Posts Tagged ‘Brexit’
Brexit Dividend for the NHS Lie Revived by Tories.
Far-right British Press: Cesspit of Lies.
BREXIT VICTORY: £600MILLION A WEEK to go to NHS in huge victory for Leave campaign.
As in:
But…..
This important piece by two senior figures at the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows how “Brexit has reduced rather than increased the funds available for the NHS (and other public services) both in the short and long term”. Shiraz Socialist.
Or pithily…..
Here.
Labour splits on access to EU single market; Morning Star peddles fantasy “progressive, pro-worker” Brexit.
Now is the Time To Fight Brexit.
Brexit: Labour too divided to back Norway-style deal, says Starmer
Guardian.
European Economic Area amendment does not have full support within the party
Keir Starmer has hit back at claims Labour will squander the chance to defeat the government over an amendment to keep the UK in a Norway-style deal after Brexit, saying his party was too divided to back it.
Labour’s frontbench has announced a new amendment to the EU withdrawal bill, which returns to the Commons next week, proposing “full access to the internal market of the European Union”.
However, the new amendment stops short of calling for the full single market membership sought by a vocal group of Labour MPs, after the Lords backed a Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area (EEA).
Meanwhile the Morning Star, the paper of choice of a Corbyn adviser on Brexit (“part-time consultant, as Labour hones its Brexit strategy) and the EU, Andrew Murray, publishes this.
Ian Scott, “a Unite member and president of Birmingham Trades Union Council”, blames the EU for “younger people working longer hours on lower wages under harsher job contracts”, ” the closure of car manufacturing at Longbridge, Birmingham, with big job losses.” and the Lisbon Treaty for calling for the “the end of welfare state”. Not to mention “poorer pensions”.
POST-BREXIT Britain is not necessarily the confusing issue it is deliberately made out to be.
Much of the mess we are in today is also due to many of our MPs allowing EU legislation “on the nod” to go through our Parliament and, more often than not, without the content of directives being explained to them and, unsurprisingly, without knowing what the implications could be.
The 2016 referendum saw the largest turnout in a Britain-wide vote since 1992, the people spoke clearly for many issues of concern.
Since the referendum, there’s been much doom and gloom and much panic about the loss of trade, jobs and rights.
Yet, on workers’ rights, one such claim for EU benefits, I was incensed on reading a young electrical worker’s contract of employment which said — with reference to the EU’s working time directive (WTD) — that the employee was required to work up to 48 hours per week. In other examples, the WTD has extended the working week for many (mainly younger) workers.
All this to the negation of what our fore parents fought for. In a nutshell, we will witness younger people working longer hours on lower wages under harsher job contracts, only to retire later than 65 years of age just to receive poorer pensions than what many pensioners enjoy today.
If the above statement is not an indictment of corporate greed exacerbated by EU policy, a question arises about the type of trade union necessary to fight for change. A corporate union interested in the role of corporate business would do nothing for workers, let alone youth who currently working on zero-hour contracts. Did the EU Commission not endorse this type of contract many years ago?
Similarly, more up-front trade unions need to wake up and learn a trick or two on contracts of employment, a powerful tool that needs to be fully researched and an area where trade unions can stand up to erroneous employers in Britain and, importantly, improve their standing with their employees to promote union membership — for job security and conditions.
Remember that 99 per cent of employees work in a workplace employing 250 people or fewer. Just 13 per cent of employees in the private sector are members of a trade union.
Here is an opportunity for trade unions to improve their standing and base of support within the “missing” 87 per cent by forwarding these policies.
A trade union call for better procurement policies to improve domestic trade will resonate with both employees and employers and the public accordingly.
Likewise, from the public perspective, how many who voted Remain would be happy to learn that the EU Commission signed off the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (Ceta) on September 10 2017? This would have huge implications for the future of our NHS as well as trade deals, especially on food and other services.
