Starmer Speaks With Forked Tongue On The EU

Keir Starmer says that he does not want to diverge from EU rules. Absolutely wonderful. The trouble is that his comment is meaningless, for many reasons. Firstly, as the experience of the last few years shows, whether he wants to or not, Britain cannot diverge from EU rules if it wants to continue to trade, with the EU! That is why, large firms that do a lot of EU trade, have always conformed to those rules, whilst many smaller firms that, now, cannot afford the cost of all the paperwork required required to prove they are doing so, have had to abandon that trade, many of them going bust in the process, as they lose that large market. Secondly, saying that he doesn't want to diverge from EU rules is meaningless, unless he's going to do the obvious thing, of, then, taking Britain back into the EU, but Starrmer can't say that, because he has made himself Mr Brexit, a modern day, John Bull.

Its notable that Starmer made his comments, not openly and proudly to the British electorate, but at a meeting with other conservative social democrats in Canada. Almost immediately after the comments were made, and reported by Sky News, back in Britain, Starmer, and his Blue Labour backers began to recant them, and row them back. Its a wonder that Starmer's head does not spin off, because, he faces in opposite directions on the EU, as with everything else, with such rapidity. He is the epitome of the duplicitous, lying politician that everyone has come to hate, with good reason. That is the third reason that his comment is meaningless, because everyone has come to know that Starmer simply lies about his position so easily that no one can believe a word he says, as, an hour later, he will be saying the opposite!

No wonder, he has enlisted the services of the MI6 spooks of Hakluyt, one of whose recent employees is Olly Robbins, as he tries to square the circle of his former Remainerism, with his conversion to jingoism, and his current cakeism, which conflicts with his need to get on board the ruling class, and big business, for whom Brexit is a nightmare. The reality is that Starmer saying that Labour does not want to diverge from EU rules, is a step forward, but one he quickly took two steps back from, rather defending it, and advancing from. That is stupid, because everyone knows that Britain cannot diverge from EU rules whether a Labour or Tory government wants to or not. The Tory cakeists were destroyed when they reached their zenith in Truss's, reactionary petty-bourgeois nationalist government that the ruling class destroyed in a matter of weeks. As Mark Carney noted, they promised Singapore on Thames, and instead produced Argentina on the Channel.

 

If Starmer does not want to diverge from EU rules, which means, only, that he has to accept that reality anyway, the obvious thing to do is to commit Labour to beginning to get Britain back into the EU, when it wins the next election. That firm commitment, at least, would solidify Labour's core working-class vote, which overwhelmingly opposes Brexit, and wants back in to the EU, at the soonest opportunity. But, its not just Labour voters that want that, all opinion polls show that even many former, Tory Leave voters think Brexit has been a disaster and want to re-join. Certainly, a lot of the professional, middle-class Tory voters that always opposed Brexit, have been swarming to the Liberals as a rational expression of their interests, given Blue Labour's sinking into the mire of reactionary nationalism.

And, in any case, not only does Starmer's habitual lying and duplicity, over the issue, turn off potential voters, but its the worst of both worlds, because although most of us understand that his cakeist position will leave him actually trying to stay out of the EU, so as to appease a small number of racists and bigots, the vast majority of whom never have, and never will vote for Labour, in the meantime, the Tories have been quick to denounce Starmer, as having already committed to re-joining the EU, in the hope of shoring up their own support amongst those reactionary nationalists, racists and bigots that made up the core Tory/Brexit vote. If you are going to be hung for stealing a sheep, you may as well have actually stolen it. But, Starmer and Blue Labour are more concerned to appease the Brexit racists and bigots, because they think that Labour's voters have nowhere else to go, a sort of political Say's Law. But, they do, they can stay home and sit on their hands, or vote for Liberals or Greens, and the by-elections of the last two years, shows that is precisely what they are likely to do.

The current conditions mean that a political party will only be successful, ultimately, if it sets out a clear plan of action, based on reality, and not cakeist or other fantasies of how it would like the world to be, rather than how it is. The days of fobbing off voters with jam tomorrow, and aspirations, values and so on are gone. Britain has to converge with EU rules, whether Starmer, Sunak or King Canute wants to or not. That is simply reality.

In that case, being in the Single Market, so that all of the additional costs of administration involved in being outside are removed, is the only rational course of action, and that includes accepting free movement, which means that Starmer and Blue Labour have to grow a pair, and start actually arguing against all of the racists and bigots, rather than appeasing them. Most of them have never been Labour voters, but for any that are, they are not helped by accommodating their British exceptionalist delusions. You don't help an alcoholic by not telling them they are one, but by being honest with them about their problem.

But, if you are going to be inside the Single Market, then, as Blair said, several years ago, why would you accept that you have to abide by Single Market rules, and not want to have a say in formulating those rules, which means being an EU member! All of this petty-bourgeois nationalism, which runs through the labour movement like a yellow thread, in all countries, is worse in Britain, because of its former colonial and imperial power. It has engendered a debilitating British exceptionalism that makes those intoxicated by it think that the world will beat a path to Britain's door, that its only a matter of Britain deciding what it wants, and others then complying with its desire to both consume cake, and yet still hold on to it. But, Britain is a bit part actor on the world stage, now. To paraphrase the Borg, its desires are “irrelevant”, and it will be “assimilated”, its “resistance is futile”. That is the reality of imperialism.

It is far better to recognise the reality, and voluntarily integrate than to be subordinated. It is certainly in workers interests to do so, which is why Lenin and the Bolsheviks argued that we are in favour of the self-determination of workers, across borders, not the self-determination of nations. But, Starrmer and Blue Labour are trying to cling to the delusions of petty-bourgeois nationalism, and British exceptionalism for the sake of trying to win the votes of a minority of racists and bigots, and others who hanker after the days of the Empire. They have to be confronted with the truth that those days are gone, and the best prospect for British workers is standing shoulder to shoulder with workers across the EU, fighting for their common interests against capital, and on the basis of free movement.

A caller to LBC radio, who wanted Starmer to commit to free movement, but couldn't see the need to extend that to rejoining the EU, sums up that cakeist, British exceptionalism. They only wanted free movement so that they could more easily move to their villa in Spain, which as with taking European holidays has been made much harder as a result of Brexit. But, their stance epitomises the position of Starrmer.