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!

Leave means Leave!

Parliament kicked out Mrs May’s Brexit deal by an overwhelming majority this week. Her mealy-mouthed compromise that would have kept Britain in the European Union (EU) in all but name was rejected in the House of Commons by 432 votes to 202 – a margin of 230 that puts it in the history books.

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

A lot has been said recently about how the EU supposedly protects workers from rogue employers. Unfortunately the opposite is the case. The EU was unable to stop the economic crisis causing havoc across Europe. The EU endorsed the bosses’ offensive to make their workers’ pay for the crisis through increased unemployment, reduced pay and loss of employment rights.

Today, supported by an EU-wide reserve army of labour (the unemployed) and using the threat of automation and new technology, the bosses are making ever greater demands on workers. This must stop.

Workers shouldn’t have to pay for the crisis that was not of their making. Some 3.8 million people are stuck in zero-hours contracts, low-paid self-employment or agency work where they’re treated as disposable labour. The EU has failed to protect these workers, so the trade union movement is campaigning to organise these workers.

Over the years there has been a big increase in bogus self-employment. Employers are encouraging this so that workers lose out on redundancy pay and family-friendly rights. The EU doesn’t do anything to protect the rights of these workers.

The EU has failed to get successive governments to restore union rights taken away by the various Tory governments in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Since joining the EU hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs have been lost in manufacturing, engineering and the extraction industries.

Almost 50 years after the Equal Pay Act there is still unlawful discrimination on pay. What has the EU done about this – absolutely nothing.

The government introduced fees to access employment tribunals – the EU said nothing. Unison took the government to court and won.

More and more workers are seeing their wages reduced to the minimum/living wage. The EU doesn’t care.

Productivity in Britain has gone down over the years as employers find it cheaper to employ people on low wages rather than to invest. The EU doesn’t give a damn.

Retirement age for women has increased from 60 to 66, and for men from 65 to 66. The EU thinks this is a wonderful idea, so it’s now happening across Europe.

The TUC estimates that 2.2 million employees are not getting the minimum paid leave entitlement they are due. The EU brags about its directives but does nothing to enforce them.

The EU boasts it protects workers from working long hours. The EU did nothing when the French government legislated against the 35-hour working week. EU rules explicitly allow agencies and employers to undercut the pay of workers.

We voted for Brexit and that’s what we want. If Mrs May’s Tory government cannot deliver it – and this week’s vote in the House of Commons clearly proves it can’t – then it must be brought down in parliament to pave the way for fresh elections.