The role of the EU serves corporate interest by essentially legitimising the flow of capital that contributed to the demise of manufacturing in Britain, for example HP Sauce, Peugeot, jobs that moved abroad and at lower wages. The debacle of EU regulations has led to the closure of car manufacturing at Longbridge, Birmingham, with big job losses.
It is hardly surprising that the largest Leave vote was recorded in both the East and West Midlands, with these two areas witnessing the greatest industrial losses because of EU policy. Also, nationally, with the EU being the driving force behind privatisation, to the closure of car manufacturing at Longbridge, Birmingham, with big job losses. this has led to inferior job contracts and lower wages for fewer people remaining in employment.
We cannot return to the EU’s neoliberal failed economic model, which Italy and Greece are also thinking of leaving. Iceland voted to drop its application to join the EU some years ago and its economy is currently doing well. We need to move on.
Brexit is presenting an opportunity for trade unionists and public groups to demand what type of society and future for Britain we wish to see outside of the EU. I am concerned over any vaunted customs union, a sly manoeuvre that would keep us within EU regulations. Progressive inputs from an enlarged trade union and public base of support will also strengthen the case for a future Labour government to carry out our demands. There is no time to fail.
The Tory Cabinet is currently edging towards a settlement with the EU that will likely include an agreement to only enable services and finance to escape regulation. We cannot continue to sacrifice even more industrial jobs. We need state aid for industry, comprehensive public ownership, a state investment bank and the use of public procurement to buy local and to enforce decent wages, trade union rights and collective bargaining.
Trade unionists need to come together urgently to campaign for a progressive, pro-worker outcome and to put pressure on our political representatives to do so in Parliament.
Remember how the Lisbon EU 2020 programme in 2000 effectively called for the end of welfare state? It restricted “early exit from work” (increasing pension ages), removed “disincentives to work” (reducing benefits) and substituted “flexicurity” for existing employment contracts (casualising the workforce).
To discuss this and more, I make this open call for the biggest and broadest national post-Brexit conference to be held in Birmingham for this September and I seek your maximum support in organising for this.
Ian Scott is a Unite member and president of Birmingham Trades Union Council and writes in his personal capacity.
The tissue of fabrications which lead Scott to blame the EU for successive British governments’ neo-liberal policies, thus include blaming the working Time directive (limiting working time) for long hours and the notion that Thatcher privatised British Leyland at the behest of Brussels, are hardly worth considering.
The Morning Star will no doubt be blaming Brussels for the Iron Lady next!
And for Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron, May……
And their policies…..
How exactly is a post-Brexit UK going to escape the world of the ITO, the IMF, and international finance, and how could a Labour government operate outside its major market and the rules that govern it?
Better procurement policies – for public services – well, why not!
No doubt Scott’s new best mate Donald Trump will make a ‘deal’ with the UK to ensure that food and services are protected from his own corporations…..
Er, No.
Then there is this. on the car plants Scott is concerned about…
European businesses advised to avoid using British parts ahead of Brexit
The car industry fears a “catastrophe” as the EU warns exporters they may lose free trade access if they use UK parts post-Brexit.
In its advice rolled out to all Dutch businesses, the Dutch government has told its exporters that “if a large part of your product consists of parts from the UK” domestic exporters may lose free trade access under existing deals.
The advice says: “Brexit will have consequences for exports outside the EU.
“After Brexit, parts made in the UK no longer count towards this minimum production in the European Union.”
As the Guardian article indicates: “EU negotiators have repeatedly made it clear there can be no cherry picking or division of the four freedoms of the single market, including free movement of people.”
They also include, “the free movement of goods, capital and services”.
A Norway style deal or not, these remain pillars of our economy.
But they cannot stand alone.
Another Europe is Possible campaigns for:
The 6 progressive elements of EU membership. We identify those as:
- Rights at work
- Environmental protections
- Freedom to move
- Human rights
- Education and innovation
- Science and research funding
Trump, Virtual Reality (Baudrillard) and Brexit.
