PM MAY, placed into office after the Cameron-Osborne 2016 EU referendum disaster, has continued to display the complete disorientation of the Tory Party and the British ruling class as UK capitalism proceeds from one disaster to the next, plunging the whole country into poverty.
She called a snap election believing that she would be returned strengthened, and lost her majority, forcing her to pay £1.2bn to the DUP to purchase their votes to keep her in office. At the Tory Party conference everything that could go wrong went wrong, turning her into a laughing stock.
And now yesterday’s session in parliament to celebrate her expected ‘deal’ with the EU, to proceed to the trade talks with that body, had to be cancelled after an MEP leaked that central to the deal was that Northern Ireland would retain ‘regulatory alignment’ with the Irish Republic and the EU after Brexit.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said that this was ‘simply EU speak for keeping Northern Ireland inside the Customs Union and inside the Single Market’, ie inside the EU. After the leak, on Monday midday, the DUP’s Arlene Foster rang May during her talks lunchbreak and told her that the DUP would no longer vote with the government. This meant no deal!
The press conference to announce a ‘victory’ lasted just five minutes. There were no speeches and no questions, as May rushed off to speak to President Tusk, cancelling the session due in parliament yesterday that was set to announce her great victory. She has been brought down to earth with a crash!
Her assurances on Northern Ireland however had a huge impact, and saw the SNP leader Sturgeon, the Welsh government, and London’s Mayor Khan demanding the same deal for their areas.
In other words, the crisis-ridden Tory Party and the crisis-ridden UK capitalist class of bankers and bosses are bringing forward politicians who are in favour, when push comes to shove, of dismantling the UK to become provincial leaders of the Brussels-based EU empire, with London as some ‘city-state’!
In fact, May and her cabinet are capitulating to the EU. They have already agreed to hand the EU leaders up to 100bn euros and have already agreed to allow the European Court to have a role inside the UK during, and even after, the ‘transition period’.
However, it is beyond doubt that May could not have misunderstood the DUP position, and that she had given them the power to bring down her government. Why then did she broker the ‘regulatory alignment’ deal for Ireland?
It is now being said that the DUP, in the end, could not accept a special deal between the Irish Republic, the North of Ireland and the EU as a trailblazer for a final deal with the EU under which the UK, as a whole, would remain inside the Single Market and the Customs Union, meaning that Northern Ireland and Britain would have equality of treatment.
The reality is that the UK’s bankers and bosses are desperate to remain in the EU and May is seeking a way to serve their interests. This is why the TUC is still pleading with May to dump the ‘Brexit fanatics’ and join hands with Labour and the Lib Dems to rescue the situation and dump Brexit.
Millions of workers who are being pauperised by the crisis of British capitalism must now take action to defend their interests. They must organise a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government. This must immediately break with the EU and embark on a socialist programme in the UK, nationalising the banks and the major industries under workers’ control and management.
A socialist planned economy will provide the millions of homes and jobs that workers need as well as properly financing the NHS. It will also appeal to the workers of Europe to bring down the EU and its bankers and bosses to go forward to a Socialist United States of Europe.
