Thread by @paulmasonnews

Thread on #DeadChequers ... 1/ It's clear this morning that May is going to be pushed to ask for a Canada-style free trade agreement. She will use DUP and absence of Stormont Assembly to push through hard border. That's all in the Tory DNA...

2/~ The medium term effects of a Canada+ FTA will be to tank the economy and industrial investment flight. The UK will then fall apart, as United Ireland referendum and Scottish independence loom...

3/~ There is no section of British business that actively wants No Deal. Few have interests aligned to a Canada+ deal either. So: for Labour the way is open for a hegemonic offer. Norway+ and a second referendum...

4/~ I know ppl did not expect Salzburg to go to shit, and that it's only 09:37, but why can't just one person on the Labour front bench address this?

5/~ At tomorrow's NEC the unions are calling for Brexit to be top of the issues discussed at Labour conference. 150+ branches think likewise. Plus we'll have thousands of activists at @TWT_NOW wanting to now: what's the plan?

6/~ In the absence of a plan here's mine. Labour conference should vote for the General Election plus Second Referendum strategy. Then, as Tory conference becomes a shitshow...

7/~ Labour approaches Tory rebels, Libdems plus governments of Wales/NI to set up an alternative Joint Ministerial Council on Brexit, to negotiate a deal leaving us in the Single Market...

8/ ...This should include a convention, from below if necessary, in Northern Ireland with SF, SDLP and Alliance (incidentally if May or her replacement goes for hard border I expect Direct Rule to be formally imposed: Gove would love that)....

9/~ The Labour Party exists to achieve social justice and democracy; it also exists to step forward and save the nation at times of crisis, as Attlee and Greenwood did during the Norway crisis of 1940. All of us need to think big in this situation...

10/~ I know (see forthcoming @Monde_diplo report) that Labour activists in Leave areas fear being blamed for the "theft" of Brexit by the elite. That's why we have to go on trying to deliver a Brexit that will protect jobs, investment...

11/~ And much of the foot dragging against Norway+ comes from centrist Labour MPs, not "Lexiteers", who are actually listening to sentiment beyond the bubble...

11/~ Now May has definitively failed with Chequers, we need to push for a General Election now. If TUC etc are serious about their Congress resolution they should call a mass demo for #GeneralElectionNow ...

12/~ But in a General Election you need a concrete and dramatic offer to British business, the workforce and Leave voting areas who are going to lose jobs, farms, fisheries and don't have the money to stockpile grouse pie...

13/13 Labour's concrete and dramatic offer should be: Norway+ with no economic border in Ireland, and a second referendum to ratify the deal. If a party with MPs in Westminster advocates No Deal, that should go on ballot, otherwise: Norway+ vs Remain ENDS