A letter to Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East and Shadow Chancellor, from one of her constituents.
From: Susanna Reece
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2020
Subject: Brexit Trade Deal
To: Anneliese Dodds MP
Dear Anneliese,
I was very sorry indeed to read that Keir Starmer intends that Labour will support the Brexit trade deal, another failure in the series of failed promises since the 23 June 2016 referendum. Not once has Labour put the case for preserving our ties to Europe, upheld the precious rights and freedoms that are now being taken away from us, or stood up against the tide of xenophobia washing through our country. There has been no acknowledgment that Scotland has been taken out of the EU against its will, or that Brexit is no longer what people want. I am not ‘sick and tired of hearing about Brexit’, I am sick and tired of its diminution of everything I value and hold dear.
I also don’t want to hear from Labour these slogans about Britain being ‘the best place to grow up and grow old in’. It clearly won’t be, and can’t be. These calls to British exceptionalism are in many ways to blame for the situation we find ourselves in and are hollow promises from the populist playbook. I want to live in a country with basic standards of democracy, decency and safety, where children have enough to eat, and our elders are treated with dignity. Where all people are treated fairly, we are educated about our civil, political, economic and social rights and these are valued and upheld. Where we value international participation and know our place as a small country interdependent with and capable of learning from others in a time of existential threat from climate change and biodiversity loss.
Labour has not even begun to offer these values or to hold this government to account for its looting of this country since 2010, and, since July 2019, Boris Johnson’s blatant undermining of our democracy and constitutional norms, our civil service and judiciary; avoidance of Parliamentary scrutiny and packing the House of Lords with corrupt supporters; handling the pandemic with sleaze, corruption and gross misuse of the public purse, causing unnecessary loss of life.
What will it take for you to stand up to this dangerous nonsense? Please don’t ask for my support again until you do so.
Yours sincerely,
Susanna Reece
Ed: Surely most Labour supporters do not want their party to endorse this far right Tory party deal which is a very hard Brexit.
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