A Prophet Whose Time Has Come.
Andy Warhol once said that in the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.
The Tendance has a view that now everybody’s theory is true for 15 months.
The cultural critic Jean Baudrillard had the view that under the present stage of capitalism “the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation vanishes. “Simulacres et Simulation 1981).
Apart from Baullroard’s claim that “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place ” which asserted,
Saddam liquidates the communists, Moscow flirts even more with him; he gases the Kurds, it is not held against him; he eliminates the religious cadres, the whole of Islam makes peace with him … Even … the 100,000 dead will only have been the final decoy that Saddam will have sacrificed, the blood money paid in forfeit according to a calculated equivalence, in order to preserve his power. What is worse is that these dead still serve as an alibi for those who do not want to have been excited for nothing: at least these dead will prove this war was indeed a war and not a shameful and pointless hoax …
That is about all most of us can recall about his ideas (and I have a pile of his books from the 1980s).
This week has had ample proof of the Baudrillardian thesis that simulacra have taken over from reality.
First we had large numbers of people, particularly in America, claim that far-right Tommy Robinson is some kind of martyr slung into the gaols of the British state by the regime.
It was not very amusing to see them put out pictures of the well-liked and respected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan with a hangman’s noose over ‘Tommy’.
Then we had the lighter spectacle of President Trump holding a top summit with Kim Kardashian, whose claim to fame is that she has a large bum, on reforming the American penal system.
Now we have ‘neoliberal’ Trump’s trade war with Europe and the rest of the world.
Europe, Canada and Mexico are planning retaliatory moves after President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the US.
The European Union issued a 10-page list of tariffs on US goods ranging from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to food products.
It also plans to challenge the move at the World Trade Organisation.
Mr Trump claimed the tariffs would protect US steelmakers, which were vital to national security.
Or as this cartoonist (Belgium) put it today (bringing the two events together)
Mr Brexit, as Trump styled himself, has let down his friends on the UK right who thought they were going to negotiate a special deal.
In return for letting Chlorinated chicken, Cornish pasties made in Houndstown Texas, and GM crops, into Britain they would be able freely to export to America.
The left for a long time has claimed that US capitalism is the engine of neo-liberal globalisation, that it works to demolish barriers between national capitals, production and exchange.
Apparently not so!
This leaves the backers of a ‘People’s Brexit’ in a bit of a quandry.
Will they back a UK government that follows Trump’s lead and imposes tariffs to protect national industry?
FIghting the free flow of capital……
Which reminds me of the other event that did not take place in the last few days: Roseanne Barr went from claiming to be a socialist to Trump supporter. to backing Tommy Robinson…..
Trade Unionists Against the EU, RMT, Leave EU and Kate Hoey, Shared Confidential Labour Data with Far-Right Arron Banks and Cambridge Analytica.
Worked Hand-in-Glove with Far Right Arron Banks.
Sensitive personal data of Labour voters was processed by a third party and shared with Arron Banks’s Leave.EU, Cambridge Analytica, and others associated with unofficial groups campaigning to leave the European Union in February 2016.
Data based upon demographics, class, finances and ethnicity, was used to identify core groups of Labour voters to be targeted with UKIP-led messaging and was instrumental in deciding where Nigel Farage appeared to speak during the Brexit campaign.
Leave.EU, Cambridge Analytica, the RMT Union and Trade Unions Against EU, and Labour MP Kate Hoey – associated with Labour Leave – gained access to the information via Labour’s 2015 general election data guru before referendum campaigns were officially designated by the Electoral Commission.
Blue Collar workers, struggling families, students, and ethnic minorities were among those specifically designated valuable to tailored social media targeting and doorstep canvassing. The data provided specific postcodes to be targeted on and offline, in order to attract millions of votes across the country – enough to swing the divisive referendum result.
