On The So Called Reset

So, to great fanfare, the so called reset between the UK and EU has been announced at a press conference in London, with Starmer and Von der Lyon. The details are still and inevitably sketchy. But, from what has been set out, the fanfare seems typically overblown. Inevitably too, as James O'Brien rightly stated, those that were responsible for burning the house down by arguing for Brexit, are now sniping from the sides at those trying to put out the fire, and rebuild the house.

If only the accusations from the likes of Farage, Patel, Badenoch and the gutter press that this represents some great reversal of Brexit were true, but they are not. It is an indication of just how out of touch with the real world, and the views of voters those people are that they can seek to present any such reversal as in any way a bad thing. The only thing they can cling to is a rigged vote, on one day, 9 years ago, despite the fact that everything they promised turned out to be a lie, and the Brexit they pushed for has turned out to be the disaster its opponents warned it would be. The travesty is that Starmer himself, and Blue Labour, also, behave as though none of that has happened, and as though they are bound by the one vote 9 years ago, that has been reversed in every opinion poll of voters ever since!

As O'Brien has rightly said on many occasions, the proponents of Brexit, once it was implemented, have wanted to prevent any further discussion of it. That is the mark of their own lack of confidence in the thing they vehemently promoted, as the reality of its failure has been manifest on every day since. True, as Farage and his cult like followers continue to argue, Brexit was never really implemented. What we had, inevitably, was a Brexit in name only, with the deal actually amounting to Britain continuing to abide by EU rules, but without, now, having any say in the formulation of those rules. Inevitably, because the EU is Britain's largest trading partner, and just as, if you want to export your goods to the US, or China, or elsewhere, they must conform to the rules and standards applying in those countries, so too with the EU. It is why the Customs Union itself was never the main issue, because, as in fact, Donald Trump, even, realises, it is the non-tariff barriers that are the main frictions to trade.

So, it would never have been possible, in the real world, to have negotiated a deal in which a different Brexit existed, where Britain could have said it would establish its own rules and regulations, without that meaning that its trade with the EU would have cratered even more than it has already done, as a result of the additional red tape, and checking of goods has caused. The EU can set its own rules and standards, so can the US, or China, because they are huge economies in their own right. Britain is not, and although the Brexiters hanker after some closer relation with the US, it is 3,000 miles away, and constitutes only a small part of UK trade, as against the EU, which is 25 miles away, and constitutes the majority of its trade. So, although to use O'Brien's phrase the cultist supporters of Brexit continue to use the line that another Brexit could have existed, but it goes to another school, the reality is that the other school is one that only exists as a work of fiction in their minds. The reality of their argument was spelled out by a caller to O'Briens show on LBC, who proclaimed that they had very strong opinions on the matter, but who could not express what they were, or why he had them, and concluded that he would have closed the borders! 

Totemic of that attempt by the proponents of Brexit to have no one discuss it after its implementation, and the disaster it has caused, is the issue of fishing. Despite the fishing industry accounting for only the same proportion of employment and GDP as the tattooing industry, it was made into a great symbol of the need for Brexit to ensure “freedom”. Jacob Rees-Mogg even talked about the fish around Britain's coast being “happier”, as a result of Brexit. Every day, the journalists that promoted Brexit, as a source of easy news stories and sensationalism, were in some fishing village or another, shoving a camera under someone's nose to speak about why they need Brexit to defend “British” fishing. Farage went down the Thames on a fishing boat, just as more lately he went along with small family farmers to protest about the problems they face, even though most of those problems are the result of the Brexit he advocated, and of the deals done after that by the Tories with Australia and New Zealand!

In fact, the consequence of Brexit has been to seriously undermine both the British fishing industry and agriculture, because of the problems of it selling into the main export market in the EU. Not that that should have been a surprise, because its what those opposed to Brexit argued would happen. Indeed, even one of the very few economists that backed Brexit, Patrick Minford, himself had said, before Brexit that the result would be to destroy British fishing, agriculture and a large part of its remaining manufacturing industry, but that “it would be worth it”.   The same Minford, in backing Thatcher in the 1980's, argued that unemployment was a price worth paying.  Of course, it is always workers that pay that price.  Yet, even today, we have idiotic, Left nationalist supporters of Brexit claiming that there was something pro-working class in it.

It is only the brain-dead, core Brexiters, mindless economic nationalists, whose ideas are based on blind faith, prejudice and bigotry that refuse to accept the reality of what Brexit has done, whose interests it promoted, and the reactionary nature of what it represents, as an attempt to turn the clock backwards, in the delusional aim of representing the interests of the petty-bourgeoisie, and of industries whose time has passed. So, as O'Brien notes, from being on every newspaper front page, every news headline, prior to Brexit, the fishing industry disappeared from the media overnight. That is until, now.

All of those that caused the destruction of the fishing industry by advocating Brexit, now proclaim a continuation of the deal done by Boris Johnson, for another 12 years, to be a “betrayal of Brexit”. If only it was. In reality, nothing has changed other than the current arrangements are extended, whereas the proponents of Brexit would like to have undermined the British fishing industry even further, by reducing EU fishing rights around Britain even further, just as they would like Britain to undermine its already diminished trade with the EU further still, by insisting on diverging further and faster on rules and regulations and standards.

As part of the reset with the EU, Britain has agreed talks on re-joining Erasmus. But, it is an indication of just how flimsy this reset is that, even this is only up for discussion, at this stage. There is no reason other than political why Britain has not agreed to Erasmus membership, or a Youth Mobility Scheme. It has similar reciprocal arrangements with other countries outside the EU. The reason that Starmer has been so opposed to such a deal with the EU, is purely political. He knows that if you agree to what amounts to the free movement of labour for young workers and students, there is no logical or juridical basis for denying it to everyone else. If such a scheme is introduced, then, immediately, there will be cases brought under human rights and other laws by people claiming age-discrimination against them, and demanding that their own right to free movement be restored.

Also, to greater fanfare, and with some notable deception, the agreement to enable British people to have access to e-gates, at airports and so on, was announced. What was originally requested was that British citizens be able to use the EU passport holders queues, rather than the non-EU queues that Brexit has imposed on them. The term e-gates, meaning electronic passport holders, not EU passport holders, has been sneaked in, to muddy the waters. In fact, this change was going to happen anyway, and does not just involve British passport holders. The new electronic exit and entry systems being introduced in the EU, as well as in Britain and elsewhere, in which travellers will have to sign up to, and provide biometric data, finger prints and so on, has been in the process of being rolled out for months, and once introduced, will mean that everyone would pass though such e-gates.

So, this has been much ado about nothing. There is no having cake and eating it, no Labour Brexit that gives the benefits of EU membership without any of the obligations of membership. The Brexit cultists will continue to hate it, without being able to explain why, and everyone else will respond with an appropriate yawn. Starmer must go, and take Blue Labour with him. We need a real reset, by re-joining the EU at the earliest opportunity, as part of building an international socialist alternative based upon a Workers' Europe.