Labour needn’t worry: in its northern heartlands, Brexiters are not the only voices

Labour needn’t worry: in its northern heartlands, Brexiters are not the only voices | Polly Toynbee

The party is drawing up its European manifesto. From what I’ve seen, it won’t suffer a backlash by pledging a confirmatory vote

“I voted out. Out means out and I’d do it again,” said the old man, as he harrumphed off up Kirkgate on his mobility scooter. Wakefield voted 66% to 34% in favour of leave, so here was the perfect vox pop. Bank it, let it stand for northern working-class leavedom and head back south?

But what of the other voices I heard in the windswept West Yorkshire market precinct outside the cathedral? Fed-upness with all politics, indignation at Westminster chaos, resentment at three wasted years of empty argy-bargy. A few people said they wouldn’t vote again in another referendum, they were just too disillusioned. “Bring back Guy Fawkes!” one man joked. Plenty of well-justified grudge; but there were plenty of switchers too. Resentful, not ode-to-joy converts, but weary givers-in to the realities, trade-offs and hard choices that were never revealed during the referendum.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GIFEa2

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