Comment
In February this year, Jeremy Corbyn gave a major speech on Labour’s Brexit stance in which he announced that Labour, in government, would look to agree ‘a customs union’ with the EU.
Corbyn was derided by both centrists and right-wingers, who fell over themselves to rubbish the idea. The BBC even arranged a company with Tory and UKIP links to appear as a commentator on the speech, ensuring that ample scorn was poured.
What a difference 8 months make.
This afternoon, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier – after saying that border checks are inevitable when the UK is leaving the customs union – said he was open to the idea a customs union:
Barnier and Corbyn have met several times and reportedly get along very well. Centrists are now getting existed about Barnier’s words – which are in stark contrast to Theresa May’s doomed attempt to negotiate the UK remaining in the customs union, which would tie the country’s hands and leave the UK essentially a satellite state.
It’s a familiar scenario, of course: Corbyn shows leadership and the imagination to propose solutions. The Establishment, the Tories and his right-wing Labour opponents ridicule it. Then, when their own intellectual and political bankruptcy is exposed yet again, they all start appropriating the ideas only one leader had the guts and nous to voice before.
But Barnier gets it and on the specific topic of Brexit we now have confirmation – if any more were objectively needed – that Jeremy Corbyn would be welcomed and taken far more seriously at the EU negotiating table and a Brexit negotiated by him would eclipse the risible attempts of the Tories and the bleating of the so-called centrists.
Labour is the only party with a practical plan that does well for everyone – frictionless Trade, tariff free access, no hard borders, a protected Good Friday agreement and control over immigration – and a leader who is working on behalf of all the UK’s people.
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Unfortunately it is obvious that no matter what deal they come up with, if indeed they do, nothing is as good as the deal we already have.
Please take time to listen what this professor has to say, noting he is addressing a group of City analysts. He is an expert of world renown
working in an Ivy League American University and is British (Scottish) to boot.
He is an absolute critic of Europe, meaning that unless they completely change, which is not going to happen, then bust is not far into the future, due to the irreconcilable trade imbalances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq3s-Ifx1Fo
The audience he is talking to, is well versed in economic matters, the bit where he really gets to grips with Europe is the questions after his talk.
Jack, would the deal we already have still be your choice if it meant a Tory government would be returned at the next election? I’d guess not 🙂
My ideal happens to be a Corbyn-led government with the UK a full member of a fast-reforming, left-leaning EU.
Corbyn-led government outside the EU is my second choice but I think our influence on the direction the EU takes will be little different in or out. Either way I think it’ll depend on the strength of our arguments on adapting societies to new technology rather than negotiating for votes in smoke-filled rooms.
‘…My ideal happens to be a Corbyn-led government with the UK a full member of a fast-reforming, left-leaning EU…’ – that is Remain and Reform, which was Corbyn’s message during the referendum campaign. And 65% of Labour members voted for it, a fact completely ignored by the MSM and the coup plotters who kept saying Corbyn was for Brexit, which they know is completely untrue.
David, I don’t accept the premise of your question but I do accept the first two lines of your second paragraph. To achieve it we have to remain and reform i.e. build upon the deal we have now which is better than all the alternatives under discussion.
I don’t have a like button DMcN – but that would be my running order of preferences.
Anna Soubrey ‘a moderate Tory MP?’ Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Try the 3rd paragraph Jack! The German Club is beyond reform.
Unfortunately “Remain and Reform” is entirely fake since to repeal, for example, the anti public ownership provisions of EU law, would require the unanimous support of the Member State governments. I wish you luck in convincing the Polish and Hungarian governments and all the others of the need for democratic socialism. Labour Party members are massively in denial (or ignorance) about how EU law is made and unmade under the Treaties.
Unfortunately Danny I think it is you who are in ignorance. Could I suggest that you and ‘rotzeichen’ take a look at some of professor Michael Dugan’s videos.
Danny, even if AI/robotics hasn’t caused a jobs meltdown by the end of the next Parliament – even if there hasn’t been another bank-led crash – it seems likely that increasingly widespread unemployment and the complete failure of neoliberal dogma to address the new reality will be far better understood than they are today.
Even if another five years hasn’t resulted in the deaths of as many elderly Tory voters as I imagine or they’re replaced somehow – it seems highly likely that the balance will have shifted far enough in our favour to make the leftification of the EU inevitable.
That’s my theory anyway. Can’t offer evidence or cite sources – just a logical progression based on the new technology as I understand it so no warranty, express or implied 🙂
I better confess here that I took “my ideal…” to mean implicitly that this scenario was highly desirable but unlikely to happen….. I’ll look at Dougan’s video though. Ironically, it is Larry Elliott, who writes for that scurrilous tabloid, the Guardian, who consistently refers sympathetically to the Lexit perspective. Most recently, he flagged up: ‘The Left case against the EU by Costas Lapavitsas’ (pricey!) and the Left Case for Brexit, by Phillip Whyman more affordable and also available free online, I think. Maybe the Guardian editors haven’t been checking his articles recently…