Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver

Author:Craig Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL058000 POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / European
Publisher: Quercus

Will believes our challenge is getting politicians to use the script, because it jars with the more defensive position that Labour and Conservative politicians take on the issue. He suggests a big speech from the PM on the importance of the single market.

Others point out that freedom of movement is a simple fact that we struggle to get round – we cannot win an argument about control, but we can win an argument about a strong economy.

I don’t disagree with a lot of this, but there’s a problem. We have had a lot of success with the assertion that Leave believe a recession is a ‘price worth paying’. It seems to me that the weakness in our argument on immigration is the same in reverse. These levels of immigration are a price worth paying to ensure a strong economy.

So, a question we will almost certainly be hammered with in this now binary debate is: ‘Let me be clear: you are saying European immigration – whereby anyone who wants to work in our country and is not a criminal, should be allowed to come here, and use our public services – is a price worth paying?’ We can keep pointing to the hard-won curbs on welfare payments from the renegotiation, but it means we will struggle with the person saying, you don’t understand what it is like at my child’s school, or going into my local A&E.

We are in danger of sounding like an out-of-touch elite. In a general election, immigration is only part of the argument – in this referendum, it will be at least half of it.

Ryan agrees with me that our position reads as: we think free movement is a price worth paying for membership of the single market and the economic benefits that brings. The difference between our position and theirs is that, when tested, there is net support for what we say, but not for what they say.

And this is the nub of everything.

We believe we have the winning argument.

The PM’s next call is with Gordon Brown, who sounds gruff, but engaged.

DC underlines the importance of getting Labour involved and not turning this into a Tory psychodrama.

Gordon Brown believes, ‘There’s been some success getting the Tory vote back in the fold,’ but his primary concern is that the Labour vote is not secure. He says we have to focus on different messages for different people and we have to remember that the economic message doesn’t always work for people who are not already economically secure. He believes our message for them must not be one of fear, but of optimism for the future. ‘Most of all,’ he says, ‘it’s horses for courses. Including a positive voice for a better future for Labour voters.’

All of this sounds encouraging, but he then makes a rather apocalyptic point, ‘You are facing a perfect storm. Immigration, terrorism and a fragile EU economy … No one believes leaving would make things any better,’ but he seems to be pointing to a kind of anarchic ‘to hell with it all’ attitude.

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