Time has run out. Labour must seize its last chance to take a stand on Brexit
The party’s national executive committee has a duty to back a second vote to block the rise of hard-right nationalism
Is Labour to be the party of Europe in uncompromising opposition to the rise of an ugly, hard-right, English nationalism? Or will it continue to temporise over Europe, so enabling the centre of political gravity to shift towards the English nationalist right?
The temporisers think that:
The party must “respect” the referendum result partly to protect its “working-class vote” from the incursions of Nigel Farage’s English nationalists but also because the democratic outcome of the referendum demands it. Labour must certainly commit to a better Brexit deal than Mrs May’s, but a commitment to a confirmatory public vote on any deal can only be “on the table”, not a central plank of policy.
It won’t do. The right of British politics is becoming an amalgam of strident English nationalism, nostalgic xenophobia and hyper-Thatcherism hiding behind the language of anti-Europeanism that seeks to legitimise those ugly values. The ageing Tory party, already hostage to thousands of ex-Ukip members who have recently joined it, is being pulled magnetically towards Farage’s Brexit party.
Farage is the coming man. Hutton starts to see some of his appeal:
a no-deal hard Brexit and national “independence”, something so valuable, declares Farage, that if it means being poorer and internationally marginalised, so be it. [quite a popular view I would think -- anathema to the petit-bourgeoisie of course] It will allow the greater prize of England becoming the country he wants, home to a virulent capitalism and minimal social safety net; to a spirit of anti-immigration and indifference to inequality.
I love that last bit. As if we were gallantly standing up to virulent capitalism and pursuing equality at the moment!
Hutton's tea leaves reveal that:
If the Brexit party tops the European poll, be sure the Tory party will force out May over the summer and an English Eurosceptic nationalist, probably Boris Johnson, will take over, arguing for a no-deal Brexit for what is now the very hard deadline of 31 October.... Strategically, this new Tory leader’s aim will be to assimilate the Brexit party and its agenda; liberal one-nation conservatism will be torched. Such a leader will split the parliamentary Tory party and in the resulting general election Labour is likely to win. Some Corbynites even think that in strategic terms the more the 23 May manifesto can be fudged, the better. In Leninist terms [sic], it is one step back – a setback in the Euro elections by not fully opposing Farage – for two steps forward, a subsequent Labour general election victory.
Such cynicism is not for Hutton's pure,clean socialist[?] soul:
It is wrong on so many fronts. First, Britain is now joined in a civilisational battle of ideas and values [I thought that was G Bush's slogan?], recognised by party members and unions, if not some in the leadership. Labour cannot betray its core beliefs – the recognition and celebration of international interdependence in the pursuit of justice, solidarity and fighting climate change [get that last bit in] ; tolerance of the other and joy in diversity; commitment to equality and enfranchising workers – for a moment or in any election...If Labour is not explicitly for a confirmatory vote, its support will haemorrhage, now and in the future.
Hutton is surprised how ignorant so many contributors to the debate are:
Arguments about democracy and the case against English nationalism have to be confronted full on. There is nothing new in insisting that democracies must have the right to change their minds. The Athenian parliamentarian [really? --see his speech quoted in Thucydides] Diodotus argued in 427BC that as facts and arguments develop so democracies must revise their judgments – dismissing the counter-argument that it would cause division.
Equally, Labour’s manifesto must link the case for Europe with a passionate [of course] case for reform: the two are indissolubly linked. Its 2017 general election manifesto is the nearest we have to the kind of transformative economic and social programme that will address the just grievances of so much of leave-voting Britain. But it is only fully possible within the EU
Meanwhile. the apocalypse nears:
There are 48 hours to stop Farage and all he stands for [Why? What happens on Tuesday night -- the deadline for publishing Labour's manifesto for the European elections. Civilisation itself turns on Corbyn approving the wording that talks of a confirmatory vote]. The country, as at other times in our history, needs Labour to do the right thing. [And what did it do at those other times?]
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