Sensitive personal data, which includes ethnicity, was allegedly compiled from Labour Party information by a third party consultant and shared with Arron Banks’s Leave.EU campaign group, Cambridge Analytica, Brian Denny of the RMT Union, and the MP Kate Hoey.
The huge dataset, based on the information of millions of Labour voters across the country, was allegedly built using Mosaic demographics and the results of party canvassing. It is believed to have been amassed during 2015 by political consultant Ian Warren, before he passed it on in a series of detailed briefings and a postcode targeting spreadsheet in early 2016.
He first met with Cambridge Analytica to discuss the use of the information as part of Leave.EU’s campaign at the end of 2015.
Warren was head-hunted by Labour for the 2015 election campaign after his successful work with UKIP and continued to be closely associated with the party, polling members and working with Owen Smith on his leadership challenge during the remainder of 2016.
Leave.EU’s Andy Wigmore said: “He ran Ed Milliband’s team and the general election campaign in 2015 for the Labour Party. He was and still is the Labour Party guru.” A self-taught statistician and political consultant, Warren trades under the name Election Data Limited, based in Bolton.
When asked whether he was still working for the Labour Party at the time of the leak, Warren said: “I’m sick of speaking to journalists about this. I’ve nothing to say.”
When asked whether he had the right to retain and use the data, Warren terminated the phone call.
Full story through below or this link.
Trade Unionists Against the EU was backed by the Morning Star, the Socialist Party, and the ‘Lexit’ left.
After this, and the revelation that they received funding from Banks, dodgy dealings between them and the far-right Brexit campaigns.
As for the connections between the Leave UK, Hoey, and, last but not least Galloway (a regular on Bank’s Westmonster), a campaign which “made more of immigration-related issues”, it is hardly a surprise.
American Jacobin Magazine Advises UK Left to “embrace Brexit” and National Sovereignty.
El sueño de la razón produce monstruos
Why the Left Should Embrace Brexit
“A progressive, emancipatory vision of national sovereignty radically alternative to that of both the right and the neoliberals – one based on popular sovereignty, democratic control over the economy, full employment, social justice, redistribution from the rich to the poor, inclusivity, and effectively the socio-ecological transformation of production and society – is not only necessary; it is possible.” What Is Needed Is A Progressive Vision Of National Sovereignty
In the article the authors argue,
The Left’s anti-Brexit hysteria, however, is based on a mixture of bad economics, flawed understanding of the European Union, and lack of political imagination. Not only is there no reason to believe that Brexit would be an economic apocalypse; more importantly, abandoning the EU provides the British left — and the European left more generally — with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show that a radical break with neoliberalism, and with the institutions that support it, is possible.
Fazi and Mitchell knock down a straw man, that the Remain left considers that Brexit “will lead to an economic apocalypse. Their arguments are based on the idea that the pro-EU left’ accepts the idea that markets are optimal, that “free trade” is the basis of pro-Remain economics, and that we agree that, ” A crucial tenet of the Single Market was the deregulation of financial markets and the abolition of capital controls.”
The authors, one safely based in Australia, conclude,
Indeed: a democratic socialist government led by Corbyn is the best option for the majority of British citizens and for the British economy. This leads to an obvious conclusion: that for a Corbyn-led Labour government, not being a member of the European Union “solves more problems than it creates,” as Weeks notes. He is referring to the fact that many aspects of Corbyn’s manifesto — such as the renationalization of mail, rail, and energy firms and developmental support to specific companies — or other policies that a future Labour government may decide to implement, such as the adoption of capital controls, would be hard to implement under EU law and would almost certainly be challenged by the European Commission and European Court of Justice. After all, the EU was created with the precise intention of permanently outlawing such “radical” policies.
That is why Corbyn must resist the pressure from all quarters — first and foremost within his own party — to back a “soft Brexit.” He must instead find a way of weaving a radically progressive and emancipatory Brexit narrative. A once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity has opened for the British left — and the European left more in general — to show that a radical break with neoliberalism, and with the institutions that support it, is possible. But it won’t stay open forever.
