On a Heidi’n to Nothing or How to Chuka’n Election

A friend rang asking for whom I was going to vote in the up-coming EU Parliamentary election. She was not at all clear about which parties were “really” Remainer. She wanted to know which parties were Remainer plus a referendum and which parties were just for a referendum: oh, and vice versa. She was also not sure about what questions the various Remainer parties wanted the referendum to address. “Will Leave still be on the ballot?” She was anxious not to vote for the “wrong” Remainer party and hence against the “right” Remainer party. Her misgivings were only increased  by smarty pants Remainers, like Heidi and Chuka, assuring her on TV that the “d’Hondt system of proportional representation” means that Remainers standing against each other will not be as bad as it seems. “They know they will hurt the Remain vote but they are going to stand anyway?” In her confusion and increasing fury she does not know for whom to vote and her anxieties may well mean she will not vote at all. She may well not be alone.

Faced with spineless Remainer MPs who caved in to populism and voted for the referendum bill, the activation of article 50 and stood for Parliament on manifestos that promised to “respect” the referendum, the electors are understandably wary of such so-called Remainer politicians. In particular, putting aside stupidity and self-seeking and opportunistic careerism, what, they are asking, led the Chuka and Heidi Concert Party to set itself up and now to stand against well-established Remainer party candidates from the Lib Dems, the Greens and the SNP? And why are Lib Dems splitting the Remainer vote in Scotland by standing against the SNP?

The Brexit Party is already claiming that the EU elections are, in effect, the Peoples’ Vote for which so many misguided Remainers have been calling. And why? Because they believe that, with their single, if simple minded, message of Brexit, they will win hands down over the confused, hypocritical and squabbling Remainer parties. They may be right and, if so, the Remainers politicians will have no one to blame but themselves.