Brexit is a key political issue and it also has an impact on every other area.  There is not only
a lack of clarity over the Brexit but on the NHS, Housing, Student Fees and
much else besides.  All of these issues
are tied to Brexit, for example the opening up of the NHS to US multinationals in
any new trade agreement will increase the rate of privatisation.

As the only blog to predict a hung
parliament from the start of the General Election in April
and again in June
it is clear to me that the failure to oppose Brexit is hurting Labour.  Having a lack of clarity is not a bonus in
politics where people expect you to provide them with answers to problems not offer
a half way house.  Labour is not leading
on Europe it is following.

We have had 3 cabinet resignations
in a fortnight, Theresa May lost a crucial amendment on the European Union
Withdrawal Bill last week and yet, Labour is still treading water.  Far from being on the political ropes,
Theresa May’s position has stabilised. Labour is not offering an alternative to
Brexit other than some vague notion of a soft as opposed to a hard Brexit.

It is, or should be clear that
Brexit is already affecting the economy negatively.  Not only is there a rise in inflation but the
economy is suffering from reduced growth. 
If Britain loses access to European markets, in particular financial
markets the economy and production will take a severe hit and with it working
class living standards.

Nobody seriously believes that
Brexit will have a positive economic effect other than the lunatic fringe of
the Tory party.  Yet Labour’s position of
remaining in the Single Market and Customs Union whilst remaining outside the
EU is incoherent.  If you are going to
pay, as you must, to remain in both then what is the purpose or point of
leaving Europe?  

The only argument I have heard from
Emily Thornberry, who is proving disastrous as shadow Foreign Secretary, is that we must ‘respect’ the vote to leave?  Why? 
It’s one thing to recognise it for what it is, a disastrous mistake, it
is quite another to respect it as if it were some ancient god.

It is clear the negotiating strategy,
if you can call it that, of Theresa May and David Davies, is based on a wing
and a prayer.  Davies admits there hasn’t
even been an impact study in the different economic sectors.  May’s request or was it a plea, that the
transition period be at least 2 years was contemptuously rejected.  21 months it is.  Jeremy Corbyn needs to grab the reigns of power not smile at them.  This government could be put on the ropes by a determined opposition.

The reality is that although people
voted narrowly for Brexit they did it for a number of incoherent reasons – such as a protest against
the effects of austerity and in the mistaken belief that immigration was the
cause of the decline in living standards.  As is becoming blindingly clear, immigration has a positive not a negative effect on the economy and services – e.g. the NHS.

What  people didn’t do was to deliberately vote for a reduction in their standard of
living and the services they expect.  It was an act of protest mainly by those in the North of England against deindustrialisation and the transfer of wealth from poor to rich.

People did not vote to make
themselves poorer yet that is what the result of Brexit will be.  Crashing the economy is not a socialist strategy.  It is also clear that Brexit will
mean a new assault on workers’ rights such as the Working Time Directive.  Free of the Brussell’s bureaucracy there will
be no ‘red tape’ inhibiting the ‘setting free’ of the Labour market.

Those on the Left who supported
Lexit swallowed the nonsense of economic nationalism in one country.  Tony Benn always argued that we would regain
our economic sovereignty but this always begged the question, did Britain ever have
it, at least since the early part of the 20th Century?  And even more pertinently what we are talking about is the sovereignty of the wealth and the rich.  Working class people have never had control over their destiny or the political economy.

The reality will be that Britain’s economy
outside Europe will be in hock to the United States and Donald Trump.  The idea that Trump is going to cut Britain a
quick and easy deal flies in the face of his American First policy.   The Tories in the shape of Liam Fox are going a begging to the court of Donald.

What then should Labour do?  If Labour believes that the Brexit vote was a
mistake, and most Labour voters and most Labour Party members do, then there is only one conclusion.  That people should have the right to change
their mind.  There is nothing
undemocratic about having a second vote given the lies about £300m a week going
to the NHS.

Of course Nigel Farage and Rees
Mogg and co. will kick and scream ‘betrayal’ but the truth is that a second vote
will be more not less democratic than the first vote.  People will now have seen something of what
Brexit is likely to look like.  How can
anyone object to another vote on democratic grounds?

Of course this doesn’t mean that in
an increasingly right-wing Europe that socialists should be content with things as they
are.  We should be firmly opposed to a bankers Europe, neo-liberalism and the growth of the far-Right as in Austria where a far-Right government has been elected.  In or out the politics of Europe are shifting in a nationalist and racist direction.  Labour should make it clear that Britain retains the right to for example
nationalise the major infrastructure areas of economic activity such as rail,
the utilities and post office.  However anyone
who believes that there is anything ‘socialist’ in leaving Europe for Trump’s
warm embrace really does need their head examining.

I also suspect that a clear policy
difference on Europe will help splinter the Tories and hasten the demise of Strong
& Stable.  Instead of treading water
we will be treading Tories!

Tony Greenstein