No-one knows the Labour party’s position on Brexit. Labour don’t know the Labour party’s position on Brexit. Kier Starmer, the shadow Brexit minister, or ‘old dead eyes’ as I like to think of him, continuously maintains that they’d just ‘negotiate a much better deal’ without actually mentioning what that might entail. And certainly never ever broaches the somewhat more tricky subject of whether ‘Europe’, as we call ‘it’, would accept this offer, which they doubtless wouldn’t.

So Labour may now, having consistently said they wouldn’t, consider a ‘second referendum’ on the terms of Brexit. But here’s the problem, particularly for Jeremy Corbyn.

Many issues are party political issues. Fox hunting. Very tory, wouldn’t get much support from Labour. Workers rights. Very Labour, the Tories would oppose a lot of it. Shooting peasants in the countryside. Reducing the tax on vintage champagne. Nationalising the entire country including the rail networks and Goldman Sacks. These are all very party political things.

Brexit isn’t. There are both sides in both the main parties. We don’t need to count the Lib Dems because they are numerically insignificant. And UKIP is a synonym of ‘Brexit’ and they’ve shot their load and gone into hibernation.

And this division inside the parties is Theresa May’s problem, obviously, in that she can’t get any proposals that please both sides. For Jeremy Corbyn its harder still. Because the Labour Party Members are very pro-remain whereas a vast majority of Labour voters are pro-Brexit. Brexiteers don’t want a second referendum, whatever it may say. If I’ve heard ‘leave means leave!’ once I’ve heard it a million times. They won the referendum, let democracy work.

So at their conference in Liverpool this week, the members will decide whether a second referendum will be supported by Labour. And they’ll probably decide to back the idea. Whereas outside the conference the Labour supporters will resent the fuck out of their party for doing that. And Jeremy Corbyn can’t win an election with just the party members.

Len McLusky, the third arm of the devil’s horns (yep, I just awarded the devil a third horn in the interest of political metaphor) after Corbyn and McDonnell, is pragmatic enough to realise that by promising a second referendum it could actually cost Labour a general election should it happen. And McLusky is in lust with the idea of having a government in trade union hands. And as far as he’s concerned Europe can go or stay, whatever, as long as it doesn’t stop him getting POWER.

Interesting week to come. If you like chaos.

Happy Monday

A xxxx