Brexit? Blame the Unions!

[mistermack]

It's absolutely true. It's down to a few trade unionists that Britain is leaving the EU.

Without them, it would never have happened.

How's that?

In September, 2010, Ed Milliband defeated his brother David, by 1.3% in the leadership election. David was well ahead in the votes of MPs and MEPs, but the trade union votes overturned that, and installed Ed Milliband as leader.

If David Milliband had been leader, Cameron would not have won the last election. Certainly not with an outright majority. There would have been no referendum.

You can also blame Gordon Brown.
He had a chance to call a General Election with a good lead in the polls in October 2007.
He dithered over a full weekend, and then chickened out.

Had he won that, he could have been Prime Minister for another entire term.
Who can say who would have been leader of Labour, or who would have won at the next general election. It's not likely that the Tories would have stood on a platform of calling a referendum, if they were in opposition.

So that's it. A few trade unionists, and Gordon Brown. Both changed the course of history.

[Svartalf]

nice speculative fiction, but no cigar

[mistermack]

nice speculative fiction, but no cigar

Under what circumstances would it not have been speculation, or fiction? And who was ever going to award a cigar?

[JimC]

I'll steer a middle course here. Speculative, but not impossible. I don't know enough about UK politics to assign a probability...

[mistermack]

Well, it's not speculation that a few trade unionists swung the leadership vote in favour of Ed Milliband over David. That's a matter of public record.

So David Milliband would have been leader, bar for them.
At the time, he was a very popular figure. He wasn't in the pockets of the Unions. And he was far nearer the centre in his views.
So you would have had a popular leader, and a team that he had picked, who wouldn't have been so far left.
That would be BOUND to produce a tighter finish in the General Election. Possibly another hung parliament, this time with no Liberal coalition, or with the Scottish Nationalists holding the balance, or just as possibly a narrow Labour win.

Any way you look at it, you wouldn't have had this Brexit.

[Scot Dutchy]

If 'ifs' and 'ands' were pot and pans...

[mistermack]

If 'ifs' and 'ands' were pot and pans...

If wit was shit ....




You'd be constipated.