Listen carefully to what they don’t want to talk about

This Green and Surprisingly Pleasant Land reveals what it takes to get politicians to come clean at election time

Long experience tells me that the best way to avoid post-election disappointment is to have studiously modest expectations that promises made in the heat of election campaigns will be kept.

Promises are easily made but getting politicians to talk about things they don’t want to talk about is far more difficult, mainly because it requires honesty.

Very much off the agenda In the current British general election is Europe. Labour was firmly against Brexit and even had a brief flirtation with re-running the referendum. Now it is petrified of revisiting this disaster, let alone asserting the benefits of closer association with the European Union because of fears that voters who supported Brexit and are now drifting back to Labour might drift away gain.

On the Tory side of the fence, which is becoming increasingly irrelevant as they have zero hopes of winning the election, all discussion of Europe is toxic and tends to fire up the warring tribes of this bitterly divided party. Even saner party members dare not mention anything suggesting that Brexit was a mistake or smacks of closer association with the EU.

You might have thought that Reform, the Nigel Farage tribute act, would have lots to say about Europe as the party was founded on the smouldering ruins of the campaign that made Brexit happen. But this is not the case because Mr Farage is shrewd enough to know that the outcome has been far from what was promised and that drawing attention to Brexit might remind people of his liability in this matter.

So, the disaster that is Brexit is largely excluded from this campaign, despite brave attempts by parties like the Liberals, Greens and the Scot Nats to mention it.

This failure matters most in the Labour Party, because it will be called upon to form a government. Why not boldly pledge to undo some of the harm done by Brexit? Labour’s timidity is unconvincingly portrayed as being judicious caution.

But it leaves voters without a clear picture of how Britain can get out of this mess, a mess that continues to hold back economic growth, curb the freedom of movement in Europe and reduces Britain to the role of bit player role on the world stage.

Worse, in many ways, is the failure of the leading parties to have a grownup discussion about immigration. The closet (and not so closet) racists have been having a field day because they have been left unhindered to blow the dog whistle of race.

The reluctance of politicians to challenge them underestimates the fundamental decency of most British people who see the obvious benefits of immigration in their daily lives. They understand the immigrant’s contribution to the National Health Service, the hospitality industry, the growth of entrepreneurship and the emergence of an exciting multi-cultural society which has happily embraced imported food, music and a hell of a lot more.

Instead of starting from a simple affirmation of these benefits the two leading political parties fall over themselves to stress their recognition of the ‘immigration problem’ and emphasise how tough they will be in dealing with it.

Blaming immigrants for failures of government policy, especially in social areas such as health and housing, is at best cowardly and at worst dangerous scapegoating. Once the value of immigration has been acknowledged a sensible discussion over regulation can take place.

Last but not least is the stolid determination to avoid a dignified discussion over trans people, a tiny proportion of the population struggling with very real issues about their sexuality. Instead of addressing this in a responsible fashion politicians fall over each to boast about their certainty that a man has a penis while a woman has a vagina. Trans issues are much more complicated, besides which sexual identity is largely a personal issue, only at the very far margins does it impact society as a whole. Labour, to be fair, has at least taken baby steps to address this matter in a more sensible manner.

Yet, the obsession over trans people is mind-blowing. There was a time when the kind of rabid talk applied to trans people was commonplace in demonising homosexuality. This has thankfully largely disappeared only to be replaced by targeting a far smaller minority with even more vicious venom.

Lacking the courage to tackle difficult issues, or, worse, going for the default option of meekly following the mob, tells you more about politicians than anything they promise during elections.

In keeping with the spirit of minimal expectations I would be relieved if the two main contenders in this election were prepared to talk sensibly about at least one of these issues. Asking for honesty on all three questions is more ambitious than asking politicians not to discuss their deprived childhoods.