Referendum first: a reply to Valerie Coultas
Comments on socialistresistance.org2010sA comment by Alan in the thread under “Hold the referendum before an election” on socialistresistance.org.
The publication's own web text.
Editor's note. Alan's article Hold the referendum before an election argued that a public vote on Brexit should come before a general election. Valerie Coultas asked how he could “peddle the views of the Labour right”: “We want a general election to unite the country behind Labour's programme now. We do not want a second referendum and keep the Tories in power.” Alan replied after Boris Johnson had agreed a revised deal with the EU on 17 October 2019.
In fact Jeremy Corbyn is now, quite rightly, advocating a referendum first by demanding that Johnson’s deal is put to a confirmatory vote. Whatever the Labour right do is irrelevant. We can’t determine our position by saying the opposite to them.