The Politics of ...

The Politics of ...

Monday 22 February 2016

Judging the Fancy Dress Costume Competition

We might have to save Dave's bacon...

It's not something that will sit well with people, especially people like me who have suffered from the austerity program, but the threat of something much worse looms.

If Britain votes to pull out of the EU, we'll end up with a far right wing led Tory party that will make Cameron and Osborne seem reasonable and almost benevolent. The reason we'll end up with that is not only will we be free of those pesky benefits of being in Europe, we'll also lose the PM and any chance of Gideon becoming the next PM. That looks like a brilliant idea; get rid of the Eton scumbags; except can you imagine a country run by Michael Gove, Theresa May and a PM who looks like a special needs albino dandelion and believe the welfare state is still far too bloated. Imagine a country without an NHS and the state pension abolished after a certain period, so that everyone in the country will either have to arrange a private pension or get nothing when they choose to retire, or never retire as the case will be.

That's probably where this Tory party will take us, but under Cameron and co that might not happen for another 10 years; under Boris, Gove and the wife of the 'owner' of G4S 'reforms' will happen much faster and anything that hasn't been privatised will be. This isn't me scaremongering, go and look at some of these people's speeches and their ideology, if you can be bothered, and see just how extreme some of them are.

I'll give you an example of how the world has changed in the last 15 years. Glenn Hoddle was sacked as England football team manager because his religious belief told him that disabled people could be sinners in a previous life. This was blown out of all proportion, Hoddle - a deeply religious man - was castigated by all sides and his career was effectively destroyed. The Tory party via their evil and Draconian Prove You Are Disabled charter is pretty much blaming the disabled for being disabled and charging their relatives with the sole responsibility of their care. In a world that should be civilised, people with limbs missing are being asked questions that suggest their inability to grow arms or legs back is their fault and not the government's or any of the 'tax' payers - which it isn't, but society does have a moral obligation to look after those who can't look after themselves, or are people suggesting we just leave the disabled to die in their own filth, ignored by people? Ian Duncan Smith would probably be called Hagbastard Thorngristle in a Dickens novel and be far more vile than any of Dickens's creations could ever have been.

The EU has protected us from the Tories persecuting everyone who doesn't have a chance. The only thing a vote to come out will do is allow them to 'legally' screw you over.

So, we need to support the man with a penchant for all things porcine; we need to keep him in power for a few more years at least. As abhorrent as that sounds, I'd rather have Dave than a seriously dangerous group of neo-Nazis that stand to his far right.

The sad thing about this is my own party should be strong and Corbyn should act like a PM - he might have, but we'll never see it. What Corbyn needs to do is hold Cameron to ransom; he needs to Francis Urquhart him and it might be Corbyn's honesty that prevents Labour from gaining much ground from this referendum.

Imagine what shocks it would cause if Jeremy stood up and said, "Do you know something, after much debate and 1000s of emails (from Rose, Nigel, Steve, Dawn...), I think Labour will side with the Brexit vote. We should leave the EU and go it alone." What it would do is totally galvanise the Brexit vote and tip the scales towards all the things I forecast; so why am I even suggesting it?

Imagine what would happen if Jeremy arranged a private meeting with Cameron - as he is allowed to as HMLotO - and said, "We have to come to some new understandings or Labour will back the Brexit. You have to ensure several, if not all, of my demands are met or you'll be out of work before I am." Dave could tell him to sod off, but this referendum is no longer just about our position in the world, it is about the battle for power of the Conservative party and about who will be in #10 a week/month after the result.

Labour could achieve some things - reversal of planned changes to boundaries; guarantees against tax credit cuts; getting the press to back off - heck Labour could take a truckload of demands and handle negotiations in a far more hard-nosed way than Cameron could ever imagine, but they probably won't and you have to ask yourself how someone who doesn't run the country and has no hope of running the country can work that one out but the people wanting to run the country haven't? This might have happened and Dave might be confident we'll stay in; but he doesn't look it and no one trusts polls any more.

This might be a time of scary uncertainty, but it's also a time for real serious politics; stuff like this is how deals for the benefit of good are often struck. Voting to come out of Europe, especially now doesn't make us safe, it makes us alone with no guaranteed allies. Honestly, do you think if Britain stuck two fingers up to the rest of Europe by reinforcing and expressing every xenophobe's disdain, that anywhere in Europe is going to be rushing to negotiation tables for anything? Really? You might say 'but they'll need us and our money' and you might be right; but I'll bet they wouldn't mind some of Russia's money, but they don't need it. Remember that - THEY DON'T NEED IT.

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