Monday 25 April 2016

None the wiser

 I don't understand what these people are playing at:
Ukip leader Nigel Farage has urged the Leave campaign to focus on immigration rather than economics and trade. "If we debate economics and trade, we can go round in circles for weeks and the public will be none the wiser," he said.

It comes after a "shaky" week for the Out campaign, says The Guardian.
The Week

The specific bit I don't understand is this. They want people to vote to get out of the EU. So we can assume that they've already got the votes of the True Believers who are going to vote leave in the bag - where else are those people going to go?

Then Outers have a few days when they make fools of themselves and the country with borderline racist comments about the President of the USA and suggestions that Dominic Raab (AKA "Who?") knows more about how US trade policy is likely to pan out then the actual President of the USA.

You'd think, wouldn't you, that after such a shaky week, full of ridiculous drivel that could only be swallowed by the truest, most fanatical, most uncritical of True Believers, while frightening off the undecided, that they might decide to focus on the sort of issues that would attract floating voters, widening their appeal, rather than on a narrow core-vote anti-immigrant strategy, which seems like the last thing they need right now?

But there's no mention of the sort of issues that might possibly win over a wider coalition of people with doubts about the EU. They could, for instance, have mentioned the catastrophically mismanaged Eurozone (we're not in, but it hardly gives you confidence in EU institutions), the democratic deficit, the shameful pandering to the increasingly despotic Turkish president and TTIP. But, no, it's the same old narrow appeal to the Ukip / Tory Eurosceptic base.

It's almost as if they don't want to win. Which is fine by me.

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