Britain is experiencing a farce. This is Act 2 and it is provided by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. They are trying to win the votes of the richest, whitest, oldest, most male and the smallest, mainstream party in the world. Potentially, 75,001 Tories will make Hunt or Johnson Britain's next Prime Minister - in a country of 66 million.
Hunt constantly calls himself 'an entrepreneur' because a lot of business (mainly men) are Tory Party members and they have the vote. (They also run Britain's Rotary clubs and the Freemasons.) Hunt's claim to be an entrepreneur comes from his three business failures, followed by access to his father's resources which, as his father was an Admiral, ended up providing for a 'jolly good' fourth shot at 'entrepreneuring'. Finally, this meant Hunt could grab £14 million for himself.
Hunt was that very typical sort of British 'entrepreneur' that repetitively fails. This of course results in loads of dumped employees and living on the edge of criminal debts. Then, when Hunt finally succeeded, he sells his fledgling company to a big corporation for all the money he can get. And Hunt is now free from any unpleasant labour. He can share his exceptional experiences with the world and manage the rest of us without petty distractions.
Hunt told the BBC's senior political editor recently that he had wanted to be PM for 30 years! That means he decided his political future at age 22. (Which was somewhere around the first or maybe the second business failure.) His own squirmy glee at his announcement in the interview suddenly worried him and so he tried instead to look amused.
Hunt's main political claim to fame was his time as Health Minister and his attack on junior doctors which has led to the worst results in the NHS health delivery since targets were set. Unsurprisingly perhaps - because he was described by many NHS doctors as the worst Health Minister in its history. Maybe his early judgement of the NHS, when he wrote a co-production of a pamphlet entitled 'Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party' in 2005, which called for the de-nationalisation of the NHS, explains this, his first, major, political failure. Sadly, even an Admiral can't sort that out. (Although it is perhaps noticeable that Hunt is now proposing a big money hike for the armed forces.)
In other words Hunt is a deep-down Tory stereotype, with a doubtful past and whose main fuel is ambition.
And then there is Boris. Unlike Hunt he is a well known political pop-star (who manages to have less ideas than Trump!) Because he is well known and a lively figure he sits perfectly in Act 2 of Britain's political farce. It is not necessary to describe his characteristics or his history because all of it is well known. His attraction to those participating in Britain's farce so far is that when he was 5 he wanted to be 'king of the world! 17 years ahead of Hunt. He's tubby, like Churchill, and the serious Tories hope that he's funny enough to stop the victory of Corbyn's Labour Party in a General Election. Billy Bunter has taken over the 6th Form common room at Greyfriers /Eton /Oxford/ the establishment. Yarroo!
These are the 'Punch and Judy' who are leading in Act 2.
What was Act 1? Act 1 started with the Brexit Referendum and ended with the political death of Mrs May. Act 1 turned the Tory agony over membership of the EU into the prevailing issue across the whole country. Before Act 1 really got started, the main issues in British politics were the rise of Corbyn into the leadership of the Labour Party and its novel left-facing direction; the overturn of the Tory snap election in 2017, and the huge, social support for Labour's new Manifesto. And then followed the shock of the Grenfell fire, which underlined a decade of austerity and the years of anti-government anger, which had started to show in the streets. All of this, the politics and the public action, was replaced in 2017/18 by the megaphonic noise of Brexit, ballooned into the whole of society, starting from the Tory government's particular turmoil.
And the Act 3 to come? It is rare indeed for a farce to provide unique developments at the end of its show. The audience are waiting for a solution that, in their heart of hearts, they know is coming. Normally the characters and the events of the farce are turned on their head, with the effect of making all come right. Alas, Britain's political farce cannot continue. Economic and political forces are too powerful to allow the show to go on. Britain's political farce is about to blow up.
Act 3 and the Westminster theatre will therefore start disintegrating in an indisputable war between the remnants of a ragged Tory government, topped by its new PM, besieged by Farage and the new right, all mobilising against the Labour Party in England and Wales; the SNP in Scotland and the rise of Republicanism in Northern (and Southern) Ireland. The weakness of the Westminster government and the strength of the government's opponents means an early General Election. Either immediately this year with the breakdown caused by 'No Deal', or as the Brexit agony deepens, more and more effecting the 'insecuriate' UK population, the current Westminster government will fall. And as the Peterborough bi-election already shows, Labour has a good chance of breaking through the dominance of Brexit and restoring the prominence of its social program, which challenges the social and economic malaise, at least in England. In any event, a Johnson Tory government which is constructed to deliver a catastrophe, will not stand.
