…deeply happy for Scotland who now has a foothold in its independence and which, unless there is a civil war, Boris Johnson will not be able to oppose…
For me, no surprise regarding the Conservative landslide.
The real losers: English people
The Tory headed by Boris Johnson made a campaign based on a diversion: Brexit while Labour has gone to election on the basis of a program. All of the Conservatives’ work therefore has consisted in rejecting the fault of the three and a half years lost in not making Brexit on Labour when in reality it was the Conservatives who were in power.
Meaning Labour’s real failure lies not in its program, but in its inability to « feel the moment ». In its inability to accept a coalition with the SNP that would have been necessary anyway. In its inability to accept to try to form a coalition government during the summer by placing the LibDem before their responsibility and their voters dealing with a real choice. In Its inability to accept Theresa May’s Brexit deal by binding it with a confirmation referendum followed by general elections that would have made Labour a real leading party. How many missed opportunities …
Corbyn will be attacked on the positioning of the party alongside the working class, precarious and especially among them racialized populations, a radical shift from New Labour policies but in line with the hesitating policy initiated by Ed Miliband between 2010 and 2015. He will be attacked on a program seen as « Too radical » when in reality it would only have put the UK in average of most of the European countries (tuition free education, nationalization of rail, electricity and gas, water). Actually, the labourious LibDem score shows that the centrist « Blairist » path was not a solution either and that it was rejected by its own voters.
Boris Johnson will inherit a fractured country which soon, once « Brexit done », will realize that no, Brexit will not be settled on January 31, 2020 as no settlement between the UK and the EU will be concluded yet, and that yes Donald Trump and the US will get their hands on the health service through a free trade agreement that will ensure « undistorted competition between the NHS and insurance ».
The « Brexit Done » diversion that Boris Johnson has managed to make to make forgetting the ten years of austerity which has increased poverty to record high levels by impoverishing those who were not yet homeless and putting 4 million people at the mercy of food banks should make us think in France on the ability Emmanuel Macron might have to create the same kind of diversion in the final straight before the presidential …
The real winner: Scotland
We will not say it yet, but time will come soon enough. The real winner and that really makes me happy is the SNP. Scottish voters and the independence party have « felt the moment » by moving en masse for a historic landslide victory: at this time, it seems that the SNP has ripped off almost all constituencies, which is worth a referendum for a new referendum.
The SNP has proudly campaigned to stay in the EU. Not by European fetishism.
For Scotland, the EU is the possibility of getting closer to their natural geographical environment, their history, their culture, the territories of the vast North Sea, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. This is the possibility of ending a colonization of 4 centuries, this land crushed in blood during the Battle of Culloden in 1745, and to finally begin to repair the damage of colonization, these typical damage such as alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide (Scotland and Wales have some of the highest rates in Europe), dislocated families, a permanent income gap that has never been addressed by England. The Scottish people know very well that independence will impoverish their country for a time, the Westminster parties have spent their time telling them long and long. That worried them in 2014 during the referendum. The Scots are a cautious people, an inclination that the harsh climate and the violent sea have deeply rooted in them. By voting en masse for the SNP, they sent a clear message which is the true message of dignity of a people who wants to regain their freedom: rather free than being subject to rules and laws of which they are not the beneficiary but the left behind of the Westminster led predation of the wealth of the North Sea which for thirty years financed the tax cuts of the wealthy in England without bringing anything to Scotland.
Sad for the English who trapped themselves a second time with this story of Brexit. Sad for Labour who pays the price of rightly being really interested in the struggle of ordinary people, forgetting on the way that this election was above all an election on Brexit and that it was on this subject that he had to make a strong statement.
But deeply happy for Scotland which now has a foothold in its independence and that, unless there is a civil war, Boris Johnson will not be able to oppose. And beyond, a thought for the Welsh and the Irish who might begin to look at this northern territory which defies Westminster with calm and determination.
Let’s give back Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s hands.
