I'm not a big fan of the BBC's Question Time, as it tends to enrage me, but it does sometimes reveal some interesting currents amongst the people. One thing which was pretty stark in last Thursday's edition, from Liverpool, was the anti-EU sentiment, and it was coming from the left rather than the right.
Historically, the Labour Party was dead against the EU, summed up long ago by Herbert Morrison's famous comment on the European Coal and Steel Community: "The Durham miners will never wear it". It was only during Labour's long period in the wilderness from 1979 to 1997 that they came to align with the foreign power of the EU, seeing in Thatcher's description of "socialism by the backdoor" not a threat, but a hope.
I am thus cheered to note this development. The struggle for Britain to reclaim its sovereignty is not a matter which should concern only the rightwing of British politics, but all across the political spectrum. The more power is shifted from our elected representatives in Parliament to the unelected bureaucracy of Brussels, the less point there is to even discussing political matters here.
There has always remained a faction within the Labour Party who have been true to the principles of national democracy; Austin Mitchell and Tony Benn being two of the more prominent such people. The task of those of us who wish to free the nation from the clutches of the pro-EU establishment is to find a way of bringing together this disparate force, and putting aside our differences in other areas to work for that one great goal.
Historically, the Labour Party was dead against the EU, summed up long ago by Herbert Morrison's famous comment on the European Coal and Steel Community: "The Durham miners will never wear it". It was only during Labour's long period in the wilderness from 1979 to 1997 that they came to align with the foreign power of the EU, seeing in Thatcher's description of "socialism by the backdoor" not a threat, but a hope.
I am thus cheered to note this development. The struggle for Britain to reclaim its sovereignty is not a matter which should concern only the rightwing of British politics, but all across the political spectrum. The more power is shifted from our elected representatives in Parliament to the unelected bureaucracy of Brussels, the less point there is to even discussing political matters here.
There has always remained a faction within the Labour Party who have been true to the principles of national democracy; Austin Mitchell and Tony Benn being two of the more prominent such people. The task of those of us who wish to free the nation from the clutches of the pro-EU establishment is to find a way of bringing together this disparate force, and putting aside our differences in other areas to work for that one great goal.
2 comments:
This is the one point that so infuriates me TT.
This point that a person will bear any indignity rather than vote for the other guy.
I've always believed that it was a race to the line - we had to assert our sovereignty and common law before we as a nation were diluted beyond recognition.
Any unelected technocracy will be beaten in the end - it's just whether it is done democratically or by violence.
BJ,
the other guy is usually no better!
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