The Tories and Labour don’t want to talk about Brexit. Even the Lib Dems and the Brexit Party are doing a bad job of focussing on their pet topic. As a result, an election that will determine our country’s future for decades to come is avoiding the elephant in the room.
It’s clear why Boris Johnson doesn’t want to talk about Brexit. He is embarrassed by the terrible deal he has done to get us out of the EU – so he doesn’t want it to be subjected to scrutiny. He pretends he will “get Brexit done”, but that’s nonsense as he is nowhere near agreeing a future trade agreement. So he wants to talk about pretty much anything else.
Labour doesn’t want to talk about Brexit either. That’s because it has a convoluted policy that involves renegotiating our exit deal, figuring out whether to back what it negotiates or stay in the EU – and then asking the people what they want in a referendum. That’s not easy to explain on the airwaves or the doorstep.
The Lib Dems do want to talk about Brexit. But they are making a bad fist of it. Given how little airtime they are getting, it’s a mystery why they don’t take every opportunity to ram home their anti-Brexit stance.
Today, for example, the Lib Dem deputy leader launched its plan to spend £100 billion on fighting the climate crisis. But Ed Davey missed a trick on the BBC’s Today Programme. He didn’t make the obvious point that we will be able to do much more to stop our planet frying if we stay in the EU, push our continent to be ambitious in its climate targets and then influence the global debate. (Listen after 1’23”).
As for Nigel Farage, he is certainly grabbing attention with his accusations that the Tories tried to bribe his candidates not to stand against them. But his dirty backroom deal with Johnson has muddied his message that only he is offering an honest Brexit. He had plenty of ammo to argue that the Prime Minister will end up turning the UK into a vassal state. He’s not using it.
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The media is also to blame. It is letting the politicians avoid the elephant in the room. Sometimes it even stops them addressing it. For example, when interviewing Davey this morning, the BBC’s Martha Kearney said: “I don’t want to get too bogged down in the Brexit debate.” If Johnson wins the election and the electorate only then wakes up to the horror they’ve signed up to, the broadcasters will have a lot to answer for.
At InFacts, we are talking about Brexit day in, day out. We are rebutting the falsehoods that Johnson spouts. If you haven’t seen our new mythbust section, have a look here. We are scrutinising the Prime Minister’s rotten deal and have a new section on this too. We also have a new Project Hope section setting out how we can better fix the problems at home and abroad if we stay in the EU.
Let’s fix it, not Brexit.