They ignore this: New report: the Corbyn moment and European socialism.
Today we are launching a major new report, outlining a fresh strategy to “Remain and Reform” in the EU.
8th March 2018
Transnational institutions such as the EU are essential to pushing forward radical and progressive change, and only if the UK remains in the EU can Corbyn have the necessary influence to achieve these aims. The report identifies a number of key areas where a Labour government could use the EU to implement its radical programme. These include:
- Taxing multinationals, including harmonising corporation tax rules and clamping down on tax avoidance.
- Regulating banks, including with a new financial transaction tax
- Protecting migrant workers’ rights and strengthening trade unions
- Digital Rights, where Labour has already played a leading role in the global debate
- Climate change, using its weight shift EU institutions and overcome big business lobbies
- Addressing global conflicts, prioritising the security of people, rather than the interests of states, on a humanitarian basis
- Ending fortress Europe, by radically altering the discourse, opening up legal routes for entry, and treating the refugee crisis as a humanitarian issue, not a security one
- Reforming the Eurozone, by playing a supportive role and example for progressive anti-austerity parties inside it
A strategy based on National Sovereignty ignores the fact that no country alone is a “sovereign” of the economy, that pooling sovereignty in the EU is the means to promote these objectives.
If the EU is, as they assert, a “de facto supranational constitutional order “, what is the British constitutional order? The body administering these processes, the State, is ‘capitalist’, that is, is institutionally wrapped around the existing power structure. It is organised to promote the interests of business. We do not need an elaborate theoretical framework to see this nor can we wish it away by appealing to ‘real’ sovereignty.
The left has to grapple with this problem, just as it would have had to deal with the limits that “pooled sovereignty” creates.
Our strength does not lie in the nation state but in our popular support and the labour movement: expressed by how far we can condense this power in the administration, not just by legislation but by grass roots backing. It would, we hope, be expressed by Parliamentary representation.
What could a Labour government negotiate within a probable framework after an election?
John Palmer has argued (Corbyn Should Stop The UK’s Drift Out Of The EU January 2018)
Labour should drive home the message that being part of a stronger and reforming EU is an essential means for advancing its programme for radical economic and social reform at home. Social democratic, socialist and green parties in the EU believe this is the real basis of Jeremy Corbyn’s approach which is one reason why he was so warmly received during recent meetings in Europe.
If Corbyn is elected PM before the die is cast on the final shape of the UK/EU relationship, he should seek immediate negotiations of his own with the EU. As the incoming PM, leading a government with a new mandate, this would be very unlikely to be denied.
If, however, Labour does not take power until the UK is fully outside the EU, a Corbyn-led government should unilaterally pledge to fully match all future progressive economic, social, labour and democratic reforms agreed at EU level, coordinate closely with the EU on a new Europe-wide economic recovery strategy and serve notice it will seek renewed full membership of a reforming EU at the earliest opportunity.
What exactly is a break with ‘neo-liberalism’?
Only those gifted with immense “political imagination” consider that a ‘sovereign’ UK can negotiate a break with capitalism with the WTO and the EU.
The rest of the Fazi list of idées reçues, , “progressive, emancipatory vision…radically alternative to that of both the right and the neoliberals…. popular sovereignty, democratic control over the economy, full employment, social justice, redistribution from the rich to the poor, inclusivity,….the socio-ecological transformation of production and society” is long on rhetoric, short on specifics.
The final rupture with capitalism is, nevertheless, clearly off the cards.
A Labour government would face, inside or outside the EU, a hard task in untangling the multinational ownership of “mail (Postal services), rail (ways), and energy firms.” Capital controls is a vague term, but it hardly looks an easy objective to carry out on the world stage, a kind of Bretton Woods of one.
Would Labour, having avoided a “soft Brexit” be in a position to reach trade deals with the ‘soveriegntist’ Trump government, or any other, that favour these objectives?
