Despite the headlines, little changed after the elections on 7 May. As widely predicted, workers across Britain trounced the Labour Party. But it remains in power, determined to cling on, and to inflict as much damage as possible to the country.
And yet the government has doubled down, claiming that the vote represented frustration with it not going ahead fast enough. The opposite is true.
The vote was about what workers perceive of government policies, actions and grandiose plans – principally ceding independence to the EU and chasing the net zero mirage – and workers don’t like what they see.
Disenchantment
Across Britain the picture was much the same. In the English local and mayoral elections and the devolved assembly elections in Wales and Scotland there was disenchantment and, as ever, widespread delusion that the others they voted for might be better, or even different.
‘Returning Britain to the EU is their central strategy: they can’t give it up.’
No sooner were results of the English local elections out than defence secretary John Healey sprang to Keir Starmer’s side.
That’s because returning Britain to the EU and a prominent role in NATO is their central strategy: they can’t give it up.
Healey reduces all this to “national sentiment”. Even in the face of a remarkable vote, Labour refuses to listen, to take criticism.
Harder and faster
They will plough on, only harder and faster. To this government, the people are saying, “you have sat here too long. In the name of God, go!”
Some Labour supporters tried to be optimistic – Starmer may be rubbish at home but on the “international stage” he is magnificent! That thought has been drowned out by the fairground show of the leadership challenge.
Hanging on
Starmer won’t give a timetable for an orderly succession. He wants to hang on to ensure payments have started to flow to the EU, and to lock Britain in to the EU loan to Ukraine.
All the would-be successors were in the Remain camp and are pro-EU. They differ only in how openly they say rejoin. Over almost ten years all have maintained the anti-democratic stance of undermining the Brexit vote in any way they could.
‘All they offer is to claim that the alternative will be worse.’
Nothing from any of the Labour “leaders” suggests they understand the reasons for the vote, just as they (mostly) did not understand the reasons for the Leave vote. All they offer is to claim that the alternative will be worse – raising the bogey of the “far right”.
One or two in the Labour Party are honest enough to see things differently. On BBC’s Newsnight programme on Monday 11 May, Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Clitheroe, rejected Starmer’s response to the vote. Rather than being concerned about what was happening “over there”, Hinder said his constituents (and those in other places like Sunderland and Barnsley) were concerned about “over here”.
Prioritise Britain
People want an end to the costly EU reset; they want policies which prioritise Britain over foreign interests; they want industry back; they want jobs and the revival of communities; they want housing and to be able to eat healthily; they want to afford to bring up a family.
Yet there is little sign of any recognition among workers that a different leader, or a different party will offer anything different in reality. It’s not the job of British workers to save the Labour Party for fear of what come after.
‘Why don’t workers themselves take the initiative to promote unity out of divisions and contradictions?’
Instead, why don’t workers themselves take the initiative to promote unity out of the divisions and contradictions among workers? That approach has been notably lacking for a long time in the Labour Party.
As well as resisting false calls that Brtain must return to the EU, workers will need to challenge the notion that Britain is doomed as a nation and must be split up. That could starts with challenges to attempts to pay money, our money, to the EU for nothing but subservience.
• Related article Devolved elections – new faces, same problems