I was at a Labour Party meeting recently and was appalled in a debate to be told that all Brexiters are ‘thick bigoted bastards’. Even as someone on the fence over Brexit myself, I cannot countenance such bigotry. Let me look at the idea in some depth.
Bigoted bastards
‘Brexiters are thick, bigoted bastards’. You could hear the schlucking sound as the group disappeared up its own bum. This comment told me that the middle class champagne socialists had stolen the local party from underneath my feet and I’m as soon to campaign for UKIP as I am this lot.
Corbynism, Gilets Jaune, Trumpism and Brexit all happened for the same reason: our elites in the US, UK and EU are corrupt and unrepresentative of the wants and needs of those who chose those figureheads. Does this comment suggest I am thick? It certainly suggests that the commenter is a middle class twonk who would have been perfectly comfortable under Clinton, Macron, Blair, Cameron and the bureaucrats of Brussels. Not me – but for an extreme fight I had to keep my family together I would be renting a garret somewhere in Luton, wondering if I could feed everyone tonight thanks to earning too much money on Universal Credit. I’m underclass in a posh Poundbury Barrett Box.
Why are the elites corrupt? Just look at how taxation is disappearing for the very rich and at the explosion of extreme poverty across the countries involved. Britain is a Petri dish experiment for moving from Keynesianism to pure neoliberalism. I’m sorry Mr Remainer if you need a dictionary to get through those sentences.
Up until the 1970’s we were moving toward a highly equal society in the UK and then Thatcher set the seed to bring wealth back to the ruling classes by breaking the unions and impoverishing millions. I was born in that decade – many reading this will understand the crisis that hit social democracy and how Thatcher came to power. I don’t – maybe that’s why I’m thick?
Corrupt elites
What I do understand is that Blair, Brown, ‘Blowjob Billy’ Clinton, Obama and even Hollande and ‘Don’t call me Emmanu’ Macron continued the Thatcherite project. Tens of millions of people have suffered as they stole the vote of the needy and gave their services to those in plenty. If you meet a Trump supporter, remember that many voted for him as the US Democratic Party openly admits to stuffing the ballot boxes against Bernie Sanders who could have done wonders for the West.
The EU is often labelled by those of a far right persuasion as a ‘bastion of socialism’. What manure! Under Obama / Cameron we were heading for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that would have given corporations power to sue governments for public ownership of services. The quote that stuck in my head was the EU Trade Commissioner saying she didn’t represent the people of Europe but the lobbyists. See the quote from Cecilia Malmström in the Independent newspaper: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”
If your Facebook newsfeed is anything like mine you will see regular suicides, families living behind bins, and people dying outside the Houses of Parliament (who could be fined £1000 for asking for something to eat under Westminster bylaws). You will see the wholesale destruction of the working classes and hundreds of thousands of kids who aren’t worried about GCSEs but where their next meal is coming from. The NHS?! This is why Jeremy Corbyn has suddenly had such an impact – finally people had a politician who felt shame at the avarice of politics today.
The Gilets Jaunes are a product of Emmanu Macron slashing taxes for corporations and the very rich and slashing welfare and pensions for those who need state support.
Trump? I wouldn’t piss on the man if he was on fire? I would but just to slow the fire down to increase the pain the man feels before passing out. He is though a product of the US working classes being conned by Obama.
Don’t shun the casually racist working classes
A majority of the hardest hit working classes voted Brexit in 2016. They were giving the elites above a kick in the gonads for the same reason the Corbyn movement has exploded in size.
To my shame, I have recently shunned a racist. My really good friend was lost to hatred of Islam. I have other friends and family who also hate ‘non-British’. The trouble for me is that I understand them.
As Remainers are finding today, hatred is really simple. You find another group and blame them for all your woes, perceived and otherwise. I am not suffering under Brexit – no one is today. Why should I hate an intellectual opponent? This also applies to racism, and sadly for the simpler folk in this world it is easier to hate someone for having different coloured skin than it is to understand that they too are fighting the corrupt elites. They aren’t thick, and the comment that they are is bigoted in the extreme.
The working classes of my generation and of today’s generations grow up and see their Asian peers become doctors, lawyers and other high ranked professions. The whites’ own families didn’t put their education as high in their own priorities – a family holiday for four in Spain for a week would cover the cost of a year’s private tuition. That happened a lot in Luton. Burn yourself out for your kids? Do that and they will really look after you when they grow up!
The elites, including Trump have been playing the game of divide and rule for four decades. Under Blair it was ‘benefit scroungers’. Trump / May / today’s EU / Macron “immigrants”. Those less able do as they are told and look in the direction they are told, ignoring the elite who are standing at the other side of them and stealing everything they have. This is a major reason that Brexit happened – people saw the constraints and direction of the EU (see TTIP above) and reacted with their hobnailed boots. This is precisely why we as a Labour movement need them aboard as like us they are anti-establishment.
These people can be brought round from racism. Life is an intellectual journey. Those not immediately brought round will certainly understand a better life under a Corbyn government. Pensions increased? A publicly owned NHS and railway system? Fairer taxation so those at the top pay for it all? They’ll not blame them blackies for that…
A broad church
Labour is about the working class fighting the ruling class. Middle classes? Up to you. Right now we are in the most anti-establishment mode we have been since 1945. To that extent, being disgustingly rude about those who really want to fight back is unwise unless you want to go back to Blairism and, as happened in the Labour Party meeting I was at, the schlucking sound of the party disappearing up its own brown hole.
Rich Shrubb
