NEW
PRO-BREXIT GROUP LAUNCH – FROM THE LEFT!
Recently I was interested to read of
the launch of a new pro-Brexit group. This group is particularly interesting
because it is a Left-wing patriotic venture.
Within living memory it would not
have raised any eyebrows for there to be a group of Left-wing patriots, but
nowadays we are so used to the Left accusing anybody who shows any pride in
their Nation of being “Racists” or “Fascists” because the Left has become
increasingly Internationalist in its thinking.
The “Full Brexit” started with a
foundation statement which I reproduce here :-
“THE
FULL BREXIT
Founding
Statement
Brexit
offers a historic opportunity for democratic and economic renewal. This
opportunity is being squandered by Britain’s political class. The Full Brexit
will set out radical arguments for a clean break with the European Union.
Instead of the conservative nostalgia of the Eurosceptics, our arguments will
put the interests of working people – the majority of citizens – at the centre
of the case for a democratic Brexit.
In the EU
referendum, British voters seized the opportunity to protest against a politics
that offers no real alternatives and an economic model that leaves many behind.
The Leave campaign’s slogan, “take back control”, resonated with millions of
people whose interests are no longer represented in British politics. For this
revolt, Leave voters have been slandered as dupes and racists. The Full Brexit
stands up for and with the majority of British people: not just Leavers, but
also Remain voters who believe the decision must be respected, and for everyone
hungry for meaningful political and economic change.
Eurosceptics
rightly complain that powerful elite Remainers are conspiring to sabotage
Brexit. But this is not the main reason Brexit is adrift. The real cause is
that the entire political class lacks any compelling vision of Britain’s
future, leaving most British citizens without effective political
representation.
Having lost
touch with ordinary people, political parties have retreated into European
Union policymaking networks. After decades of integration, few politicians,
civil servants or academic experts can now imagine any kind of future outside
of the EU. Yet Leave campaigners on the right also lack any positive vision.
Nostalgic bluster about “Global Britain” has led only to the sterile argument
about free trade agreements versus the Single Market and the Customs Union.
This wrangling about trade fails to address the problems that led people to
reject the EU.
The problems
of low investment, stagnant wages and ageing infrastructure that blight our
towns and cities require a much more fundamental reconsideration of Britain’s
economic and political model. Lacking ideas about how to tackle the deeper
problems, politicians on all sides are defaulting to conservative positions,
seeking to minimise change, whether through full single market membership or
“regulatory alignment”, mostly to defend vested interests like the City of
London.
This lack of
vision threatens to neutralise Brexit’s potential to renew our political and
economic life. EU rules are not neutral: they lock in a set of neoliberal
policies that tightly constrain governments’ capacity to innovate, experiment,
and tackle voters’ concerns. By preventing practical redress of voters’
grievances, this corrodes representative democracy. Brexit offers a precious
opportunity to change this. If this opportunity is squandered, the public will
rightly conclude that voting changes nothing. Disengagement and cynicism will
intensify and populism – rampant elsewhere in the EU – will surge, threatening
what is left of our parliamentary democracy.
A challenge
to the logic that “There is No Alternative” is urgently needed, and this must
come from the left. The Full Brexit is not a political party. We do not all
agree about each and every policy or document on this website. But we do agree,
first, that the left’s proper role is to be the architect of a better, more
democratic future and, second, that a clean break with the EU is needed to
realise that potential.
To this end,
we will provide analysis of the present political situation and proposals for
the future. We will engage with the public, politicians and anyone who shares
our democratic ethos. And we will conduct our work in solidarity with those on
the left in other European countries to develop a genuinely internationalist
and democratic politics of national sovereignty.
Brexit
offers an unprecedented opportunity to reshape Britain for the better. Please
join us in that mission.
Founding
Signatories
Christopher
Bickerton, University of Cambridge
Philip Cunliffe, University of Kent
Philip Cunliffe, University of Kent
Paul Embery,
Trade Unionists Against the EU
Thomas Fazi,
Author and Journalist
Maurice
Glasman, House of Lords
David
Goodhart, Author and Journalist
Matthew
Goodwin, University of Kent
Pauline
Hadaway, University of Manchester
James
Heartfield, Author and Journalist
Kevin
Hickson, University of Liverpool
Lee Jones,
Queen Mary University of London
Costas
Lapavitsas, School of Oriental and African Studies
Martin
Loughlin, London School of Economics
Tara
McCormack, University of Leicester
Jasper
Miles, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Peter
Ramsay, London School of Economics
Richard
Tuck, Harvard University
Bruno
Waterfield, Journalist
Philip B
Whyman, University of Central Lancashire
Suke Wolton,
Regents Park College, University of Oxford
Supporters
Prof Mary
Davis, London; Anshu Srivastava, Architect and Community Organiser; Prof
William Mitchell, University of Newcastle, Australia; Prof Danny Nicol,
University of Westminster; Prof Phil Hammond, London South Bank University; Dr
Paul Stott, SOAS University of London; Dr Jim Butcher, Canterbury Christ Church
University; Jonathan Rutherford, Writer; Dr George Hoare, London; Kevin
McCullagh, London; Lord Moonie, House of Lords; Alex Harries, Labour
Party; Tracy O’Sullivan, Colchester; John Penney, Labour Party; Prof
Steve Hall, Teeside University; Leon Russell-Hills, Electrician; Nick
Harding, Labour Party; Mike Morris, Guildford; J Brian
Harrison-Jennings, Former General Secretary, Association of Educational
Psychologists; Dave Harris, Retired Lecturer; Mike Dunford, Labour
Party; Peter Hurst, Liverpool; Dr Vanessa Pupavac, University of Nottingham;
Alexander Birchall, London; Sue Heap, London; Prof Wolfgang Streeck, Max
Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
Their
website can be found here >>> A new
development involving Professor Matthew Goodwin for consideration: https://www.thefullbrexit.com/about
I thought
the analysis of why the British Political Establishment is making such a mess
of Brexit was extremely interesting and very perceptive.
Just to
remind you here is what has been said:-
“The real cause is that the entire political class lacks any compelling
vision of Britain’s future, leaving most British citizens without effective
political representation.
Having lost
touch with ordinary people, political parties have retreated into European
Union policymaking networks. After decades of integration, few politicians,
civil servants or academic experts can now imagine any kind of future outside
of the EU.”
This searing
analysis does implicitly lay stress on the increasingly urgent need to get rid of
the British Political Establishment who infest Parliament with their
“Institutional Uselessness” and their corruption of its constitutional purpose to be the
voice of the Nation.
I feel I can
do no better than to quote Oliver Cromwell:- "You have been sat
too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have
done with you. In the name of God, go!"
