Britain: a tale of two independence days
JVL Introduction
Perspectives on the General Election (24)
You may recall Nigel Farage telling supporters on referendum day, 23rd June 2016, that “dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom”.
It hasn’t quite worked out like that and Shaw is in doubt of the disaster that Brexit has been. Though barely mentioned, its shadow hangs over the election in the surface effects of the Brexit experiment: the ‘mess’ the country is in, the ‘broken’ public services, the venality and incompetence of Tory politicians.
Brexit itself barely features in the election campaign, though the return of Mr Brexit – Nigel Farage – and his anti-immigration agenda, highlights what for many was its real agenda.
Martin Shaw reminds us of the wave of intimidation and violence that preceded, accompanied and followed the Brexit campaign, mediated through the Tory Party with the rise of the UK’s most extreme political elite in living memory.
July 5th, for Shaw “ought to be a new British Independence Day, when the country throws off the Brexit Tory regime which has damaged it so deeply.”
Unfortunately, “the Labour leadership’s unwillingness to challenge the Tories for what they are and failure to stake out clear alternatives to many of their policies are likely to mask the significance of the moment.”
The British right that emerges will be a weak force in parliamentary and electoral terms but the danger of a frustrated, grass-roots, extreme right rising in frustration at Labour should not be underestimated.
RK
This article was originally published by History / theory / politics on Sun 23 Jun 2024. Read the original here.
Britain: a tale of two independence days
From 23 June 2016 to 4 July 2024
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Brexit means we’ll all become steadily poorer (as individuals and in terms of the UK’s tax base). We’re losing the beneficial influences on the UK of EU standards of political and corporate governance, laws, safety standards and vocational education for all levels of staff. Our businesses and universities are at permanent, growing operational and economic disadvantages to those based inside the EU and in countries linked to the EU.
At a time when Brits are becoming increasingly worried about their future they’ll also be painfully aware their government hasn’t any effective plans (or even commitment?) to making their lives better. It’ll be a PM and government so authoritarian, lacking in ideas and generally incompetent that the public and the media will soon distrust and despise them as much as we now do the Tories. There won’t even be an Opposition in a fit state to take over from the discredited government though.
An early permanent descent into fascism seems less likely to me than a succession of destabilising political shocks; national and social disintegration; anarchy; political paralysis; and the collapse of our essential services (from which we’ll emerge in an even worse state than we now are).
The premierships of Cameron, May and Johnson and the expected premiership of Starmer have brought us to disaster I think.
Farage is a conman, and unelected, but let’s not forget he’s also part of the establishment, not an outsider. It’s also worth mentioning that for people like Farage, any publicity is good, so it would be better if jvl could stop wasting time on him, and perhaps do some coverage of pro Palestinians, like George Galloway and the Workers Party of Britain, who I notice your woefully silent on.