For those of us who take the time to read party political Manifestos, the Labour Party Manifesto for the 2017 General Election contains some worrying inexactitudes. I say "contains some worrying inexactitudes" not to say 'incredible lies".
The Manifesto of more than a 100 pages with more than 24,000 words and divided in 12 chapters deals with a number of issues and some very frightening ideas.
We cannot deal with everything in one single article. Therefore I will focus on Chapter 2 - Negotiating Brexit.
On Chapter 2, the Manifesto says that Labour will scrap the Conservatives' Brexit White Paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that have a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the Single Market and the Customs Union.
Now standing by what many high ranking EU representatives including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Jean Claude Junker, Martin Schultz and Wolfgang Schäuble, Brexit means no Single Market and no Customs Union. There could be trade agreements but Britain will not be part of the Single Market or of the Customs Union.
This leads us to the point that the Labour Party is in denial of the nature of Brexit and wants Britain to remain in the EU, going against the will of the British people expressed in a Referendum on June 23 2016 and supported by the House of Commons that acknowledge the will of the British people and gave Prime Minister Theresa May the authority to trigger Article 50.
What follows next is yet another lie. The Manifesto says "A Labour government will immediately guarantee existing rights for all EU nationals living in Britain and secure reciprocal rights for UK citizens who have chosen to make their lives in EU countries. Eu nationals do not just contribute to our society: they are part of our society. And they should not be used as bargaining chips."
"It is shameful that the Prime Minister rejected repeated attempts by Labour to resolve this issue before Article 50 was triggered. As a result three million EU nationals have suffered unnecessary uncertainty, as have 1.2 million UK citizens living in the EU."
Another two lies: One - Britain is not using EU nationals as bargaining chips and Two - Prime Minister Theresa May tried unsuccessfully to get Angela Merkel and other high ranking EU representatives to deal with the issue of EU and UK citizens' rights before Article 50 was triggered.
The EU response was that there would no negotiations whatsoever until after Article 50 was triggered and formal negotiations started. The Labour Party is lying to voters misrepresenting what has been Britain official position on this issue.
The Labour Party explicitly says that "We will drop the Conservatives' Great Repeat Bill, replacing with an EU Rights and Protections Bill". What this means is that the Labour Party will seek to maintain the status in which EU rules will take precedence over British rules.
On the one hand the Labour Party is portraying itself as respecting the will of the Electorate expressed on June 23 2016 and on the other the Labour Party is refusing to accept the will of the people by maintaining the status quo that the Electorate expressly rejected.
A concoction of false promises and lies are not a good start for a Manifesto that seeks to persuade the Electorate to support the Labour Party in a General Election.
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