Theresa May has just made her crossing the threshold speech outside No 10 Downing Street. It was striking for two reasons.
Firstly, it revealed the shallow understanding of history that characterises these people, as she claimed that the Conservative Party's full name 'Conservative and Unionist' had something to do with uniting all the nations of the UK (and gave the impression this meant peace, love and happiness). In fact, the 'Unionist' bit of the name is entirely due to the title of a political faction among the Liberal Party that opposed Home Rule for Ireland and later allied with the Conservatives, as any speechwriter would have been able to check on Wikipedia.
Secondly, the new PM May made a lot of references to improving social justice, being anti-the privileged few and helping workers. This was a clear appeal to the Brexit working
class! The Tories have shown real political skill at sorting out this stage of the mess.
This is likely to add to the UK Labour Party's turmoil. Unless Boris Johnson becomes the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (announcements of Cabinet posts are due later), Labour has had it in the 'Blairite' mould, since the Tories will look like they can do things better. But Labour is also unelectable in a more 'radical' mode, given the nature of the British working class.
Interesting times ahead.
Tony Norfield, 13 July 2016
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2 comments:
It doesn't sound very interesting to me!
Just the usual Tory lies being lapped up by their useful idiots. So a period of Tory government rule. Same as before then! When you get rid of all the surface bullshit the foreseeable future is the same crap as before.
Only interesting if you buy into this superficial age of news media hype!
The prospect of the extinction of Blairism is interesting. It is a weird mapping of the differences between the US and UK political systems that shows us that the "Tories" are not far off the spectrum from the Clinton Democrats in the USA. Liberalism is the mainstream ideology of the bourgeoisie. Current events confirm that in spades: Trump shows that almost all the "rightwingers" in the Republican camp - Bush, Rubio, the "evil" Koch Bros. that Democrats like to froth about, etc. - are liberals just like the Clinton Democrats. So Blair made a historic mistake thinking the Labor Party could pattern Clinton, as if the Tories could not also be cop-reforming, multi-culturally sensitive, "anti-racist" touchy-feely triangulating warmongers. Political space occupied!
Like all imperialist working classes, the UK is provincial in outlook, as Brexit shows. Lenin noted this in shock on his one visit to London. Now add deindustrialization as the Resurrection of Lazarus. The Labor Party has no alternative but to spend time in the wilderness addressing this provincialism, and the expansion of the "reserve army" as a permanent social feature of late capitalism in "development of underdevelopment" in "developed" "end of history" countries.
At least you can have political parties in the UK to draw the distinction! Imagine dealing with this on the continental scale of the USA, in a political system that does not permit real political parties, that special essence of the "wisdom" of its founders!
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