THE PLAN for a parliamentary coup against the 2016 Referendum result, that instructed the government to leave the EU, by forcing through the House of Commons four Brexit-busting resolutions – supporting a Customs Union and a second referendum, and the revocation of Article 50 – collapsed on Monday night. This was the second such collapse in a week.
All four indicative resolutions were voted down by MPs so creating the conditions for the UK to leave the EU without a deal on April 12.
The crisis in the Tory Party was emphasised by the fact that for every Tory MP who voted in favour of a Customs Union seven voted against! 170 Tory MPs, including 30 ministers, 11 of whom are in the cabinet, and 12 whips, earlier signed a letter to the PM backing a ‘no deal’!
Labour’s crisis was revealed when 40 Labour MPs either voted against or abstained on the indicative resolution for a second referendum. This was lost by 292 to 280, infuriating Labour’s right wing.
25 Labour MPs voted against the cross party ‘Common Market 2.0’, indicative motion which resulted in it being defeated by 282 to 261 votes!
This huge crisis for the British ruling class and its parliament ended with a Tory government declaration that, after the defeats of the indicative motions, the government would not be pursuing a ‘no deal’.
The essence of this disastrous day for the May government and the Labour Party leaders, and its implications for both, was earlier outlined in the House of Commons when Tory leaver MP Bill Cash quoted Oliver Cromwell.
He said: ‘Cromwell came to this House and he said: “You have been here too long for anything useful that you may have done. Depart I say and in the name of God go”.’
Cash concluded: ‘These indicative votes are just a means of trying to unravel the decision that was taken. I believe that it is undemocratic. I think it is in defiance of our constitution. It is in defiance of our procedures.’
Yesterday Tory MP Nigel Evans said that if May intends to go back to Brussels to seek a long extension, that would see the UK being forced to take part in the upcoming European elections and national humiliation. ‘She might as well quit now!’
In fact, the majority of the working class and the middle class is now definitely Cromwellian in its attitude to a useless parliament that is seeking by every means possible to smash the referendum result, and defy the people’s vote in order to remain in the EU.
The working class will not stand for being forced into European elections!
Cromwell forced through the bourgeois revolution against a feudal ruling class that believed that the King ruled by divine right.
When supporters of the parliament tried to compromise and say that they were for both King and parliamant, Cromwell famously declared that if he ‘came across the King in the body of the enemy he would as soon discharge his pistol upon him as upon any private man.’
When the King refused to compromise and started a second civil war, Cromwell purged the House of Commons, shut down the House of Lords and declared a Republic, putting Charles I on trial as a traitor to his people. These were momentous historic actions.
The determination of the current British ruling class to put the ‘backward and ignorant people back into their pre-referendum place’ is now angering millions of workers and inviting the same fate as the previous ruling class.
Without a doubt, this arrogance will drive the working class to rise and settle the issue by shutting down parliament and bringing in a workers republic, run by workers councils managing a planned socialist economy.
This decisive action by UK workers will set the stage alongside the French, Italian, Greek, Spanish and German workers to smash the EU and replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe.
It is this historic conflict that the current arrogance of the bourgeoisie and its political frontmen is stirring up. As Marx predicted, the working class will prove once again that it is the gravedigger of capitalism!
