This morning the UK awoke to the news that Boris Johnson’s Tory Party had electorally destroyed Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. The talking media heads were spouting all their usual drivel about why Bojo won or Jezza lost.
These explanations ranged from a rejection of Corbyn’s alleged racist, Marxism to the nation embracing Johnson’s claimed Brexit opportunities. All of it sounding well informed and reasonable and all of it complete tosh.
As a disinterested observer (as far as I am concerned it doesn’t matter who you vote for you always get the government), I suggest the reason the election turned out the way it did are clear. You don’t need a panel of experts to figure it out.
In 2017, though they lost the election, there was a sizeable swing towards Labour. Two years later that swing completely reversed to the Tories. The difference between the two was that in 2017 Labour promised to honour the Brexit referendum result but, by yesterday’s election, the policy had essentially changed to Remain. Despite Labour Leave repeatedly warning the party hierarchy that a Remain policy was electoral suicide, especially in the Labour heartlands, the EU loyalty of the Blairite faction held sway. So Labour suffered a crushing defeat.
The fact is, despite absurd claims from the diehard People’s Vote Remainers like Caroline Lucas, the Brexit mandate is pretty solid. Most people, outside of the Londonista, cosmopolitan bubble, want the UK to leave the EU. Knowing that Labour wouldn’t deliver, while no fans of the Tories, they had to elect the Bullingdon Club glitterati, in the vain hope of leaving the EU.
This has caused a huge gnashing of teeth from Labour supporters who point out that the NHS will be privatised, vital services underfunded, income inequality will continue to rise, social mobility decline, child poverty will grow and regressive taxation will punish the most vulnerable. They are absolutely right. The nation have just been forced into giving the Tories 5 more years to do what they always do. They will enrich themselves and their cronies at everyone else’s expense.
The other apparent reason that people rejected Corbyn is that the mainstream media, intelligence agencies and his own parliamentary party have waged an incessant war of attrition against him from the moment he was elected. They have thrown everything at him in the hope that something would stick. Enough did and, regardless of the absurdity of the allegations, many were bamboozled into believing it.
From the BBC photo-shopping pictures of Corbyn wearing a Russian hat outside the Kremlin, to evidence free, fake investigations into totally baseless antisemitism allegations, the mainstream media, ably assisted by snarling PLP detractors and intelligence service ‘experts’ like Richard Dearlove, have done everything they possibly could to annihilate Labour’s electoral chances. Yesterday they accomplished their mission.
The loss is already being blamed on Corbyn by the Blairites. This is the culmination of their four and half year long campaign to remove democratic socialism from the Labour Party. Neoliberal corporatists like Blair, Campbell and Mandelson, using their power and wealthy connections, were instrumental in pushing Labour towards a losing Remain position. They were determined the Labour Party would return to a party of the establishment and, with Corbyn inevitably on his way out, they’re hellbent on achieving it.
However, Corbyn has considerable democratic socialist support within Labour. While he may not continue, it appears, in selecting the next leader, the Labour party face an existential threat. The membership want a democratic socialist, the Blairite power brokers want a corporate neoliberal. This election appears to give the Blairites the advantage but, unless the party changes it’s own leadership election rules, the fight looks destined to rumble on for years. Rendering Labour itself a spent force unless they cut the Blairites adrift.
Corbyn, a natural Lexiteer, whose political career has been characterised by his opposition to the EU, strong anti-racist and anti-war campaigning, was trapped in an establishment pincer movement. Bashed by the media, his own parliamentary party colleagues and the opposing benches, as defector after defector made loud, vacuous propaganda statements to the unquestioningly obedient parrot media, he was forced to capitulate just to hold the party together.
In hindsight, as implored by many, he would have probably fared better if he had stood his ground, refuted the moronic antisemitism claims and argued for a strong Lexit. For whatever reason, he didn’t and heavy defeat was assured. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
As a result, Brexiteers, even Lexiteers to a lesser degree, are dancing in the aisles imagining that they have just won a great victory. For some, voting Tory was a bitter pill to swallow, but with all the unfounded antisemitism and “terrorist supporter” smears constantly buzzing around Corbyn, maybe some could sweeten that pill a little. Unfortunately for them, despite Johnson’s electioneering promises, the UK is not going the leave the EU.
