Enemy of the People!

No one likes to be told that the truth may not be the only truth!

No one likes their worldview to be upset and not many people get pleasure in creating this upset.

But sometimes when you see a path clearly laid out, a path that will lead to the unravelling of the Party, your Party, then it’s your duty to speak out against those who would wish to call themselves the majority.

It brings to mind the play An Enemy of the People, Henrik Iben`s 1882 play, pits the enlightened and persecuted minority against the ignorant, apparently invincible majority.

Dr Tom Stockmann, the protagonist, is condemned as an “enemy of the people“ because he insists that the famous Baths, the town`s main source of income, are dangerously polluted and must be closed for expensive repairs.
Outnumbered by his angry detractors at a town meeting, Dr. Stockmann defends himself: `

I am in revolt against the age-old lie that the majority is always right! I tell you now that the majority is always wrong . . . Was the majority right when they stood by while Jesus was crucified? Was the majority right when they refused to believe that the earth moved around the sun and let Galileo be driven to his knees like a dog? It takes 50 years for the majority to be right. The majority is never right until it does right.`

It’s not lost on me that Stockmann’s argument could also be reversed and used for the case of Remainers against the majority which is Leave. However, we are talking about the Labour Party and its proclaimed remain majority.

Where it may be true Labour members did vote to remain in the referendum it is not true that all Labour Members voted remain, the split again using a poll was two-thirds remain a third voted to leave the EU.

The two thirds would have you believe that their remain camp has grown exponentially, claiming it now constitutes 90% of Labour members based on Poll’s, they will swear these polls are accurate defending their legitimacy clutching at the figures like an evangelist to faith. They express more desire than fact that the voting public has changed their minds pointing out the poll’s that back their desired view.

Yet in the next breath, they will attack the Pollsters if any Poll shows the Labour Party dropping its tenuous lead. The favourite expressions being well they are Torie Polls, aren’t they! The prominent expression and the one that rings true “Polls are only made to create opinion not show it!” yet these same people will not use that analogy on the polls they like but that is the hypocritical and cynical world of politics in the UK today.

So that said and the case laid I know the article below is going to be upsetting for the many who claim to be the majority.

Lots of my previous articles have expressed concern that if Labour were to adopt a remain stance or appear to back Peter Mandelson’s People’s vote it would cause great harm to the Party.

Yet in the remain camp, they play oblivious to this or consensually partake in what could very well lead to the collapse of the Left movement within the Labour Party.

It’s so difficult to distinguish the Remainers that have real genuine fears or anxiety about the future of the UK, yes I agree there are plenty of things to worry about. Not just the uncertainty but more! What will leaving exactly mean, will I be directly affected, will it affect my job, my livelihood there are a thousand and one questions and concerns this Tory government have left unanswered or simply cannot due to their incompetence or inability.

But there are Remainers who act as if they belong to a cult, repeating mantra from their carefully laid scripts repeated by member, after member. After a while, you get to see the patterns on the dance floor of social media forums.

But the fact is no matter how many times they repeat the lie there is not a majority that has changed their mind.

There is no mechanism to a second referendum and the people who orchestrated the People’s vote are not friends of the Left.

Therefore I find myself to be Enemy of the People! To expediently warn your direction is wrong the People’s vote is the ruin of the Left not the salvation of remain.

The one thing that can unite the country, the one thing that no matter if you are Leave, remain or even the EU commission is the fact the Tory party have shown themselves to be incompetent in delivering a Brexit deal. The only way to move forward is for Theresa May to call a general election giving the country a real choice.

The only real way to gain some security is through a General Election that will bring in a Labour Government with Corbyn as the Prime minister.

Taking a remain stance or pushing for a second referendum is the surest way of stopping Corbyn but Mandelson and the People’s Vote already know that!

Lifted from a forum addressing some of the issues.

WHY WE SHOULD NOT TIE CORBYN’S HANDS TO A 2nd REFERENDUM.

