Westminster Will Exist After Brexit (If We Let It)
- Liam John
- Aug 13, 2019
- 3 min read
Editorial: Qualified Privilege
As Brexit rapidly approaches once again, it’s important to remember that Britain’s place in the EU, an issue that has become the biggest and most tediously over-discussed question of our time, is not a question of political party alignment.
British politics has hinged on the concept of Labour vs Conservative on almost every issue of the last 100 years. It would be convenient for our Prime Minister if the Labour Party continued to play into the false narrative that Brexit is a partisan issue.
The Tories Vote Leave-based campaign for the next General Election, expected within the year, would write itself: Commie Corbyn steals hardworking Leave voters’ wages in taxes and ships it off to Socialist Europe.
However, back on planet Earth, Leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn, a long-standing critic of liberal capitalism, at the time of the referendum shocked people in and around the party by supporting remain, having been Eurosceptic for many years due to the fairly conservative economic policies of the institution.
The Labour Party line remains cautiously Pro-Europe, the most common justification for this is Remain and Reform, where those in Labour who disagree with the EU believe we can only fix it from inside.
Among those who have shifted position from honouring the referendum result to adopting this viewpoint are The Guardian columnist Owen Jones and Paul Mason author of EU critical book PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future.
The truth is that the argument has been simplified to the level of Labour (Lib Dem, TIG, SNP etc) vs Conservative (Brexit Party and UKIP) by those who think it will further their career. Whether you’re Nigel Farage or Tony Blair, as long as you have an outspoken stance one way or the other, you seem to be entitled to your fifteen minutes.
Former Prime Minister Theresa “the people just want us to get on with it” May was among those who jumped from Remain to Leave after the referendum.
Now that the Labour Party has come out in support of a second referendum, and Tories have purged the frontbenchers of anyone warning of the dangers of No Deal, which will be catastrophic, it is important to remember the general election of 2017.
Labour’s 2017 manifesto promised to honour the result of the referendum and came with a comprehensive plan to leave the EU on schedule without a second referendum. The British public instead gave the mandate to the Tories, two years on and our options are a second referendum or No Deal, despite endless negotiations.
The Conservative Party have left all other parties with no real option but to support a Second Referendum. As the only realistic alternative (No Deal) is going to destroy 40% of British agriculture and lead us into economic uncertainty.
The Green Party, now vowing to be “tough on Brexit” are advocating for the People’s Vote. In their 2015 manifesto, however, they stated the need for an “in-out” referendum.
Having well-judged the Centre Left’s emotional attachment to the EU, they are now gearing up to establish a “Remain Alliance” unity government with the Liberal Democrats and some Labour and Tory defectors.
It’s inconvenient for them but people voted Leave because they were unhappy with the country, whether they knew exactly what they were starting is beside the point.
The People’s Vote crowd can be too quick to dismiss the referendum result as uninformed stupidity and demand we revert to the status quo. The conditions that lead to the referendum in the first place, misinformation through social media, poverty and a broken social safety net, are as present as ever.
Perhaps the “Remain Alliance” liked things before the referendum, but it’s right there on paper that 52% of the country, whether they understood the full remit of the EU or not, wanted things to change.
The Lib Dem office in Glasgow
If there is a People’s Vote, which I for one think is now necessary, the Remain side is going to have to come up with a better campaign than: “we told you so, now shut up.”
With all the talk of “Project Fear” in the referendum, it’s hard to imagine an eventuality where their cross-party alliance is seen by Leave voters as anything other than the elites coming together to overturn the result of a democratic vote from inside Westminster.
Alongside the Commie Corbyn Facebook ads, they’ll be accused of an “establishment stitch-up.”
Voting to get as many progressive candidates into Westminster as you can, at the cost of a possible Conservative government, is putting a lot of power into the hands of people who promised Leave voters they’d do anything they could to stop No Deal for two years, before sacking everyone still against it and setting it in motion. All the while saying the chance is “a million to one”
Labour’s plan for a future general election should be to showcase what it offers Britain, not compete with the Lib Dems and Greens over being crowned the “Party of Remain.”
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