I’m a big fan of Mick Lynch, but listening to him and James discuss his reasons for wanting to leave the EU was like listening to classic 2017 James O’Brien. A great reminder that nobody is perfect and nobody should be lauded unconditionally.
Well, I’m not bothered. The Brexit question was answered a long time ago.
I do not follow Mick Lynch for his takes on the EU.
The guy is clearly very good at what he does (trains) but completely goes off the boil on the EU, Russia etc…
So long as you don’t treat him as some sort of cult leader (looking at you “Mick for PM!”ers and fans of another socialist whose initials are JC…) you can take him seriously on the former and ignore him on the latter
Ah, the old “the EU is the evil capitalist bosses club” bollocks.
Ruthlessly exploited by the right to mug the working class and enable their Brexit.
Right down to Dominic Cummings choosing red as Vote Leave’s colour.
The EU is far from ideal, and is pro-neoliberalism which is essentially anti-future. On the other hand, leaving such an entity without any kind of planning or thinking it through properly was tantamount to being criminal.
Stick to what you know Micky Mick
Lynch’s Brexit explanation was somewhat curious. In his view, the EU has very few laws covering employment protections (citing the Working Time Directive as the main example) but at the same time, leaving the EU would enable the UK Government to increase employment protections. Both statements can’t be correct – can they?
I am pro EU but I can see why alot of left wing folk wouldn’t support. There is alot right with the EU but also alot wrong with the EU.
Just look at the sheer amount of lobbying by the major corporations that goes on in Brussels. There are 25,000 lobbyists in Brussels with a combined budge of €3 billion a year which is used to influence EU policy.
This was the part of Brexit that was most confusing. The Labour party was pro-remain and most members of the general public were pro-remain. The Cons were pro-leave and their supporters seemed mostly pro-leave. However historically it was the Cons that were pro-EU, pro global markets, financial integration, pro neoliberalism and globalisation basically. While historically Labour and the big unions backing them were anti-EU, they were concerned about protecting local jobs, keeping competition low so their mate’s dumb 16 year old son can get a job in the local smelting plant without having to compete for the job against smart immigrants and the smelting company itself can sell things locally without competing against lower cost foreign imports.
When the actual Brexit vote came along that got all turned on its head by racism and xenophobia on one hand and 50 years of proven benefits on the other. Mick being anti EU doesn’t surprise me, he’s a union leader, he’s mostly concerned about local people being able to get jobs.
Lexiters – the evil bad capitalist EU bosses club will never let us renationalise energy and water.
*France renationalises EDF*
Repeat after me slowly. It was never the EU. It was always the Tories.
I admire and will still admire Mick Lynch but he is shooting himself a bit in the foot here or being unfair.
A lot of support he receives in his fight and support that he demands is on behalf of all British workers and the quality of life in Britain.
When pressed about the rights guaranteed by EU and how the government is looking to remove them he is suddenly focused solely on the rights of the unions.
My issue with this approach is that solidarity goes both ways. Yes the Tories are bad but nevertheless it makes for a very unstable country when a change if government has such existential consequences (as stated by him giving the good example in Germany).
An actual left winger supporting actual left wing values.
If people still can’t see that the EU exists to support big business at the expense of the average worker, I don’t know what to tell you.
Mick Lynch is a legend.
Man that wanted the house on fire complains about the delays of the fire brigade…….
Mick Lynch needs to stay in his lane (or on his tracks).
His messages about workers rights are spot on and powerful. It’s all being undermined however by his views on Ukraine, the EU, Soctland etc.
Never believed in it? I’m pretty sure it existed and still does today.
Thanks for the brexit that definitely improved our lives! /s
If Brexit isn’t the issue at hand then asking about it in an interview is a deliberate trap to undermine the interviewee.
The interviewee, in this case Mick Lynch, potentially alienates half of his followers whichever way he answers. Even if he says something about it not being relevant to railways can be taken by the interviewer as being deliberately evasive.
