Ancient Remainer urges Labour U-turn on its U-turn

The Observer today carries an item from a real Labour yesterday's man, one R Hattersley, perhaps to serve as a Starmer kite?

Brexit is a flop, and the voters know it. So why can’t Labour call for a closer bond with Europe?

There was, Hattersley says, a recent suggestion that:

a Labour government should attempt to negotiate some form of customs union with the single market – a prospect of economic expansion so exciting that even the announcement that talks were being considered would stimulate a sudden surge in capital investment.

But Starmer rejected it: 'Labour pronounced Brexit wrong in principle one year and promised “to make it work” the next.'

Hattersely is still, er, unrepentant:

Brexit is a flop. And the voters know it. The opinion polls show both increasing regret that we left the EU and mounting disapproval of the way the government has managed withdrawal. This is not the time for Labour to talk of making Brexit work. It is time to expose its failure and to offer a radical alternative – a closer working relationship with the EU.

Then some excellent weaselling to try to do a KitKat! Will they never tire?:

That is not to argue that the outcome of the 2016 referendum can be ignored. Democracy demands it be respected, notwithstanding the fraudulent claims made by Brexiters. But the decision of a one-day referendum cannot determine a nation’s long-term destiny, as Brexiters must agree. Otherwise, they would have accepted that the argument ended in 1975, when Britain voted by more than two votes to one to remain in the Common Market. In any event, today the European argument is about partnership, not membership.

God save us!

Britain would have to give something in exchange and the first concession would have to be agreement to a measure of European immigration into Britain... It is taken for granted in every negotiation, as it was in the discussion of the deal with India.

 'A measure' -- but that would mean full rights of entry again, the 'four freedoms' and all that, with all that that implies?

Anyway, let's end with a good old hurrah:

It falls to the Labour party to keep the flame of European unity burning bright in Britain. Fortunately, it is possible to combine support for that noble aim in partnership with a hard-headed economic policy of promoting trade and increasing growth.