Mark Malloch-Brown writes:

Remainers have nothing to fear from an election so long as we work together; and because we will work together, the country has nothing to fear from Corbyn.

The present polling gives Johnson an ebbing lead, but a lead nonetheless. It is likely he will strike a deal with Nigel Farage in any snap election. Perhaps Farage’s non-aggression pact in which the Brexit Party does little campaigning in swathes of the south, and the Tories do even less than usual in the north. The question for the Remain parties is how to respond.

First, Labour has to decide – clearly and unequivocally – that it is a Remain party. After three torturous years, it is nearly there. Save for a rump of outriders, Labour is now clear that it would hold another referendum, placing whatever “deal” a new administration could exact from Brussels (in all likelihood something extremely similar to that Theresa May brought back), or Remain. They cannot hedge. Even in Leave constituencies the majority of Labour voters support Remain and expect Labour to do the same.

From those decisions flow the possibility of a real Remain alliance, attracting the confidence of Liberal Democrats and Greens. The numbers do not add up for an overall majority for any of the Remain parties. While in usual times we may complain about the backroom dealing of coalitions, at times of crisis coalitions can lead to improved results with parties forced to abandon their idealism in favour of pragmatism. [Continue reading…]

The moment parliament was suspended for five weeks amid Brexit crisis: