One look at the faces of those leading the “exit” campaign should be enough to convince you to rush out and vote “remain”. Look at them: Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Ian Duncan Smith and… wait for it… Nigel Farage. Would you buy a second hand car from any of them? No, so don’t trust your future to them.
What this lot have in common is that they bring Britain back to the past, to make it a country of clean, white values – where money talks. All of them are austerity merchants: they want the mass of ordinary people to get as small a share of the national cake as possible. To distract us while they slash benefits (IDS), bring elitism into our schools (Gove) and push the rents up (Boris), they bang on about immigration.
It’s not that, individually, they are overt racists. Yes, Boris has made a number of slips, such as referring to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”, but they will tolerate black and Asian people – either the rich ones, or the ones that keep their heads down and go to work and don’t cause a fuss. The problem is that they are prepared to play the race card in order to take control of they country.
Most ordinary people in the UK are not that well off and they worry about finding or keeping their job (as the recession ticks on) and finding or keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table. The Brexit-backers feed on these worries by hinting that it is the people who are visibly different because of the colour of their skin who are taking up jobs and homes – and (rather inconsistently here) scrounging benefits.
Don’t think for a minute that stopping Polish plumbers coming to the UK will create space for Bangladeshi chefs to come and work here. There’s no way these right wing Tories are going to the electorate and saying that non-white immigration has increased.
The Brexiters genuinely have that British arrogance that says that even if the UK is not a member of the EU, European and other countries will want to buy our goods. Again, we can’t turn the clock back to the days when Britain had little competition when it came to manufacturing goods or providing services. Now, most countries can undercut the UK when it comes to manufacturing – because they pay their workers very low wages. It’s getting to be the same with services too. Standing alone is not a viable future for the mass of ordinary people.
It is a desirable future for the very rich, of course. They have fewer and fewer boltholes where individual and corporate taxes are low and where elitist (white) values prevail. That is the Brexiters’ ultimate goal.
It’s sad the debate about the EU over the last few weeks hasn’t helped the public learn about what the EU does, see two alternative futures and choose between them. The standard of information coming from the “remain” brigade has been generally very poor too. That black and Asian Labour MPs should sign a pro-remain statement beginning “Being a member of the European Union helps us amplify the ‘Great’ in Great Britain because our country is stronger, safer and better off in the European Union, rather than isolated outside it” is a disgrace. It appeals to the same basic instinct that the Brexiters are appealing to when the call for cuts in immigration. Rushanara Ali, Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, is one of the signatories.
Those who argue for “remain” by going round with stars in their eyes and breathlessly telling us it is a wonderful thing – as if they are talking about bumping into Liam Payne in ASDA – are not doing us a service. The EU is not an always-positive asset. When its member states have socialist governments, it adopts measures favouring workers rights (Working Time Directive, Holiday entitlement, etc). When its member states have rightward leaning governments, it adopts more right wing measures – such as enforcing privatisation and giving more power to big business.
Jeremy Corbyn’s explanation of why he favours “remain” is much more convincing: it’s not automatically great, but a decent UK Government would work with allies in other EU countries to push it in the right direction and improve the lives of all of us. That will do.
If “leave” were to win, Cameron could not continue as Prime Minister. Johnson and Gove – the nightmare ticket – would challenge his leadership of the Tory Party. Much as Tory MPs are currently saying they will continue to back Cameron, a “leave” vote will see most of them wanting to side with the “leavers” so they can keep their own parliamentary seats.
If Johnson cannot assemble a majority government – and the Tory majority in the House of Commons is not big, so it could be difficult – he could call a snap General Election. With “leave” in the ascendancy, and Labour not yet on a General Election footing, he would be well placed to win. And then we could have not just a Tory Government till 2020 but an institutionally racist, right wing Tory Government until 2021. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Go vote “remain”.
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