It looks like the EU will deliver their verdict on the UK today. It is that we are unable to decide. And because we can't they'll give us the time we need to go away and make up our minds.
It's damning. What they can see is what we know: that we have a political class bereft of ability that is unable to think logically about an issue. Worse, tribalism matters so much that it's not just compromise that is impossible for them; they are also beyond considering the national interest.
And deep down there is something else. It has to be said there is a total lack of competence on display. There are, of course, exceptions to that generality. But overall, the leaderships of both the various Tory factions and of Labour show little of the nous required to deliver the policies this country requires.
The Tories have abandoned intellect for pettiness: they deserve a generation in the wilderness and with luck will get it.
But whilst Labour is not much to blame for Brexit, its failure to oppose it appropriately - based on a clear vision of the national need - has been a massive failure on its part. Even now, as we stare into a Brexit abyss, it cannot say we need to stay and devote all our effort into transforming the prospects of most people in this country, which is entirely possible within the constraints of the EU, and much more likely to succeed with those constraints than it is with the consequences of being out.
What happens to the Tories matters to me: I wish them torn asunder (to reflect what they already are), but I fear the far-right claiming the name.
What happens to Labour also matters. I pray for the wisdom, and most of all courage, if some past generations of its leadership.
But most of all I wish for the essential reform that will permit real change in our society, which is electoral reform. We cannot suffer the incapacity that these parties have created for much longer. And that requires fundamental change.
But I am not hopeful.
The impasse will survive, I fear, with all that has gone with it.
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It seems too that the Conservatives have lost the trust of most of the business community, which has been their bedrock support for generations.
I am sure that they have lost it
Very badly
My question is whether the loss of support from business and the general dismay of the wider public over the Brexit shambles is reflected in reduced funding? If/when that comes about, the Tories will be in a very difficult position (which they’re not used to) especially if a General Election is called.
Rumour has it that it is…..
… when did a Tory ever put nation… before party… before self…
So the UK is now (deservedly) fully at the mercy of whatever the EU27 decide; so the Leave fanatics rants about vassalage have now been brought to pass, entirely through their own stupidity and fanatacism. What a magnificent irony.
That apart, I agree entirely with your analysis of the quality of our politicians and the political system that’s produced them. There are of course some honourable exceptions , even in the wretched Tory party, but this crisis has shown how hopeless, overall, our system is. And, in particular, the voting system that has disenfranchised me and many others my entire life. How Labour have the nerve to call themselves a progressive party when they refuse to countenance PR is beyond me.
Still, if there is an extension of such length that the UK holds European elections, I’ll be able to vote under the PR system. Which I shall make sure I do for the first time ever, and for the most pro EU candidates. Having been guilty of apathy and complacency in the past about our membership of the EU, those of us in the UK who are pro-EU must get up off our backsides and show our support for continued UK membership of the EU, as the Leave edifice of lies and bullshit comes crashing down. And not let ourselves be intimidated by threats and abuse from the Leave fanatics and their ragtag of neo fascist supporters.
Given the generally poor voter turnout at EU elections German companies are now encouraging greater participation. This could do with being promoted- somehow- in our disunited kingdom. https://www.thelocal.de/20190409/german-big-business-dives-into-politics-with-pro-eu-message
Hopefully those UK companies which are so very dependant on EU exports can follow this up.
“…..Even now, as we stare into a Brexit abyss, [the Labour Party] cannot say we need to stay and devote all our effort into transforming the prospects of most people in this country,….”
They should realise that even with the ‘softest’ of Brexits, and even if they manage to get into government, at least their first term will be entirely taken up with Brexit consequences and there will be no legislative time to do anything useful to address the problems that led to the stupidity of Brexit in the first place.
…and of course there will be a destructive leadership contest within the first twelve months….. neoliberal quislings will not support a progressive agenda. Why would they ?
I’m not so sure, Richard, that the political impasse – the log-jam of tribalism in the Commons – will survive. Certainly it has never been under greater strain, but there are even greater tensions to come. Tory arrogance is so entrenched and unthinking that very few of them realise that ever since 2014/2015 the constant repetition of the issue of Scotland and its ignored polity, at which they hoot and scoff in the chamber, marks a fundamental warning of the Union under terminal stress. (Only the otherwise right wing Brexiteer Edward Leigh – a couple of years ago (?) – seems to have noticed the warning bells as of 19th century Ireland.) Then there are the rifts already tearing the Tory party apart. Much is being made of the huge defections – active or abstensionist – in yesterday’s vote, but surely even more indicative has been the plethora of Breximaniacs threatening the EU from the back-benches, culminating in the truly astonishing breach of all normal protocol with Cash’s personal letter to Tusk more or less threatening the EU with court action if it does as it appears minded to do! The Tories are a ‘party’ now in little more than name.
I’m a deal less forgiving re Labour throughout this entire shambles – starting right at the beginning. Let us hypothesise a real opposition party – that (a) opposed the referendum, its bent franchise, its clear potential for ignoring the decisions of the ‘other’ nations of the ‘U’K, that (b) called out the myth of the “will of the people” on the clear and constantly increasingly evident grounds of electoral fraud – lies, illegal funding, theft of data etc. and that (c) therefore was solidly already miles ahead, genuinely in favour of a ‘Peoples’ Vote’ and riding the increasing wave of public anger at the economic mayhem about to be unleashed. What a hugely different picture that would be. However, instead we have Corbyn’s Labour which, having been born in a surge of hope, has proved itself yet another unprincipled triangulator in search of office for its own dogmatists’ purposes. It is accordingly under strains which cannot long be contained. Its right is scarred by the Blair years – not least the Iraq war whose horrid shadow lies across almost every threat to international order, let alone peace. Its left is splintering with every passing Brexit laden day.
