{"id":192623,"date":"2020-01-05T02:48:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T02:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?page_id=192623"},"modified":"2020-01-05T02:50:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T02:50:22","slug":"no-1385-january-2020-editorial-brexit-done-back-to-capitalism-as-usual","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/no-1385-january-2020-editorial-brexit-done-back-to-capitalism-as-usual\/","title":{"rendered":"No 1385 January 2020 Editorial: Brexit done back to capitalism as usual"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2020s<\/a> >> 2020<\/a> >> no-1385-january-2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forget\n climate change, forget the NHS, the general election turned out to be a\n proxy second Brexit referendum. Despite Labour\u2019s (and indeed our) \nefforts to highlight the social problems generated by capitalism and how\n to solve them, the result reflected the 2016 referendum. Leave-voting \nareas in the North, the Midlands and North Wales returned a majority of \npro-Brexit, Tories \u2013 giving the Tory party a comfortable majority in the\n House of Commons \u2013 while Remain-voting London, Scotland and Northern \nIreland returned a majority of pro-Remain MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\n saw previously solid Labour seats, even in ex-mining areas, return Tory\n MPs. In fact, the first result \u2013 and the first Tory gain \u2013 was in Blyth\n where the Northumberland NUM used to have its offices. It is true that,\n in quite a few of these seats, the Tories won because the Brexit Party \ntook votes from Labour. The reason for this change can\u2019t be that those \nwho switched really thought that Brexit would make any difference to \ntheir lives, but will more have been resentment that, having been asked a\n question and given an answer, that answer was being ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\n people vote for is of course routinely ignored, but this is due to the \nfact that the workings of the capitalist economy, which require that \npriority be given to profit-making, prevent the improvements in health \ncare, housing, education, transport and the rest that people vote for \nfrom being implemented. Brexit is different. It might not make sense \nfrom a capitalist point of view but it is something that could be \ndelivered. However, it was being thwarted, with a view to not \nimplementing it, by opposition MPs. Insofar as the Labour Party was seen\n as part of this they were punished for, in effect, not respecting a \ndemocratically-made decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\n Brexit will now happen. The United Kingdom will formally leave the \nEuropean Union on the 31st of this month. That will satisfy most \nLeave-voters. Of course that will not be the end of the story \u2013 \nnegotiations over trade and tariffs will go on for years \u2013 but, a \ndemocratic vote having been satisfied, the resentment of those who voted\n for this can be expected to die down, as the particular trading \narrangements British capitalism makes with the rest of the capitalist \nworld is not their concern anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic\n reality and capitalist interests might compel Johnson and his \ngovernment to negotiate a \u2018softer\u2019 Brexit than their rhetoric has been \nsuggesting but that\u2019s unlikely to get people jumping up and down. Given \nthe nationalist vote in Scotland and even in Northern Ireland (for the \nfirst time there have been more Nationalists than Unionists elected \nthere), there could be big problems ahead for those in charge of the \nBritish state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those\n who voted for Brexit via the Tory party are going to be more interested\n in the Tory promises to end austerity and to improve health care and \neducation. And that is no more likely to happen than it would have if \nthe Labour Party had won. Capitalism is an economic system driven by the\n imperative to make and accumulate profits and it is this that has to \ncome first, not improving the conditions of the wage-working majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing\n this, we confidently predict that the Johnson government will fail to \nhonour its promises here. Not because they necessarily don\u2019t want to \u2013 \nthough they are still the nasty party \u2013 but because they cannot. No \ngovernment can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020s >> 2020 >> no-1385-january-2020 Forget climate change, forget the NHS, the general election turned out to be a proxy second Brexit referendum. Despite Labour\u2019s (and indeed our) efforts to highlight the social problems generated by capitalism and how to solve them, the result reflected the 2016 referendum. Leave-voting areas in the North, the Midlands … <\/p>\n

Read more “No 1385 January 2020 Editorial: Brexit done back to capitalism as usual”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2282,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-192623","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192627,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192623\/revisions\/192627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}