There's a good piece in the Financial Times by Miranda Green today asking whether Ed Davey's determination not to talk about Brexit or post-election deals with Labour is damaging the Liberal Democrats:
The psephologist Sir John Curtice has pored over last month’s results in battleground areas, combined with how people voted in the 2016 referendum and what they now think about it. He is unconvinced: "It’s not obvious what the benefits are at the moment to the Liberal Democrats of staying schtum on Brexit."
Curtice can track even Rejoiners heading to Labour, despite the main opposition party’s even more extreme caution on the topic. He warns that the Lib Dems, in contrast to Starmer, have little to show for their reticence.
And pressure is mounting on Davey as impatient activists, candidates and party grandees see public Opinion turn against the decision to leave the EU. Selection hustings are peppered with critiques of "timidity".
It's not possible for the Lib Dems to fight the next election on a pledge to reverse Brexit. The European Union would have to be convinced there has been a fundamental change in public and political opinion in Britain before it would entertain the idea.
And the kamikaze campaign fought by Jo Swinson in 2019 was in nay case predicated upon absurdly optimistic opinion polling.
But we must be prepared to say at the next election that Brexit lies at the heart of many of the problems Britain faces. Until we can be honest about the causes of these problems, we won't be able to talk credibly about solving them.
