It is clear from polls that there is strong desire in the country to re-enter the EU, and with good reasons. Keir Starmer himself knows how great a negative effect Brexit is having on the economy. Why he adamantly rejects any return to the single market remains a mystery he refuses to explain.
Excusing this rejection on grounds of the “will of the people” expressed eight years ago seems at odds with voters electing a Labour government only four years after Johson’s “get Brexit done” administration.
The people are allowed to change their minds, and it seems they have, when faced with the trade and economic picture already emerging. But there is more to reckon with.
Britain’s sinking global status
In the 21st century Clash of the Titans of world power – USA, China, Russia, EU – the UK looks like a lonely also ran. Deliberately turning our back on long-term friends and markets while enduring manifestly low standards in public life, our only remnant of influence lies in the dubious field of arms.
Our soft power has become even softer with so few friends and less contact through arts, science and students.
A petition recently begged citizens to urge the government to influence the EU over a diplomatic issue. However sympathetic one might be to the cause, it was almost tragically laughable to suggest that we could affect the EU, to which UK has turned its trade and diplomatic back so crudely at the behest of the reactionaries.
At the very time when we most need influence to restore trade, collaborate over migration and play an active part in global affairs, we are diplomatically isolated and of decreasing importance. It is we who must make changes if we are to avoid still deeper Brexit damage.
There is said to be a progressive majority in this country. If that is the case, how did Brexit and its dire consequences ever happen? Where has that majority been?
The machinations and consequences of the 2016 referendum and subsequent governments have been widely explored but another unfortunate feature of Brexit has come to light: it exemplified a widespread reactionary backlash against liberal democracies.
In country after country, nationalist isolationism is rising like foul algae to the surface: closing borders, demonising ‘others’; professing nostalgia for homelands that never really existed, all whipped up by reactionary media and political parties playing to the tunes of the anti-democratic hyper-wealthy.
Brexit made the UK an early victim of this reactionary politics which, instead of making this country great again, has already made it poorer and lonelier. Who knows what further damage may be awaiting our younger generations.
The right is ruthless in seeking power, aided by our First Past The Post voting system
Comforting ourselves that we live among a progressive majority is pointless. It may statistically be the case, but we can see that at local as well as national levels progressive politics has been sadly lacking in England, at least in terms of delivery.
Conservatives have held power for the last 14 years and 48 of the 79 years since the end of the second world war. In our democratic nation, the reactionary minority mostly wins. How can this be?
The reactionary Right is highly effective, ruthless even, at representing or exercising the means of control and influence through which to obtain the results they seek: big business, the institutions and the media.
They may be nostalgic for some elements of history but not for the welfare state. This they leave to progressives, who are proud of their values but too prone to partisanship, too ready to see one another as competition rather than as allies against the usually united Right.
Letting the reactionaries back into power must be avoided at all costs if democracy and public services are to be sustained.Their hold over domestic politics, top jobs and media must be loosened. We must learn how to harness the commonalities of the supposed progressive majority and energise the younger electorate.
If this continues to be fragmented or if voter turnout continues to fall through disenchantment with politics, the outcome should not surprise us: a future of reaction, weakening democracy, isolation and decline.
Democracy is too important to allow its demise through petty differences. The post-Brexit awakening must address this.
The case for restoring a link with Europe is strong and must be pressed, even in face of opaque intransigence. Through a united progressive majority the reactionaries must be put to flight or even, for once, simply ignored (they feed on attention). Electoral reform must abolish First Past the Post, facilitate cooperation between progressive parties, make voting more accessible and rid us of anti-democratic influences like the unelected Lords and inappropriate party funding.
This coming period could be progressive politics’ big chance. To date, leadership has been too open to influence by the reactionary loudmouths and deflected onto their agendas.
If visionary leadership can be brought to bear, it must be possible to get the country off its minority reactionary track and into a progressive European future.
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