PM MAY yesterday told a Lancaster House press conference of her government’s plan to quit the dictatorial EU and its Single Market.
Harkening back to the days of the empire, May boasted: ‘Britain’s history and culture is profoundly internationalist.’ Her ‘message’ from Britain was: ‘June the 23rd was not the moment Britain chose to step back from the world. It was the moment we chose to build a truly global Britain.’
May wants to try to turn the clock back to pre-1914! It was Marx that observed that history tends to repeat itself, first as a tragedy and then as a farce! (This time round the ‘internationalist’ British ruling class seeks to be the junior partner of President Trump).
She added: ‘And I know many fear that this might herald the beginning of a greater unravelling of the EU. But let me be clear: I do not want that to happen. It would not be in the best interests of Britain. It remains overwhelmingly and compellingly in Britain’s national interest that the EU should succeed.’
In fact, as she knows, the UK is being forced out of the EU by the referendum in which she voted ‘remain’, while the EU itself is imploding with Greece in revolt and huge electoral shocks taking place in Austria and Italy, with worse to come in France and Germany! Revolution is developing throughout Europe.
May emphasised that the British ruling class has never got over its loss of empire. ‘Many in Britain have always felt that the United Kingdom’s place in the European Union came at the expense of our global ties, and of a bolder embrace of free trade with the wider world. . .’
She added: ‘Our political traditions are different. Unlike other European countries, we have no written constitution, but the principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty is the basis of our unwritten constitutional settlement. We have only a recent history of devolved governance – though it has rapidly embedded itself – and we have little history of coalition government. The public expect to be able to hold their governments to account very directly, and, as a result, supranational institutions as strong as those created by the European Union sit very uneasily in relation to our political history and way of life.’
Ordinary Britons cannot live under despotisms of the Brussels variety. For good measure, the ‘Remainer’ May added: ‘Now I do not believe that these things apply uniquely to Britain. Britain is not the only member state where there is a strong attachment to accountable and democratic government, such a strong internationalist mindset, or a belief that diversity within Europe should be celebrated. And so I believe there is a lesson in Brexit not just for Britain but, if it wants to succeed, for the EU itself.’
She outlined the two ‘European ways’ of ‘dealing with different interests. She advised: ‘You can respond by trying to hold things together by force, tightening a vice-like grip that ends up crushing into tiny pieces the very things you want to protect. Or you can respect difference, cherish it even, and reform the EU so that it deals better with the wonderful diversity of its member states.’ She added: ‘And that is why we seek a new and equal partnership – between an independent, self-governing, global Britain and our friends and allies in the EU.
‘Not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership of the European Union, or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out. We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave.’
Under the need for ‘certainty’ she declared: ‘When it comes to parliament, there is one other way in which I would like to provide certainty. I can confirm today that the government will put the final deal that is agreed between the UK and the EU to a vote in both Houses of Parliament, before it comes into force.’
May had to make this pledge since, without it, the Labour-Tory pro EU MPs majority would not allow the process to even begin. Now the Tory and Labour remainers can plot to plunge the UK into civil war when they reject the deal that May presents to them!
There are very stormy economic and political crises ahead. Brexit will be achieved by a UK workers uprising that disbands a treacherous parliament and sets the scene for the struggle for a Socialist United States of Europe.