As the current political farce collapses, two further, interwoven, developments will, in one form or another, certainly rise.
First, any Labour Party led government will finally fully face its class contradictions as the Brexit wind blows in its different directions. That means most of its MPs will finally refuse to carry out Labour's social and economic program - because it is too difficult, because business is not yet ready etc etc. On the other hand most of Labour members and some of the Corbyn supporters in Parliament are likely to fight to carry through Labour's Manifesto. But even parts of Labour's left will believe that 'Labour unity' is more important than Labour's program. The previous Brexit Westminster has also energised more Labour MPs to pursue their 'independence', read defend their personal seat in Westminster. So the regroupment of a class struggle Labour could be very small - at least in Parliament. The best possible outcome from this process depends on the second of the two developments.
The early Grenfell spirit desperately needs restoring. And among the growing chaos of Westminster that spirit has the new possibility of connecting to the lead shown by the Glasgow women fighting their local authority for their equal pay, to the battles against the corporations who deny workers rights, to the movement that is growing against racism and fascism. Action by millions, including those MPs willing and able to carry out a radical social and economic program that would also ally with anyone, from any party and none, and supported Labour's program in action - could change Britain's politics both inside and outside Westminster.
It is the failure of the Westminster Parliament in the first quarter century since the millennium that is now creating Britain's political future. As Britain bumps and grinds its way past Brexit so the real possibilities begin to arise. Britain can become a series of small and medium style countries, with new, genuine and humble democracies, involving all, focusing their priorities on the daily needs of the people. And grateful that the wretched Empire is really and finally over.
Thursday 27 June 2019
Friday 14 June 2019
Labour MPs back Boris.
When 8 Labour MPs opposed the Labour Party's vote in Parliament which was aimed at preventing a 'no deal' Brexit, they defeated the Party's resolution and thereby secured the current Tory Government's immediate future. At what a cost! The 8 effectively decided that maintaining the worst government in Britain since World War 2, with the guarantee of austerity multiplied, was better than agreeing either a possible manageable Brexit deal in Parliament and/or a further vote on Brexit. Sectarian, anti-working class madness. This was the first, significant attack on the Corbyn-led Labour Party which has a potentially drastic outcome for huge numbers of people, that has been thrown up by Labour MPs.
309 to 298 votes in Parliament now allows the virtually unchallenged Tory heir to the throne, Boris Johnson, to maintain his fantastical vision of a Brexit future. A future where his 'no deal' threat is supposed to force the EU into compliance and which will actually lead to new depths of impoverishment for millions - even should any emergency measures be temporarily accepted. If the 8 had abstained, as 13 other Labour MPs did, then Boris (and the mini-Borises') would have started to lose their platforms. The Tories would then have split under pressure of Farage's Brexit party and there would likely have been a very early, anti-Tory, General Election.
What is the engine driving these degenerate acts? Undoubtedly sickening self-aggrandisement generally contests with basic fear among those MPs who identify themselves as the masters of politics and the arbiter of all important decisions. They turn the (very rare) major, contested, political issues in Parliament into the smallest scraps of individual consequence. More significant than the psychology of the hangers on of the political class is the utterly false understanding of the meaning of Brexit itself. It is not addressed as it should be understood, that is from the point of view of the interests of the working class (which is supposedly the basis for the Labour Party's political representation.)
The fundamental object of a political party is to change (solidify or reverse) the conditions of the majority of the people. The drastic decline of Britain's majority, in contrast to every generation since 1945, means that it falls to the Labour Party to reverse the big trends that have created that condition. Uniquely (in Europe) the current British Labour Party not only has a chance to form a government, but it does so on the basis of a radical program of reforms. And this is by far the most important issue in British politics today.
Throughout political history, the most effective changes, including the development of democracy itself, are mostly created by the sustained mobilisation of ordinary people in all the areas of day-to-day life. (The 'yellow vest' movement in France is such an example.) While there have been mass actions in Britain in the last three years, from the point of view of many (but far from all) ordinary people, they have been wracked by the Brexit issue and not focused on action needed against their sinking conditions. Instead it is Brexit that has (deliberately) stood as a symbol of the capacity of ordinary people to change things, which has stirred a third of Britain's population but is of course a genuine fake! And this idea has been heated by classes on the margins of Britain's dominant rulers and by political movements that define a whole system of society by its local enemies rather than any of the great issues of life.
