We have made our decision to leave the EU, a brave, revolutionary act, but not a revolution. The British people made a declaration of independence. Now we have to get the independence we voted for.
Some are still, months after the decision, fighting the campaign, commenting on comments made by the national leaders of the campaigns. But the referendum was about the EU, not a vote on the comments of politicians.
Our vote was decisive not divisive, positive not negative. Divisive are those who say that Leave voters were just old, white and stupid. Negative are those who talk down Britain and its people, who say that Britain has no future outside the EU.
Some call for another referendum, saying the majority was not big enough to be decisive. But leave voters outvoted stay voters by a majority of 3.8 per cent – a larger margin of victory than in eight of the 19 postwar general elections. Should we have rerun those eight elections too?
The turnout, reflecting how much this mattered, was 72.2 per cent, higher than in last five general elections. Should we have rerun those too?
Those who call for another referendum want us to stay in the EU. So do those who call for the free movement of labour and for staying in the single market. Staying in the single market, the European Economic Area – the “Norwegian model” – would mean still giving the EU £11 billion a year and accepting the EU diktat of free movement of labour.
Free for whom?
Who wants the free movement of labour? Those in the employing class who can make the minimum wage a maximum wage, spread their zero-hours contracts, and avoid having to pay to train skilled staff. So much easier to poach them from abroad and damn the consequences for those countries – and for ours. Who supports it? EU President Jean-Claude Juncker calls for No Borders.
Note, this is about “labour”, not people. It is the free movement of wage slaves, people lured by false dreams and spurred on by the devastation wrought in their own countries by eurozone-enforced poverty and decline, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Jeremy Corbyn told the Guardian: “My view is that if we have a single market with free movement of capital, there has to be free movement of labour.” He’s right – they are two sides of the same coin, the coin of the interests of international capital. A Corbyn spokesman made it perfectly clear, “It is not our objective to reduce the numbers, to reduce immigration.”
In saying this, the Labour Party is abandoning the British working class – which gave birth to the Labour Party and still (but for how long?) pays for it. And it is digging its own political grave. Good riddance.
Corbyn forgets that across Europe workers are looking to Britain with admiration. We have dared to say no to the EU’s capitalist club. Our vote to leave has sent a jolt of electricity through the workers of the world. It’s time to follow up. Get on, get out.