Leave.eu is boasting about delivering tens of thousands of leaflets. Big. fat. MEH! This is activity for the sake of activity. There is a long road between now and the vote and a leaflet is next to worthless. This is not productive campaigning. In terms of progression we are still nowhere.
Running a campaign is not simply a matter of obtaining exposure and keeping busy. We have to shape the debate. All we can really say in favour of Leave.EU just recently is that it is marginally less awful than it was and has at least turned the stupid dial down a notch.
That though is insufficient to gain momentum and energise the debate. This is why we cannot sit around waiting for them to act and this is why, once again, we are appealing for more bloggers to come forward.
There are specific objectives we must achieve in order to progress the debate. As LeaveHQ notes this morning we are witnessing a barrage of fearmongering. We can kill all that stone dead by committing to a plan and taking the uncertainties out of the equation. After which we can focus on selling the opportunities and talking up the positives.
We have heard much in the way of pleasing sounds from Leave.EU in terms of intent, but every week that goes by without a definitive plan set out, we allow more of the same fearmongering to flood out without the means to challenge it. Leave.eu is coasting.
Having done the math as to the best possible exit strategy, Flexcit does dictate a certain path but as we note, the political realities of Brexit means that our own civil servants will be locked into a similar path whether we like it or not and so we might as well accept it and get on with it. The point about conceding on freedom of movement appears to be becoming less of an issue by the day as the framework for it is disintegrating.
On the forums and Facebook pages, I am winning every debate hands down, but the only hole in my arguments is that the case I put forward of a managed and orderly exit is undermined from both of the major Leave campaigns. Leave.eu through inaction, and Vote Leave through what now looks to be deliberate sabotage. If they have both set course for the rocks, then I am out on my own.
While the kipperists and their absolutist approach will be trounced, especially by those experienced campaigners who geared to fight Ukip during the election, my approach meets very little resistance as the opposition is not equipped to argue. In this it would be nice to have a Leave campaign that supports activists rather than undermining them.
Certainly my campaign comrades and fellow bloggers are becoming impatient and I am not hearing much that really persuades me that anything of substance is happening. The prevarication and procrastination we have seen is not good enough. The u-turns we have seen are both damaging and distressing. Exactly how long should we wait? When will Leave.eu get its act together?
We urgently need to neutralise the FUD, redefine the debate parameters and offer an alternative. We could very easily shift the goalposts entirely and wrongfoot the opposition. We would be there already if the LeaveHQ.com message were getting out. But instead, we've seen Leave.eu retweeting the usual kipperish histrionics that make most moderate and same people laugh out loud.
If we take it as read that the Ukip inclined vote is about the same as its polling in the election, we can say that the hard-line element who evidently set Ukips online message represent a far smaller figure. The basic math tells you that cannot win. So why is Leave.eu dancing to their tune?
I have blunted my criticism of Leave.eu over the last few weeks on the promise of results. I am running out of patience - and I am not alone. What's it to be?
For sure, nobody who's on the ball wants to see Vote Leave Ltd take the designation and I am certain that would be a disaster, but if Leave.eu is not going to up its game and continues to be a damp squib, then we are all wasting our energy.
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