A definite maybe from Mr Straight Talking Honest Politics
‘I can hear the chant now. What do we want? That depends! When do we want it? At the appropriate time!’
Straight Talking Honest Politics. That’s what Jeremy Corbyn promised. It was the slogan of his first Labour leadership campaign. It was emblazoned on banners, placards, his lectern. Straight Talking Honest Politics.
I often think about that, these days, whenever I’m watching some benighted interviewer attempt to extract a clear answer from Mr Corbyn about Brexit.
Yesterday, as the Labour Party conference opened in Liverpool, it was the turn of the BBC’S Andrew Marr. Poor Mr Marr. He might as well have tried interviewing Mr Corbyn’s chair, or the studio carpet.
After a minute or so spent struggling to establish whether Mr Corbyn would back a second referendum if Labour delegates demanded one (“Let’s see what comes out of conference… We’ll come to a conclusion on that… I don’t know what’s going to come out of all the composite meetings…”), Mr Marr asked him which way he himself would vote. To go ahead with Brexit, or remain in the EU?
“Well, that’s conjecture as to what the question would be,” said Mr Corbyn, with a disapproving frown, as if he’d been asked something faintly improper: how old he was when he first kissed a girl, perhaps, or what colour underpants he was wearing.
But, persisted Mr Marr, imagine you were asked, in a second referendum, whether you wanted to go ahead with Brexit, or remain in the EU. Which way would you vote?
“That’s conjecture,” repeated Mr Corbyn firmly.
So there we have it: Mr Straight Talking Honest Politics, doggedly refusing to express an opinion on the most important political issue of our age, for fear, presumably, that doing so might damage him in the polls.
Heaven help him if he actually does have to campaign in a second referendum. I can hear the chant now. “What do we want? That depends! When do we want it? At the appropriate time!”
Mr Marr abandoned the attempt to winkle out an answer on Brexit, and moved on.
Dawn Butler, a shadow minister, had controversially praised the hard-left Liverpool councillors who in 1985 defied the Thatcher government by setting an illegal budget. Did Mr