Whoever thought that leaving the EU would see British people not taking control but actually losing it? Well, quite a lot of us, actually. And it’s beginning to become crystal clear that we will have less influence on the way our country is run than we have since World War Two.
With the Tories usually in government in Britain, apart from when Labour has an electable leader, like Tony Blair, there have been two major constraints. From 1945 until their castration by Margaret Thatcher by 1981, trade unions representing working people held the rich and powerful to account. Now, thanks to Thatcher and the changing nature of the British economy from the production of goods to the service industry, trade unions have become less relevant. Other than on the railways, unions have very little power. There are loud voices in the unions but they hold minimal power. I believe they are needed, as we continue the march to deregulation, zero hours and millions earning the minimum wage, but sadly the government and employers hold all the cards. Unions, fighting for collectivism and fairness win the odd battle but are losing the war. And the big losers are workers.
But there is another constraint on the rich and powerful. Since 1973, the EU, which during the next few decades we will be leaving, has stood in the way of unfettered deregulation. With all its faults, the EU has ensured fair competition, free markets, free movement and it has stopped some of the wilder excesses of those who will allow the environment in particular to be destroyed. Voting to leave the EU puts us alongside Farage and Trump who as climate change deniers deny science, deny the truth. Some of the older people who got pissy with me when I accused them of selling out the futures of their children and grandchildren by voting to remove us from the EU will realise soon enough that’s exactly what they have done. With our planet near a tipping point with climate change, with the young designed not to enjoy free movement as we have done, don’t tell me our leaders, the unassailable Tory right in Britain and the new world leader Donald Trump, are the ones to protect our freedoms and our planet. That is not how it works. By 2019, the EU as protectorate of so much that is good will no longer protect us.
We have already all but lost the protection of trade unions and soon we will lose the EU. You may well come from the position that getting rid of trade unions is a good thing – Hitler certainly did – and the catastrophic effects of climate change and general damage to the environment may not affect you because you’ll be long gone by the time the ice caps finally melt and the seas rise. That is the choice you – we: it is a democracy of sorts, I suppose – have made.
The so called control we have taken back is no such thing. It is in reality the precise opposite. The worst effects of climate change and leaving the EU will not affect me too much because I am getting old, but I voted for everyone on June 23rd, not just me. I have long believed that we live not in a genuine democracy but within an elective dictatorship where governments are elected and referendums settled on the basis of lies. The main casualty of 2016 has been truth and the next casualties will be us.
