Project Fear nonsense

Whilst the Prime Minister struggles to get parliamentary support for her revised Brexit plan, ‘Project Fear’ continues to pump scare stories into the media about the supposed mass starvation and anarchy that will begin the day after we leave the European Union (EU).

Last week we were told that the Government is considering imposing martial law to deal with the “chaos” of a no-deal Brexit. When pushed however, Government ministers downplayed this ludicrous Domesday scenario as simply an “option” that has always existed to deal with massive civil unrest or a large-scale terrorist threat.

Some 21,000 troops were sent to the occupied north of Ireland to fight the IRA in ‘Operation Banner’, which began in 1969 and finally ended in 2007 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The current ‘Operation Temperer’ plan, designed to help the police on the streets against terrorism, is, indeed, a martial law programme that would act incrementally, rather than overtly. Once implemented though, ‘Temperer’ could be very difficult to reverse.

But the prospect of troops on the streets to enforce curfews, shoot rioters and looters, and stop and search anyone they suspect could be involved in or planning acts of unrest or rebellion, is pure fantasy. How Mrs May’s government could get such draconian measures through parliament when it can’t get anything else through the House of Commons these days beggars belief. In fact it is simply another propaganda ploy conjured up by the EU lobby to stampede us into backing Mrs May’s weaselly plan that would keep Britain inside the EU in all but name for years to come.

On a more sophisticated level we are told that there isn’t enough time left to reach an agreement with Brussels and so Britain’s departure will have to be suspended well past the cut-off date of 29^th March. Sadly a large number of Labour MPs seem willing to go along with this charade. Essentially this would mean suspending Article 50, the legal process for leaving the EU that establishes the two-year negotiation period, after which the departing member state is no longer subject to the EU’s treaties. It can only lead to continued membership of the EU until the time comes for the “people’s vote” that the pro-EU wing of the ruling class are determined to get to reverse the referendum and keep Britain inside the European imperialist union.

Brexit would mark a significant shift in the balance of power between capital and labour in Britain. It would leave a Labour government free to trade with any country around the world and free to invest in British manufacturing industry. It would enable Labour to restore trade union rights and in so doing reverse the yawning wealth gap between rich and poor in Britain. It would be a government that could cap rents and burst the housing bubble that sees our cities’ forests of towering luxury homes owned by investment companies and parasites whilst workers are forced to live in hostels, hovels or sleep on the streets.

The alternative is the EU with its austerity regime, the highest food prices in the world, ham-strung unions and mass unemployment in Greece, Spain, Italy and throughout eastern Europe. No wonder the French are up in arms…

Two years ago millions of people voted decisively to leave the EU. Leave means Leave!