At present, none of the leadership cohorts of these two tribes seems to grasp and certainly does not articulate, the scale of the electoral crisis or the depth of their lack of legitimacy with the public. These things just cannot hold together much longer. IF there is a long delay and IF there is a public vote and an escape from Brexit, then just possibly the fracturing will be such as to usher in some multi party source for a new politics, with a gradual but steady growth for the Greens and some ‘centrist’ groupings of the moderate left and the moderate right. Then, maybe you might see electoral reform. Yet that would be a revolution for the whole rotten Westminster edifice of the elective dictatorship is, as it has developed in the post-war era, rested on the FPTP scam.
However, if, as seems woefully more likely, the delay does bring some form of Brexit, another more seismic path will follow. The UK will break up. Scotland and Ireland will be gone – no doubt not as smoothly nor as amiably as would be desirable and wise – but it will happen, and soon. After that South Britain (if Wales stays) will have had the shock which will break politics as we’ve known it completely. I’d hope that shock, economic as well as political, might, at last, unseat the country’s reactionary establishment and surely again a Green type of party might emerge. So your Green hopes look the only outcomes – but a long way down rocky roads which are going to start unwinding in the either the near or the very near future. May’s deadline or the EU’s – the existing order has probably not long to go – and Boris is going to be too late – yet again – to amount to anything. A fitting end for a clown.
Richard, re your wish for a reform of the voting system (which I share), I just can’t see it happening any time soon. Both Tory and Labour crave absolute power, so FPTP suits them perfectly. The fly in the ointment now is that public disillusionment with UK politics is so pervasive that even FPTP can’t produce a majority government. The glacial pace at which UK embraces change will see to it that further incompetence and impasses will prevail for some time yet. Perhaps the departure of Scotland and/or a change of direction in N Ireland might provide the right impetus for change in the Westminster electoral system. If so, it should be treated as a farewell gift (TFIC – tongue firmly in cheek).
Mention of incompetence made me wonder what May’s tenure as PM tells us about the Tory contenders for the job. She was voted in by her party in spite of a conspicuous lack of effectiveness as Home Secretary. Indeed her disastrous immigration policies resulted in the failure to record movements of EU citizens into/out of the UK, failure to control immigration from new member states of the EU when the EU’s rules permit that for a 7-year period, failure to control immigration from the rest of the world and, her magnum opus, the Windrush scandal, which looks like costing the UK taxpayer a huge and inestimable amount besides wrecking the lives of large numbers of British citizens. Add in her lack of leadership skills (cf Tory Party in disarray and rebellion), obstinate intransigence when circumstances alter (cf the entire Brexit saga) and a complete absence of charisma (cf every appearance in front of cameras) and the only conclusion I can reach for her being judged to be the best candidate for PM is that the others were utterly bereft of the qualities necessary to manage the UK at this time of crisis. Those hopeless cases are of course the leading contenders to fill her position when she eventually demits office (pity we can’t impeach her!). Anyway, what could possibly go wrong?
I agree Ken
Including on the chance of PR reform
If there is one good thing that might come out of this Brexit saga it is this : the end of the Conservative party as the prime movers of the UK as a vassal state of the US and the neoliberal doctrine that all and any reduction to a money value is the only value for any society on earth. A movement ( hard to define at present ) against this ideology has begun , but it has yet to embed itself in the public consciousness, so confused are the lineages of political affiliation . Labour meanwhile cannot get over its inferiority complex of being the party that cannot be trusted with the money . Well get over it . Schools are closing for one day a week because they haven’t got enough money to open for five. Now tell me the money orthodoxy of ‘ there is not enough money ‘ hasn’t been utterly absorbed by the populace as ‘ natural and normal ‘ that a shrug of the shoulders is the only response.
Hi just went to say I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the comments on here. No nastiness just good thought out tell us.
Well, last night was somewhat worrying. I’d been watching the French news, Macron’s posturing, his official pre-summit photo in the Élysée was taken with a portrait of de Gaulle in the background…dear me! That really gave me a scare. Was he really planning to do a de Gaulle on us?
It seemed that instead, Merkel and he did a good cop bad cop on May. Ouf!
Those two really have a sense of the dramatic haven’t they, I then remembered Macron had been in his Lycée’s drama club…Jupiter is his nickname in France.
All this political act is quite unnerving when you’re not a member of the circus.
Anyway, for now, we still have time to campaign to end this mess. So back to it…tomorrow.
The Tories are likely to implode, they’ve already been taken over thanks to a weak and incompetent leadership and seem to have decided to eject anyone active and sensible (there are some…of sorts).
Labour…I really don’t want to say anything nasty, but really…hopeless. Who have they got in there? Can you see anyone at all? Starmer has the intellect but not the guts or support. I really can’t see anyone else, they’re crippled with dogma and lack of pragmatism.
So even though today feels like a reprieve, I have no doubt we’ll be in a mess whatever happens in the next few months.
Agreed