Brexit is turning into an absolute car crash. Theresa May has gone down in history as having racked up the biggest and the fourth biggest defeats in parliamentary history. Yesterday, weary MPs rubbed salt in the Tory leader’s wounds by voting to “take back control”, giving themselves a say in how to resolve the parliamentary paralysis (if this is even possible).
Tory Brexiteers are fuming at the thought of seeing a “Brexit in name only” deal being passed. Meanwhile, with the Prime Minister and her party now deprived of any power, Britain is left with a government in name only.
Pulling out all the stops
This is a grim picture for big business: May could fall at any moment, bringing about a general election and potentially ushering in a left-wing Labour government.
No wonder then that they’ve been pulling out all the stops to make sure this doesn’t happen – above all through an endless campaign of anti-Corbyn smears.
And yet – try as they might – several recent polls have shown that, far from taking a battering, Labour is actually on the up!
The media assault couldn’t have been more coordinated. Labour (we were reminded immediately after May’s first shattering parliamentary defeat), is “institutionally antisemitic”. The fact that less than 0.1 percent of Labour Party members have been found guilty of anti-semitism hasn’t been allowed to get in the way of a good story.
And what of the endemic Islamophobia within the Tory party? Don’t worry about that. It’s “on a different political scale,” the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg reassures us.
Sabotage
The high-point of the Blairite campaign was meant to be the orchestrated resignation of a handful of Labour MPs. In a few weeks the so-called Independent Group received millions of pounds from big business donors; hundreds of hours of airtime; and thousands of obsequious column inches in the main daily papers.
Unable to rule the Labour Party, big business has thrown everything, including the kitchen sink, at the party: no no avail / Image: Socialist Appeal
Added to this is the well-funded campaign of sabotage still being run by Tom Watson, with the establishment of his own ‘party within a party’, the bizarrely-named Future Britain Group.
Unable to rule the Labour Party, big business has thrown everything, including the kitchen sink, at the party in an attempt to destroy it.
But what effect has all this had? The establishment and their media mouthpieces would have you believe that Labour is in free-fall. It is of course always possible to cherry pick a few polls that give you the result you want. But Survation has the credibility that at least they predicted the result of the 2017 election, whereas all the other pollers gave the Tories a wide lead.
Survation’s recent poll, from 15 March, has given Labour a 4-point lead, on 39 percent (up 3 percent) to the Tories’ 35 percent (down 5 percent). Translated into parliamentary seats this would put Labour on 303 seats to the Tories’ 255:
Westminster voting intention:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) March 16, 2019
LAB: 39% (+3)
CON: 35% (-5)
LDEM: 10% ()
UKIP: 5% (-)
via @Survation, 15 Mar
Chgs. w/ 18 Feb
Another poll, released by ComRes a few days later, confirmed the picture, putting Labour on 35 percent and the Tories on 34 percent. Unlike the Survation poll, they included The Independent Group, giving them a lousy 7 percent, below even the Lib Dems.
The liberal establishment’s desperate desire for a revival of the centre-ground therefore lies in tatters, with the Lib Dems and the Independent Group trailing behind.
For a socialist Labour government!
At the same time, big business has thrown its weight behind the call for a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ over Brexit, doing everything in its power to mobilise a mass crowd for the recent pro-EU march in London.
But a second referendum will solve nothing. It will not do anything to address the burning issues facing working-class communities across the country. Instead, it threatens to divide workers even further.
The ruling class have huffed and they’ve puffed and threatened to blow Corbyn’s house down. And yet all their hot air and lies are having a diminishing effect / Image: Flickr, LP
Instead of a ‘People’s Vote’ over Brexit, we need a ‘People’s Vote’ over this government. Only a general election and the coming to power of a socialist Labour government can offer a real way forward for workers and youth.
But those who are championing a second referendum most loudly are the very same people who have fought most forcefully against the goal of a Corbyn-led Labour government. This is no surprise: the aim of these ladies and gentlemen is to defend the profits of the bankers and big business, not to fight for the interests of ordinary working people.
The ruling class have huffed and they’ve puffed and threatened to blow Corbyn’s house down. And yet all their hot air and lies are having a diminishing effect.
Labour proved back in 2017 that bold, left-wing policies are tremendously popular. It is time for Labour to go onto the offensive against the Tories, against austerity, and against the capitalist system that lies at the root of all of society’s ills.