The key issue for a Labour government is austerity. It will face challenges with tackling the under-funding of the NHS, public services and social security.
Would it be able to wrangle a way of making arrangements with the EU that untie all the legislation regulating the production and trade flows of companies and rebuild them to its wishes in the British Isles?
What kind of socialism aims for ‘national’ sovereignty other than one which restricts this power to this one nation’s people?
The goal of socialists is not a vision of national but international emancipation.
The irony of a US publication being the vehicle for a lecture to the British left on how to embrace sovereignty cannot have escaped many.
Arron Banks, Hard Right Donator to Trade Unionists Against the EU, Embroiled in Cambridge Analytica Scandal.
Brittany Kaiser, circled, sits alongside Arron Banks, the Leave.EU boss, at a press conference in 2015. She has now left Cambridge Analytica.
Arron Banks’ is one of the best-known Brexiteers.
His hard right wing Westmonster site (A full, clean Brexit, defeating radical Islam, ending the scourge of violent crime. These are our priorities. If they are yours as well, please support Westmonster and help us grow), is a conduit for the frequent articles by George Galloway.
As in,
Galloway: The project is subvert Brexit democracy is succeeding
Banks also donated to Trade Unionists Against the EU, a Brexit campaign backed by, amongst others, the Morning Star and the Socialist Party.
Now Arron Banks is in the news for some more skullduggery.
Cambridge Analytica bragged: We have vast data for Brexit vote
Evening Standard.
The founder of Leave.EU, Arron Banks, referred in his book The Bad Boys Of Brexit to CA being “hired” in October 2015. But he told the committee this simply referred to an early meeting and an intention to work together if Leave.EU won lead status, entitling it to spend up to £7 million, get a free mailshot, TV broadcasts and £600,000 public funds, in the referendum campaign. He insisted the group “devised and implemented its own social media strategy … without any input from Cambridge Analytica”.
Confusingly, a CA staffer, Brittany Kaiser, appeared on the platform of a Leave.EU press conference in November 2015 alongside Mr Banks, seemingly to present their campaign plans. She has since left the data company.
But…..
The Guardian leads with this story today,
Cambridge Analytica misled MPs over work for Leave.EU, says ex-director
Exclusive: Brittany Kaiser contradicts CEO, who told MPs the data firm did not work with Brexit campaign group.
Cambridge Analytica conducted data research for one of the leading Brexit campaign groups and then misled the public and MPs over the work the company had undertaken, according to a former employee who has spoken to the Guardian.
In an exclusive interview, Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica’s business development director until two weeks ago, said the work with Leave.EU involved analysis of data provided by Ukip.
Emails and other documents, seen by the Guardian, show the company was worried about whether it could speak openly about the “interesting findings” and the origins of the data that had been analysed. It decided against doing so.
Kaiser, 30, said the work took a number of weeks and involved “at least six or seven meetings” with senior officials from Leave.EU, which was co-founded by Arron Banks, a Ukip donor. She said the work took place as part of an effort to secure formal business with the campaign group.
Kaiser said she felt she had lied by supporting Cambridge Analytica’s company line that it had done “no paid or unpaid work” for Leave.EU. “In my opinion, I was lying,” she said. “In my opinion I felt like we should say, ‘this is exactly what we did’.”
As Corbyn backs EU Customs Union, from the ‘Lexit’ fringes, Galloway attacks ‘Stab in the Back”.
Corbyn Moves to back EU Customs Union.
Corbyn: Labour would stay in EU customs union for a say in trade deals
Guardian – for more rolling news follow link.
BBC: Jeremy Corbyn backs permanent customs union after Brexit
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the UK being in a permanent customs union with the EU in a speech setting out his approach to Brexit.
He said this would avoid the need for a “hard border” in Northern Ireland and ensure free-flowing trade for business.
The policy shift could lead to Labour siding with Tory rebels to defeat Theresa May on her Brexit strategy.
