Snap General Election: Breaking the Back of Britain

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By Jason Michael

Theresa May has launched a pre-Brexit power grab that will secure for her and her party the means to ensure the absolute ruination of the UK. Her neoliberal agenda is to complete the financialisation of Britain. We cannot let this happen.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has landed a surprise general election on the country in advance of the Article 50 negotiations. She hopes to increase her majority in the House of Commons, capitalising on the pathetic state of the parliamentary Labour Party and neutralising the voices on the government benches hostile to a hard Brexit. Ultimately what she is aiming for is a watertight mandate to pursue her dangerous and chaotic right-wing agenda, and – if successful – she will be in an unparalleled position to inflict as much harm on the people and interests of the whole of the United Kingdom as she desires.

She fully expects to emerge from the 8 June election stronger, and – with Labour in complete disarray – she stands every chance of getting what she wants. Opinion polls show that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour opposition is weaker than it has been in over four decades, and unless there is a radical shift in the next three weeks in the UK’s political thinking all hope of a reversal of Brexit or even a moderated departure from the European Union will be lost. In short, what this means is that the crisis in British politics has just become an emergency.

Changing how the UK votes must now become a priority. We have no alternative. Here in Scotland we have the opportunity to remove the last remaining Conservative MP – David “Fluffy” Mundell – from Scotland’s Westminster seats, thus taking from the British government its last acceptable Secretary of State. But our resistance to this London Tory offensive, if it is to have any hope of success, needs to build and strengthen alliances with the other anti-Brexit parties in every part of the UK – and this will require accommodating Tim Farron’s Liberal Democrats south of the border.

Maintaining the SNP share in Westminster – and even increasing it – will not be enough to stop May in her tracks. We will have to work with and support Plaid Cymru in Wales, and Sinn Féin, the SDLP, and the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland, but – as a result of the shared and combined democratic deficit of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland at Westminster – this will not be enough either. Becoming the real opposition to May and Brexit is something we will have to do as a join effort.

012 — The May 4 general election must be treated as another Brexit referendum

No doubt this argument for a grand coalition will be met with all the antipathy any suggested collaboration with the Liberal Democrats – under normal circumstances – deserves. Its record in coalition with the Tories was far from shining in most respects, but these are not normal circumstances. This is the very last chance we will have to stop Brexit and we have to grab it with both hands. In England – and only in England – a vote for the LibDems can and should be a protest against what the Conservatives are attempting to do. It is the only party in England offering an alternative to ConLabUKIP’s rightist insanity.

It is true that Brexit created the conditions necessary for another Scottish independence referendum, and many in this country will be concerned that a reversal of Brexit will negate the necessity for our second referendum. This is understandable, but there is nothing to worry about – we have already voted for one in our parliament and one is coming. In the meantime we must also look out for our friends and neighbours across the rUK. Leaving the EU will wreak havoc with the economy and hurt a lot of people. No one wants this. It is in all our best interests to put an end to it.