The Lib Dem surge in the polls is proof enough that being anti-Brexit is the only way people will vote for you. One I saw even had them in double figures.
I mean...I
sort of agree with this, in that it's clear Corbyn taking a position either way on Brexit will alienate him from swathes of voters within the party, but wasn't the benefit of Corbyn when he was picked as leader the fact that he was supposed to be a politician who fought on principles and ideals because he believed them to be right, even if he wasn't always popular with the public
for those ideas? And isn't a significant part of his appeal the fact that instead of timidly accepting a right-wing agenda and moving to the centre, he instead fights back and tries to promote his own ideals?
Saying "we need to do this because this correct move we believe in isn't politically popular" is exactly what Blair, Brown and Miliband did for years, and it's exactly the reason many Labour voters grew tired with them and opted for a genuine left-wing alternative instead. Saying "this isn't good for our polling" is something that could've applied to austerity in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Or it's something that can generally be said in opposing any tightening of immigration. But Corbyn consistently fought on his own ideals, even when he was down in the polling, because that's meant to be his entire appeal as a politician!
I'm not naive enough to think of Corbyn as some saint who's going to be able to practice absolute standards of principle...politicking happens behind closed doors all the time and quite frankly he needs to be savvy and underhanded sometimes considering the number of factions he has working against him, both inside and outside the party. But if you fundamentally believe that Brexit is a fairly disastrous idea that's going to leave the country up the shitter economically, then it should be your job to oppose that. Because all of Corbyn's attractive ideas will be for nowt if the country he's trying to implement them in has been fecked over after a bad political decision he really should've been opposing. And if Corbyn
doesn't think a prospective hard Brexit is a bad idea...then, well, yeah.
So yes. I get what you're saying. Corbyn coming out wearing a shirt with the EU flag on it and calling 52% of the British population racist clearly won't be a move that benefits him politically. But at the same time he's going to have to do
something on Brexit, and saying it's not popular politically is weak cop-out when we've often consistently defended Corbyn based on his ideals even when his polling was genuinely dreadful. Part of
why supporting either single market membership or remaining within the EU is unpopular domestically is because for years liberal politicians have regularly catered to the rhetoric of those who're anti-EU without ever planning to actually do anything about those concerns. Like when Ed was drinking from that daft "tough on immigration" mug. He had no plans to ever actually do anything about immigration, but made some absurd gesture to the right in the hope he might win over a Tory or two. Corbyn not speaking out against a hard Brexit because it might annoy people who might vote for him is similar to that. And the exact type of thing the Labour left have been criticising party figures for doing for years.