While attachment or otherwise to the EU is a serious question, it is, in reality, utterly subordinate to the immediate changes necessary and possible in Britain's society. The EU is not a neutral organisation. It is the largest international block against radical reform in the UK (or elsewhere in Europe.) But today's question is getting rid of the Tories and backing a new, radical government. (The Peterborough bi-election is a hint that it is possible to get beyond Brexit in a strongly Brexit borough.) The last thing it involves is defending, as our 8 Labour MP's did, a Tory Brexit which is meant to prepare a Tory election victory in 2 years time.
In the way that history can begin with the end, so the mass movements to come in Britain will probably be those which take the cautious reforms of Corbyn's Labour and turn them into the actions that challenge a whole system of society. But it is that door, winning a Corbyn government not fiddling with this or that version of Brexit, that must be opened now.
309 to 298 votes in Parliament now allows the virtually unchallenged Tory heir to the throne, Boris Johnson, to maintain his fantastical vision of a Brexit future. A future where his 'no deal' threat is supposed to force the EU into compliance and which will actually lead to new depths of impoverishment for millions - even should any emergency measures be temporarily accepted. If the 8 had abstained, as 13 other Labour MPs did, then Boris (and the mini-Borises') would have started to lose their platforms. The Tories would then have split under pressure of Farage's Brexit party and there would likely have been a very early, anti-Tory, General Election.
What is the engine driving these degenerate acts? Undoubtedly sickening self-aggrandisement generally contests with basic fear among those MPs who identify themselves as the masters of politics and the arbiter of all important decisions. They turn the (very rare) major, contested, political issues in Parliament into the smallest scraps of individual consequence. More significant than the psychology of the hangers on of the political class is the utterly false understanding of the meaning of Brexit itself. It is not addressed as it should be understood, that is from the point of view of the interests of the working class (which is supposedly the basis for the Labour Party's political representation.)
The fundamental object of a political party is to change (solidify or reverse) the conditions of the majority of the people. The drastic decline of Britain's majority, in contrast to every generation since 1945, means that it falls to the Labour Party to reverse the big trends that have created that condition. Uniquely (in Europe) the current British Labour Party not only has a chance to form a government, but it does so on the basis of a radical program of reforms. And this is by far the most important issue in British politics today.
Throughout political history, the most effective changes, including the development of democracy itself, are mostly created by the sustained mobilisation of ordinary people in all the areas of day-to-day life. (The 'yellow vest' movement in France is such an example.) While there have been mass actions in Britain in the last three years, from the point of view of many (but far from all) ordinary people, they have been wracked by the Brexit issue and not focused on action needed against their sinking conditions. Instead it is Brexit that has (deliberately) stood as a symbol of the capacity of ordinary people to change things, which has stirred a third of Britain's population but is of course a genuine fake! And this idea has been heated by classes on the margins of Britain's dominant rulers and by political movements that define a whole system of society by its local enemies rather than any of the great issues of life.
While attachment or otherwise to the EU is a serious question, it is, in reality, utterly subordinate to the immediate changes necessary and possible in Britain's society. The EU is not a neutral organisation. It is the largest international block against radical reform in the UK (or elsewhere in Europe.) But today's question is getting rid of the Tories and backing a new, radical government. (The Peterborough bi-election is a hint that it is possible to get beyond Brexit in a strongly Brexit borough.) The last thing it involves is defending, as our 8 Labour MP's did, a Tory Brexit which is meant to prepare a Tory election victory in 2 years time.
In the way that history can begin with the end, so the mass movements to come in Britain will probably be those which take the cautious reforms of Corbyn's Labour and turn them into the actions that challenge a whole system of society. But it is that door, winning a Corbyn government not fiddling with this or that version of Brexit, that must be opened now.
Friday 7 June 2019
Brexit Party blows a hole in Brexit
Nigel Farage made himself scarce after the election for a new Peterborough MP. The election was won by the Labour Party candidate and further clarified the real battle in Britain (7 June). Farage (along with the 'bookies' and their betting odds; virtually all of the mainstream media; the campaign to target Labour as anti-Semitic; the Tory Party and the biggest part of Labour's MPs in Parliament) believed that the new 'Brexit Party' would run away with a victory in Peterborough. It would win Farage's inaugural MP. (The first example of a rat jumping onto a sinking ship!)
Now that Mike Greene, ex local Tory, and Farage's last totem, becomes part of the dust of History, the real implications of a typically low local vote (less than 50%) in a marginal 'seat', that has swung between Labour and the Tory Party for the best part of a century, becomes clearer.