Boris Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is practically identical to May’s which, in turn, was indivisible from Cameron’s early 2016 bargain with Tusk. Thus far, there has been no negotiation between the UK and the EU. Johnson’s WA ‘deal’ is nothing more than a reaffirmation of the UK’s right to negotiate a trade deal. A right it already had. There is no Brexit deal. Negotiations haven’t even started.
Every word of EU legislation, every regulation and every directive has been transferred onto the UK statute books. On February 1st 2020 Johnson will announce that he has taken the UK out of the EU. Millions will cheer, millions will weep and absolutely nothing will have changed. Then the real Brexit negotiations will begin with the EU already stating that access to UK territorial fishing waters, a supposed cornerstone of Brexit, are a prerequisite for any discussions.
The Political Declaration of Johnson’s WA ensures total reciprocity between UK and EU regulation until a deal is done. Negotiations are supposed to be concluded by December 31st 2020 but there are no guarantees. Just as the deadlines for the WA were extended time and time again, it seems likely the same will apply to the discussions on the UK / EU “future relationship.”
There is currently no commitment at all from the UK to withdraw from EU Defence Union, placing all UK defence capability under the centralised single point command and control of the EU. With the UK representing 40% of the entire European military industrial and intelligence complex, EU defence Union can not proceed, in any meaningful way, without the UK.
You might imagine that this would give the UK a big bargaining chip in discussions on the future relationship. However, there is no evidence of any will among the UK political establishment to even discuss the issue, let alone withdraw from EU Defence Union.
The “deeper and wider” trade partnership with the EU, promised by Theresa May, along with the UK’s “unconditional commitment to European defence” indicates where the negotiations will end up. Almost total regulatory alignment and EU command and control of UK national defence and security.
The entire UK political establishment, on both sides of the House, the intelligence community and the mainstream media closed ranks to make Labour’s electoral defeat a certainty. What our democratic system has once again delivered is the worst possible outcome.
Based upon the illusion of Brexit, the working class have now turned their back on the only party that represents their interests, placing their future in the hands of highly privileged vulture capitalists who care nothing for their welfare. At the same time, riddled with internecine conflict, the Party that should fight for them have spent years navel gazing while the same neoliberal political establishment wrestled them into submission.
Remainers have lost nothing and Brexiteers have nothing. The diametric opposite to the widely held perception.
The working people of the UK are the losers, as they always are. This will forever be the case until we understand that the political parties, charismatic leaders and occasional plebiscites are nothing but window dressing for an establishment hierarchy that rules us absolutely. Voting will never change this unless we insist that the true written constitution of the UK is honoured.
Then, and only then, will we have a society capable of justice and equality of opportunity. The one that 99.99% of us want while pointlessly imagining we can achieve it through the ballot box.
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Thank you for your clear and insightful blog,it makes it clear to me of the deception of the whole caper known as brexit
My pleasure. thanks for the comment.
I take it this guy doesn’t have a spell check on his computer. Good article, let down by his appalling spelling.
Thanks for spotting the errors. I’m dyslexic, I do have a spell check but sometimes miss things out, so if you could point out the errors that would be appreciated. All the best.
Really like your work Iain except for one thing. It is too long. You have a wonderful grasp of the situation but I find it hard to read to the end of every article you publish. I don’t want to skip to the last paragraph but I do everytime. That is a terrible shame because what you have to say is important. If only you could be more “pithy” in your delivery I would be able to read the entirety of your articles. I only have so much time in the day to read “news” so between MoA, Strat-Cult, VotS and yourself to name but a few I simply cannot afford to give your articles the time they deserve. Maybe I am wrong but most of your readers also have time constraints. Please accept that I would not read your work or bother to comment if I did not esteem you and your work. I just think your message would go further and reach a wider audience if you could do more with less words. Your message deserves the widest audience possible Iain and I just think it could achieve that if you tightened the prose and timed the reading to the limits of your readers. Poll your readers. If I am wrong I will happily shut up and just read.
No. I think you are right. It is something I need to learn. My problem is I start to write something and then keep thinking of other things to say. A bad habit I need to rectify. I appreciate the feedback and have taken it onboard.