were recycled by the public broadcaster. Corbyn the main opposition leader as the Observer heard from Stronger in Europe played a pitiful and awful role.
But have you seen the broadcasting media respond in any way ; not so with the exception of the Mirror maybe Observer , Boris Bonkers hid away for several days, missed parliament, missed market upheaval, missed Sky, BBC, ITV. His advisors are clever, he is being relaunched and will return to kid and smile his way to no 10. Murdoch’s Sun are giving everything to make sure he puts a neoliberal stamp on England and Wales. He won and he wins the country soon.
The elephant in the room is always the Tory tabliods ; they are vicious and we ignore their serious impact on our voters. Clever clogs think they are irrelevant as we tweet and Facebook ourselves into oblivion. Not so in our heartlands where the Sun, Mail and Express sells to middle aged and elderly. The Sun probably pushed Remain vote up just enough as it did in its Stop Miliband last year. The Murdoch empire are now behind right wing Boris heading for no 10. We need clever ways to combat them but I doubt we ever will.