At around 2 am Boris Johnson (the most favoured candidate for Teresa May's ex position) tweeted '... Conservatives must deliver Brexit by 31st October or we risk Brexit Party votes delivering Corbyn to No10.' What was Boris looking at? Not at the low turn out among the Peterborough voters. (Normally that would jump up in Labour's favour in a General Election.) And not at Farage's latest kite that did not fly? No. He was scared that the Liberals and the Greens (12% and 3% respectively) did not take the 'return to the EU at all costs' votes from Labour, an assumption that has been readily promoted following the the recent EU elections. But Farage's vote, (29%), definitely cut into - indeed, cut the head off - official Tory candidate Paul Bristow's 21% of the vote.
The Labour vote in Peterborough (note the referendum vote; to leave 61%; to remain in the EU 39%) has not blocked a Labour victory when its official positions on Brexit have been criticised - including among its MPs - as much as the Tories. But Labour is known as having a program that reaches beyond Brexit. The Tories are still digging their Brexit hole.
Frankly Boris could not care less about Brexit. He cares about being Prime minister. His Brexit campaign started with two articles, but only one for publication, that argued in opposite directions. He had a hard 48 hours deliberation about Brexit, not because of his scruples, but working out which damn door that would best open for Boris. He has two policies, Boris for PM and a Trump scale tax cut for the rich. And now he is cornered. The disaster for Boris is not only do the Tories now have to swallow 'no deal' - to squeeze out Farage, but also they have to face the new reality that voters are beginning to look beyond Brexit. Boris's intention was to find something from the EU, anything, that he could get by with. Instead it will be the Tory Party 'no deal' catastrophe in jobs, standards of living and in declining health systems, plus a recalcitrant decrepit Parliament whose only aim is to prevent its own removal, plus a declining minority of Tory and ex-Tory banks of brexit-at-all-costs around the UK that Boris needs in what will finally become that next General Election. This is not where Boris would have wished to be.
Boris has only one act of leadership he can take. The attack on Corbyn and his program, sadly, only now, is really about to begin.
Soon; Labour, Brexit, the Union and the Greens.
Now that Mike Greene, ex local Tory, and Farage's last totem, becomes part of the dust of History, the real implications of a typically low local vote (less than 50%) in a marginal 'seat', that has swung between Labour and the Tory Party for the best part of a century, becomes clearer.
At around 2 am Boris Johnson (the most favoured candidate for Teresa May's ex position) tweeted '... Conservatives must deliver Brexit by 31st October or we risk Brexit Party votes delivering Corbyn to No10.' What was Boris looking at? Not at the low turn out among the Peterborough voters. (Normally that would jump up in Labour's favour in a General Election.) And not at Farage's latest kite that did not fly? No. He was scared that the Liberals and the Greens (12% and 3% respectively) did not take the 'return to the EU at all costs' votes from Labour, an assumption that has been readily promoted following the the recent EU elections. But Farage's vote, (29%), definitely cut into - indeed, cut the head off - official Tory candidate Paul Bristow's 21% of the vote.
The Labour vote in Peterborough (note the referendum vote; to leave 61%; to remain in the EU 39%) has not blocked a Labour victory when its official positions on Brexit have been criticised - including among its MPs - as much as the Tories. But Labour is known as having a program that reaches beyond Brexit. The Tories are still digging their Brexit hole.
Frankly Boris could not care less about Brexit. He cares about being Prime minister. His Brexit campaign started with two articles, but only one for publication, that argued in opposite directions. He had a hard 48 hours deliberation about Brexit, not because of his scruples, but working out which damn door that would best open for Boris. He has two policies, Boris for PM and a Trump scale tax cut for the rich. And now he is cornered. The disaster for Boris is not only do the Tories now have to swallow 'no deal' - to squeeze out Farage, but also they have to face the new reality that voters are beginning to look beyond Brexit. Boris's intention was to find something from the EU, anything, that he could get by with. Instead it will be the Tory Party 'no deal' catastrophe in jobs, standards of living and in declining health systems, plus a recalcitrant decrepit Parliament whose only aim is to prevent its own removal, plus a declining minority of Tory and ex-Tory banks of brexit-at-all-costs around the UK that Boris needs in what will finally become that next General Election. This is not where Boris would have wished to be.
Boris has only one act of leadership he can take. The attack on Corbyn and his program, sadly, only now, is really about to begin.
Soon; Labour, Brexit, the Union and the Greens.
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