It’s completely different asking a potential prime minister like Corbyn about Brexit as his leanings could influence future government policy.
lynch… stop. everyone will love you if you just stop saying this shit…
Does he believe in wasted food rotting in the fields because nobody’s around to process it? Rising prices of literally everything including food & energy? What about the polution in our rivers & seas? Or the breaking of international law by forcing refugees onto planes to be sent to Rwanda?
The problem with brexit is that since 2015 people have been treating it as a matter of faith, not politics. Instead of being pragmatic & honest & materialistic about the hard facts of running a nation – ensuring stable access to basic resources – people, both right & left, act like things will just magically “work out in the end” even if that is improbable or impossible.
yeah we know Mick, we read the last article.
Please just continue your union work and stop talking about the EU and Ukraine.
Of course not… He’s a Brexit-backing imbecile who thinks Ukraine is responsible for Russia invading…
OH DEAR. Big dilemma for middle class socialists, do you care more about the working class or the EU??
I’m calling troll on this one. The post history is nothing but political hot topics.
Gottae love Lynch, but the idea of a left-wing Brexit ever being possible has been shown to be complete trash people who thought it could ever happen where putting ideology before the actual reality of our political landscape.
EU is for centrists. In the UK centrists love it and Lefties have to get on board with it because they need the centrists on board to oust the Tories.
And so begins the purity tests. That said I do wish he’d stay on point he’s much more effective when he does.
I like Mick Lynch but the idea of brexit being anything other than a right wing wet dream suggests a serious naivety. Ideology is great but it has to be tempered with reality.
As said, that sounds rather stupid. The European Union clearly exists, and it clearly did not collapse as predicted by all the Eurosceptics.
So which part does he not believe in? The Single Market? The Ever-Closer Political Union? The Four Freedoms? The pooled sovereignty? Horizon Europe? They all seems pretty real to me.
Left leaning nigel farage (their reasons don’t sound so different)
29 comments
I’m a big fan of Mick Lynch, but listening to him and James discuss his reasons for wanting to leave the EU was like listening to classic 2017 James O’Brien. A great reminder that nobody is perfect and nobody should be lauded unconditionally.
Well, I’m not bothered. The Brexit question was answered a long time ago.
I do not follow Mick Lynch for his takes on the EU.
The guy is clearly very good at what he does (trains) but completely goes off the boil on the EU, Russia etc…
So long as you don’t treat him as some sort of cult leader (looking at you “Mick for PM!”ers and fans of another socialist whose initials are JC…) you can take him seriously on the former and ignore him on the latter
Ah, the old “the EU is the evil capitalist bosses club” bollocks.
Ruthlessly exploited by the right to mug the working class and enable their Brexit.
Right down to Dominic Cummings choosing red as Vote Leave’s colour.
The EU is far from ideal, and is pro-neoliberalism which is essentially anti-future. On the other hand, leaving such an entity without any kind of planning or thinking it through properly was tantamount to being criminal.
Stick to what you know Micky Mick
Lynch’s Brexit explanation was somewhat curious. In his view, the EU has very few laws covering employment protections (citing the Working Time Directive as the main example) but at the same time, leaving the EU would enable the UK Government to increase employment protections. Both statements can’t be correct – can they?
I am pro EU but I can see why alot of left wing folk wouldn’t support. There is alot right with the EU but also alot wrong with the EU.
Just look at the sheer amount of lobbying by the major corporations that goes on in Brussels. There are 25,000 lobbyists in Brussels with a combined budge of €3 billion a year which is used to influence EU policy.
This was the part of Brexit that was most confusing. The Labour party was pro-remain and most members of the general public were pro-remain. The Cons were pro-leave and their supporters seemed mostly pro-leave. However historically it was the Cons that were pro-EU, pro global markets, financial integration, pro neoliberalism and globalisation basically. While historically Labour and the big unions backing them were anti-EU, they were concerned about protecting local jobs, keeping competition low so their mate’s dumb 16 year old son can get a job in the local smelting plant without having to compete for the job against smart immigrants and the smelting company itself can sell things locally without competing against lower cost foreign imports.