The Tories said it was “a cynical attempt” to frustrate Brexit “and play politics with our country’s future”.
The Mail says,
Corbyn’s Brexit betrayal: Labour leader to snub millions of voters by refusing to limit migration and kill off dream of striking trade deals
Jeremy Corbyn was accused of a Brexit ‘betrayal’ last night as he prepared to set out plans that would keep Britain shackled to Brussels.
The Labour leader is expected to say he will sacrifice the ability to strike new trade deals in order to keep Britain locked in an EU customs union – and allow free movement to continue.
In his most significant Brexit speech since the referendum today, he will also call for a ‘close relationship’ with the single market, citing Norway and Switzerland as examples of the kind of deal he is seeking.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said Mr Corbyn ‘seems certain to break the commitments he made to Labour voters at the last election’.
Pro-Brexit Labour MPs warned their leader he risked betraying millions of party supporters who voted to take Britain out of the EU. Former minister Frank Field said keeping the country shackled to Brussels would be ‘to rat on the people’s decision to leave’.
Writing on the far-right Westmonster site, George Galloway says,
Labour’s volunteered to kill off Brexit, they’ll be labelled ‘betrayers’ by George Galloway
Sir Keir Starmer is an excellent backstabber. Nobody knows that better than Jeremy Corbyn who has just been led by the nose by him like a beast to the slaughter in what Frank Field the Labour MP has described as a “deadly electoral trap”.
Starmer was a key conspirator in the coup against Corbyn in 2016, resigning from the Shadow Cabinet in the most insulting and wounding way. Yet Corbyn, it is clear, has been led by the QC MP into an actual U-Turn – and one which ineluctably will lead to a second and thereafter, why not, a third.
Labour has now volunteered to be the executioner of Brexit, Theresa May, to her considerable relief no doubt, will be the champion of the 17.4 million betrayed. The stage is set.
The label “betrayer” will be pinned to the back of every Labour MP (virtually none will be “deselected”) in the 70% of Labour-held constituencies which voted Leave in the referendum and the many others which Labour came close to winning in 2017 and now will not.
The “stab in the back” narrative which will now be spun by the Tories and their press backers will be overwhelmingly powerful. The gratitude of the Macchiato-classes will be scant and short-lived and electorally useless in vast tracts of the country.
..
This represents a defeat for Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell – whose policies for Britain cannot be implemented with Britain in the Single Market – whether they have gone along with it or not. It represents a victory for Tony Blair and his ramp within the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Labour apparatus, whose leader Ian McNicholl is shortly to re-emerge wearing the ermine robes at last.
U-turn if you want to Mr Corbyn. I and millions like me are not for turning.
Others agree – in a slightly more muted form – with the Galloway position broadcast on Westmonster.
“Staying in the single market would make it much harder—not easier—for a Labour government to stick to Corbyn’s left wing manifesto promises.”
The Socialist Party has attacked the” right-wing Labour shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer” and claimed that, “A bold stand by Jeremy Corbyn against the anti-working class treaties and policies of the EU could electrify the debate across Europe.”
What do they think now that Comrade Starmer appears to have won the debate?
Corbyn loyalists in the Morning Star meanwhile celebrate this victory.
More responses: Was Corbyn’s speech a bold Brexit vision, or playing politics? The panel verdict
Owen Jones: A clear contrast with the Tories.
David Shariatmadari: The best remainers could have hoped for.
Faiza Shaheen: Some much-needed pragmatism.
Katy Balls: This spells trouble for Theresa May.
Only fanatical Priest Gilles Fraser, previously only known for his religious musings and loathing of the anti-clerical Charlie Hebdo, strikes a sour note,
The gap between old-style socialists and young liberals is now great than ever within the Labour party. At stake in the debate over Brexit is the degree of comfort with which Labour embraces market forces as a necessary evil of the modern world. Some of us had hoped that Corbyn would be the one to put a stake through the heart of New Labour. But in the end he appears to have bottled it.