Professor John Curtice is just about the most respected polls statistician in the U.K. He was celebrated as the only analyst to predict the result of the 2015 General Election. His prediction was greeted by Alistair Campbell saying he would eat his kilt if Curtice was correct, while Paddy Ashdown promised to eat his hat. They were both made to deliver on their promises, albeit, chocolate versions of each. Remarkably, Curtice also predicted that May would not gain an overall majority in the 2017 election.

Curtice’s latest reports regarding the EU and public opinion suggest:
* Current polls are inconclusive.
* Current differentials are very narrow and subject to change.
* Claims that Leave voters have changed their minds are misleading.
* Reported shifts in favour of Remain are based largely on previous non-voters, who are unreliable.

https://whatukthinks.org/eu/author/johncurtice/

We can add:

1.Every poll leading up to the 2016 Referendum, including on the day, predicted Remain.

2. We have already had a People’s Vote with a majority of 1,269,501 people voting to Leave in the largest electoral turnout in U.K. history. It wasn’t close.

3. A second referendum would be a huge and divisive distraction from the real political struggle, which is for a General Election and a Labour Government.

4. We would have no control over the text of the referendum.

5. What would it say? Is it, as many are saying, a vote on the ‘Deal’? What is the consequence of accepting the Deal? An endorsement for the Tories and a Tory Brexit, including continuing neoliberalism, austerity, privatisation, racist immigration controls and a further onslaught on workers and human rights. What is the consequence for rejecting the Deal? A ‘No-Deal Brexit, with continuing neoliberalism, austerity, privatisation, racist immigration controls and a further onslaught on workers’ and human rights.

6. Or is this not really about a People’s Vote on the Deal, but really about a repeat Referendum promoted in support of Remain? If that is the case, it is disingenuous to call it a People’s Vote, as if that were somehow different to a repeat referendum.

7. And if Remain wins? Then the consequence would be a Tory Remain a la Cameron and Osborne, bolstered by the CBI, the European Bank and the IMF, resulting in… continuing neoliberalism, institutionally backed by the EU, with austerity, privatisation, racist immigration controls and wholesale attacks on workers’ rights, exactly as we have witnessed over the past 8 Years of Tory rule unfettered by the EU.

8. If we want none of the above, then instead of wasting time and energy on a thoroughly distracting referendum, we should step up our campaigning and preparation for a General Election and a Labour Government to implement our radical manifesto for an alternative economic strategy, including economic democratisation, a rejection of neoliberalism and austerity and a reversal of privatisation and public spending cuts. Whether we Leave or Remain, these policies will not be affected by a Tory government and will be more difficult to achieve within the EU given its institutional restraints and the constitutional impossibility of reforming its treaties.

9. Now think what happens without a repeat referendum. May, or whoever, has to come to the Commons with a Deal that will not command the undivided support of Tory MPs, as was proven by the hostile rejection of the Chequers soft-Remain stitch-up. The Deal is then rejected by the Commons, the government is defeated causing a constitutional crisis and triggering a General Election.

10. And if there is a repeat referendum? We would have no control over either the Remain or Leave Campaigns.

11. We would have no control over the establishment media coverage of those campaigns, be it lies about switching £350m spending to the NHS, or lies about economic Armageddon and an extreme emergency austerity budget calculated in £billions, as threatened by Osborne.

12. We would have no control over the outcome of a repeat referendum.

13. A repeat referendum would be a lifeline for UKIP and the far right who would thrive on the oxygen of another referendum campaign.

14. Our Party leadership has played a blinder in respecting the People’s Vote – the one we have already had – calling for a Brexit which defends jobs and rights, while allowing the Tories to have their internal battles and humiliation by Barnier in full public gaze. Corbyn has allowed the Tories enough rope to hang themselves. Why turn it into a lifeline?

15. If, as everyone agrees, it’s a fluid situation, why tie the leadership’s hands?

16. A commitment to campaign for a repeat referendum instead of the downfall of this Tory government, is a mistake of such magnitude that it will facilitate the exact opposite of what we need: a lifeline for May and her government, a cause celebre for the far right, and further savage attacks on the living standards and rights of the Many, by the Few.

Thanks, Gary Lefley whoever you are!