ON THURSDAY 23rd June, 2016, the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom took a revolutionary decision to leave the European Union. This was after Parliament voted that they should make the decision which would be binding on Parliament.
The decision of the masses created a huge crisis for the ruling class. PM Cameron resigned, as did his Chancellor Osborne, and as the crisis developed the Tory 1922 Committee stepped in to stop a Tory leadership election and to appoint a leading ‘remainer’, May, to be PM.
So unbalanced was the Tory leadership that May called a snap general election for June 8th 2017, on the basis of a delusion that the Tories would romp home. She lost her majority and put herself in the position of having to purchase the support of the DUP for over £1bn to provide her with the most slender of parliamentary majorities.
Last Friday, the ‘remainer’ PM after months of dithering moved to stab Brexit by summoning her cabinet to Chequers, where they were treated like common criminals, and had all electronic devices taken off them before they were allowed to enter the meeting room.
There she announced that Brexit was over and that the the UK would be staying in the the Customs Union and the Single Market by the formation of a ‘combined customs territory’ within the EU for UK industrial and agricultural goods, that would be based on a ‘common rule book’, that would be supervised by the European Court of Justice.
The jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice will remain since the UK ‘will pay regard to its decisions in areas where common rules are in force’. Freedom of movement is to be replaced by a ‘mobility framework’ which would be set up to allow UK and EU citizens to travel to each other’s territories.
Sir Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said it could be the case that ‘Brexiteers have signed up to it knowing perfectly well that it is not going to pass the European Union and they’ll then be able to blame Europe for the fact that it won’t work’. In fact the EU, with May on the run, is certain to trample all over her, and impose exactly what they want.
Her capitulation has brought the Tory party and government to the point of explosion. Nigel Evans, joint executive secretary of the 1922 Committee that made May PM said: ‘The devil is in the detail. We need to know exactly whether we are able to do a comprehensive trade deal with the United States of America.’
They of course will not be allowed to have a comprehensive trade deal with the USA as part of a ‘combined customs territory’, in the middle of a trade war! Evans continued: ‘We’ve got President Trump coming next week. We already have the ambassador saying they are looking for a 0% tariff on US goods and British goods back and forth, which would mean a huge enhancement of trade between UK and USA.’
As is well known Trump is in trade war mode and will no doubt encourage the likes of Boris Johnson to challenge the May leadership of the Tory party, creating the conditions for a general election. What we are witnessing is not just the decline, but the fall of British imperialism. It has been very sick for some time. It emerged from the Second World War as part of the victorious coalition but was immediately a loser when it lost its huge world empire.
Having been dumped out of India, the Gulf, Malaya, Kenya etc etc, it tried to turn to the EU.
However, General de Gaulle kept them out of the European Economic Community saying that the UK ruling class would always choose the US over Europe. In fact a major section of the UK ruling class has fitted in excellently with the EU, and many a retired Labour leader has made a fortune in its service. The UK ruling class is split and on its knees.
Trump’s visit could well encourage a Tory leadership contest, and a crisis general election.
The working class must now move forward, continuing its revolution to protect its interests, its jobs and its NHS. The Canada-EU trade deal, and any UK-US trade deal will have the privatisation of the NHS as its number one target.
The working class must bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government that will quit the EU at once and nationalise the banks and major industries to bring in socialism. For support it must turn to its main allies: The working class of the EU and the USA.