When the actual Brexit vote came along that got all turned on its head by racism and xenophobia on one hand and 50 years of proven benefits on the other. Mick being anti EU doesn’t surprise me, he’s a union leader, he’s mostly concerned about local people being able to get jobs.
Lexiters – the evil bad capitalist EU bosses club will never let us renationalise energy and water.
*France renationalises EDF*
Repeat after me slowly. It was never the EU. It was always the Tories.
I admire and will still admire Mick Lynch but he is shooting himself a bit in the foot here or being unfair.
A lot of support he receives in his fight and support that he demands is on behalf of all British workers and the quality of life in Britain.
When pressed about the rights guaranteed by EU and how the government is looking to remove them he is suddenly focused solely on the rights of the unions.
My issue with this approach is that solidarity goes both ways. Yes the Tories are bad but nevertheless it makes for a very unstable country when a change if government has such existential consequences (as stated by him giving the good example in Germany).
An actual left winger supporting actual left wing values.
If people still can’t see that the EU exists to support big business at the expense of the average worker, I don’t know what to tell you.
Mick Lynch is a legend.
Man that wanted the house on fire complains about the delays of the fire brigade…….
Mick Lynch needs to stay in his lane (or on his tracks).
His messages about workers rights are spot on and powerful. It’s all being undermined however by his views on Ukraine, the EU, Soctland etc.
Never believed in it? I’m pretty sure it existed and still does today.
Thanks for the brexit that definitely improved our lives! /s
If Brexit isn’t the issue at hand then asking about it in an interview is a deliberate trap to undermine the interviewee.
The interviewee, in this case Mick Lynch, potentially alienates half of his followers whichever way he answers. Even if he says something about it not being relevant to railways can be taken by the interviewer as being deliberately evasive.
It’s completely different asking a potential prime minister like Corbyn about Brexit as his leanings could influence future government policy.
lynch… stop. everyone will love you if you just stop saying this shit…
Does he believe in wasted food rotting in the fields because nobody’s around to process it? Rising prices of literally everything including food & energy? What about the polution in our rivers & seas? Or the breaking of international law by forcing refugees onto planes to be sent to Rwanda?
The problem with brexit is that since 2015 people have been treating it as a matter of faith, not politics. Instead of being pragmatic & honest & materialistic about the hard facts of running a nation – ensuring stable access to basic resources – people, both right & left, act like things will just magically “work out in the end” even if that is improbable or impossible.
yeah we know Mick, we read the last article.
Please just continue your union work and stop talking about the EU and Ukraine.
Of course not… He’s a Brexit-backing imbecile who thinks Ukraine is responsible for Russia invading…
OH DEAR. Big dilemma for middle class socialists, do you care more about the working class or the EU??
I’m calling troll on this one. The post history is nothing but political hot topics.
Gottae love Lynch, but the idea of a left-wing Brexit ever being possible has been shown to be complete trash people who thought it could ever happen where putting ideology before the actual reality of our political landscape.
EU is for centrists. In the UK centrists love it and Lefties have to get on board with it because they need the centrists on board to oust the Tories.
And so begins the purity tests. That said I do wish he’d stay on point he’s much more effective when he does.
I like Mick Lynch but the idea of brexit being anything other than a right wing wet dream suggests a serious naivety. Ideology is great but it has to be tempered with reality.
As said, that sounds rather stupid. The European Union clearly exists, and it clearly did not collapse as predicted by all the Eurosceptics.
So which part does he not believe in? The Single Market? The Ever-Closer Political Union? The Four Freedoms? The pooled sovereignty? Horizon Europe? They all seems pretty real to me.
Left leaning nigel farage (their reasons don’t sound so different)