Who do these people think they are? Those who deem themselves too aloof to listen to their party leader; those ‘holier than thou’ dinosaurs; those neoliberal interloper MPs of the Labour Party who defied the Labour whip to keep Britain in the European Economic Area (EEA), this week, that’s who.
Seventy-four of these MPs voted for the Lords amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, seeking a continuation of the EEA by other means in order to enable future negotiations. The party line was a decision to abstain. Fifteen others defied the whip and voted with the government against the amendment.
These fifteen neoliberal betrayers include: Caroline Flint, Kate Hoey, John Spellar, Graham Stringer, Kevan Jones, Jim Fitzpatrick and Frank Field. Six frontbenchers also quit their posts over the EEA vote on Wednesday night. It makes you question what party they belong to.
Like it or not, for the salvation of the Labour Party in its present democratic, socialist form, these parasitic pariahs of neoliberalism, the enemy within the People’s Party, must question their very allegiance to their political causes. If they remain within the confines of a party established for the furtherance of socialism - ‘the citadel of the working-class people of these Islands’ - then Labour Party values will wither and die.
The Blairite neoliberals, the political walking dead, currently remain a negligible factor within the Labour Party. They do not reside there for a duty of responsibility towards their electorate. They inhabit the body politic, as all microbes do, purely for self-gratification; they feed off the host. These people have little regard for their constituents, and provided the gravy train is still running they will always seek a free ride. When the lobbyists come calling, the neoliberals are there, offering their services. This isn’t democracy; it’s legalised corruption, a perversion of parliamentary duty.
Rightly or wrongly, the people of this country voted to leave the European Union.
However certain MPs, their neoliberal stripes on show regardless of the party they belong to, have decided that remaining, not leaving, is the only option. ‘The will of the people’ has little meaning to them, or even the will of the 37%. It’s their apple cart, they insist, and they’ll upset it if they want to.
So who do these people think they are, these self-appointed dispellers of democracy? Neither the Lords, remainers, neoliberals, or anyone else, should be allowed to subvert what the majority of voters have affirmed. It’s not rocket science; it’s a democratic truism.
“The Labour Party respects the outcome of the EU referendum”, so we hear. If staying within the EEA we mean we’d still be governed by EU rules, Brexit or not, it would mean that we, as a nation, would have no say in making those rules. Rules, made by unelected bureaucrats. Who in their right mind would acquiesce to that?
It’s time to stop messing around, finalise article 50, and say good riddance to the EU.
It’s also time for the Labour left to stop prevaricating and wave goodbye to the neoliberal Blairite faction. Needless to say, it’s also time for the listing hulk of barely afloat imbecility that is the Conservative government to be scuppered, thus making way for a proper party for real change in the form of a Labour government. Only they can ensure a Brexit for everyone, not economic disaster for the worst off in our increasingly unequal and fragmented society.
JD Hopper for Political Provocateur
(To read more political writings by JD Hopper, please join the FB group : LABOUR - EYES LEFT or click the banner below)
Edited by Max Webster for Political Provocateur
