Progressive European Party
What was so shamefully christened project fear, that was in fact, the very real concerns of people for their own and their countries well being, has turned out to be mostly accurate. It is fair to say that there has not been the fast overnight crash that may have been the outcome with a no-deal. It has been more like a slow death of a thousand cuts. But it is a significant blow to trade between us and the European Union bloc.
This was probably more intentional than we may have first thought. They clearly knew what the outcome of leaving would be. How many unpublished assessments of the various deal or no deal scenarios have there been. The worrying thing is that they did not care if there was a no-deal or if they just signed any last minute deal that the EU put in front of them. Not minding the chaos that ensures from leaving because they want the UK to turn its back on EU trade. That is why they are making the UK-EU trade harder to do and less profitable. It is a failure of our democracy and also of the democratic structures within the Conservative party, that has allowed people who are clearly only out to line there own pockets, being able to hijack the political system. Using it to push their own private agenda with no regard for the welfare of the citizens who elected them. Let alone those of us who voted in a different way. Businesses that depend on EU trade going to the wall was a sacrifice that they are more than willing to make. That was all a part of their plan, it is not the direction that they want the country to continue to go in. Which means the bigger picture is that they have other plans and they are keeping that little dark secret from us.
Across the water, things have eventually moved on. The opponents of far-right extremism got themselves motivated and pulled out all the stops to win. It is interesting however to note that Trump received more votes in 2020 then he did in 2016, making it really tight. What did it in the end for Trump were his failings with regards to dealing with the pandemic. Trump lost because of Covid.
We need to take note of this because regardless of how we may feel about the daily toll of Brexit dividends the quitters are still intrenched in their views. It may well look to us that by losing the battle we have at least won the argument. But that is not so, I see comments every day like, “it is only a bit more paperwork” and “you can work in the EU if you want, you only have to fill in a form”. So I don’t think that Brexit job losses empty supermarket shelves or Priti Patel acting like a little NAZI is going to win it for us. But COVID19 can. Holding Boris Johnson and his Governments feet to the fire over their handling of the pandemic with its seemingly never-ending death tole is how we can win.
I am sorry to come to the inevitable concussion that because of the limiting constraints of our sub-standard political system that we have to endure we will have to vote Labour in the next General Election. It is with a heavy heart that I say this, socialism is only marginally better than conservatism. But at least there are many Labour MP’s that are still pro EU. The main agenda has to be to stop the countries rapid slide into libertarianism. A Labour win is the only way that this can be achieved.
Our biggest loss is that we are no longer a part of the greatest project in world history. The peaceful transformation of Europe into a Nation state. It is to our shame and detriment that this has happened. We will, in the end, return to the United Europe that we have been so forcibly disconnected from. But we are going to have to do this one election at a time.
Philip Notley
progressiveeuropeanparty@gmail.com
