The Tories will move from proto-fascist to full on and will accelerate their attack on the public’s ability to get them out of power or call them to task on their mishandling of Brexit or Covid.
Just look at what the Tories are up to at the moment.
Suggestions that Border guards could be immune from prosecution if someone dies as a result of their actions.
Removal of any practical right to demonstrate.
Restrictions on judicial review
Restricting the BBC
Attacks on human rights - conflating the European Commission of Human Rights with the EU and ECJ to achieve support for this.
Restricting the right to vote to those with photo ID (disenfranchising many poorer voters).
Well yes I suppose I am assuming that popular rejection of EU FoM will persist, because even with this government’s ability to rewrite history Nineteen-Eighty-Four style, I am not sure how soon they will deem it safe to start saying “EU workers = Good Thing”. If you look at their U turns, usually they are switching from a non populist view to a populist view which is the easy way to go. The current populist anti EU migration stance is so entrenched that reversing it will take a time, and the Tories will not dare be seen to be in favour of EU migration until the change has happened. Their modus operandi is to get public opinion where they want it first, so they can say That is what you want so that is what we will give you. But you may be right, it is becoming more and more incredible what the public will go along with.
Ah, the joy of political debate. Although it does seem ( to me) that some of this is echoing the dividing tactics of the US? We know the situation is dire on various levels, no need to keep repeating past grievances. How do we move forward to fix All of this mess without the damn politicians who created it?
Am all for grassroots and community movements. Besides, the politicians have all been bought out by Big Tech. Follow the money…
I’m not clear it was ever on offer, except in the sense that if the UK asked for SM/CU membership it would have been accommodated somehow.
But the UK was never remotely interested - the road to hard Brexit was clearly signposted in May’s conference speech in October 2016 and cemented into place in the Lancaster House speec early the following year.
Michel Barnier was the consistent EU negotiator, David Davis was one of many from UK side - presumably as they continued to disappoint with their progress.
(which one of these parties would you rather negotiated the sake of your house, business etc ?)
The official ‘Leave’ campaign in 2016 actually promised that the UK would stay in the EEA. These were their exact words:
There is a European free trade zone from Iceland to the Russian border and we will be part of it… Britain will have access to the Single Market after we vote leave…
Not only could the UK have had a similar status to Norway, etc - its people were actually promised they would have! This is why May’s 2016 Tory Party Conference speech came as such a shock to the EU - because as Billy mentioned, up to that point it had been assumed that the UK would stay in the single market and customs union because that is actually what its people had voted for. The so-called ‘red lines’ that May created at that point - entirely out of internal Tory Party politics - nothing to do with either the Referendum or Parliament - implied the hard brexit we ended up with. That was the UK’s choice, not a ‘punishment’ imposed on it.
What a truly depressing list - here in France you forget just how bad they are - and how close to Trump - until you see their proto-fascism listed out like this.
@Geof_Cox …re your comment of a couple of days ago
This will surprise nobody who has read Marx, because he never defined social class in terms of occupation, education, etc - all the nonsense that anglo-saxon sociologists now emplo
Interesting - well the Paul Mason bits anyway - he’s always worth reading.
And his interlocutor ably exemplifies what passes for thinking in mid-western US university economics departments now.
It does not help British businesses trying to compete with EU businesses though does it because it makes EU imports to the UK cheaper, and UK imports to the EU more expensive.
But I am sure they meant well.
Actually it’s not so much that the Euro is lower - the £ is up against most currencies simply because the market expects a rise in Bank of England base rates - so bizarrely it’s not about the Eurozone at all - it’s more evidence of the UK’s problems!
I’ve already done a much bigger than normal transfer £s to €s because profit-taking on the market might set in even before the expected UK interest rate change - also some evidence today that UK inflation is not going to get as high as some expected, so again £ may fall back for this reason.
