Guest post by Ted Malloch author of Service Leadership
In London, these are the times that try men’s souls, to borrow a line.
Isolated and internally divided, Britain is slowly realizing what they have gotten themselves into.
It is referred to as a state of Dis-May, a cartoon of leadership.
Brexit has been postponed yet again, until—can you believe this—to Halloween!
David Cameron suffered from a disease American Republicans will recognize – he campaigned on a platform much more conservative than he was in his heart and ended up surprised by how successful the result was.
Having promised his electorate a referendum he doubted he’d have the seats to deliver , Cameron boxed himself into the position of having to fight to remain in the EU and was again surprised that his electorate delivered a result he wasn’t ready for – Brexit.
Even though the British people voted to leave the EU three years ago they have still not mustered the leadership and courage to GO!
After successfully leading the charge against Brussels’ Euro-federalism for so long, Great Britain jumped off the Eurosceptic cliff without waiting to see if their friends were coming.
One historical verdict we can already pass: Britain may have decided to leave too early (though the possibility of patience remains).
The Brexit moment was meant to be the starting gun for a mass exodus from Brussels and was always conceived as such by those “Europhobes” for whom leaving the Union wasn’t enough – nothing short of burning it to the ground would do.
Instead, they got Theresa May as PM.
To her credit, she ran on a platform that was a reflection of her true self: A Christian-Democratic right-of-center figure.
As the old joke goes, a Christian Democrat is just a Socialist who goes to Mass: the electorate that gave Westminster a Conservative majority for want of a Brexit Referendum (where they then voted to Leave) was in no mood for pre-Thatcherite conservatism.
Future prime ministers, mulling over snap elections, will be forever haunted by Theresa May’s squandered majority. In truth she was a Remainer to the heart and became a sad pawn to her masters – The Eurocrats, with whom she has been an unmitigated failure in negotiations.
Future textbooks will be written on “How to Fail at Negotiations” citing her as the case in point.
In fact, the fundamental issue surrounding Brexit is the fiction of equality among nation-states.
Brussels is treating London like it treated Athens during the Greek crisis – keep them in at all costs , or at least make an example of them for disobedience.
The fault in the assumption lies in the UK’s elevated status in the international arena: As a nuclear weapons state, the emitter of one of the currencies in the IMF’s special drawing rights, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a member of the G7.
The UK is the fifth largest economy in the world.
With the notable exception of France, every other EU member is thus equal to the UK only on paper, as a diplomatic courtesy.
Yet her she is stuck in a quagmire, neither in nor out, and entirely humiliated.
As it stands the UK could currently be on the fast lane to a Corbyn, Labour (socialist) government, whose operation declared victory in the 2017 election, celebrating a net gain in seats.
The party infrastructure has been infiltrated enough by Corbynistas to ensure a long-term legacy within the Labour Party.
Corbyn has been consistent in his opposition to the EU, for entirely left-populist reasons. Starting from his campaigning against the UK joining the EC in the 1975 referendum and the more recent Lisbon Treaty of 2007 , he sees EU membership as a straitjacket against the roll back of Thatcherite privatization.
In many ways, as a Marxist, Corbyn belongs beyond the leftist Cordon Sanitaire, where the Labour Party currently resides. He is Left of Left, an anti-Semite and a person who wants to nationalize the economy.
Rumors of party splits abound, and this fact may well gain salience if a Corbyn party ends up winning the next election.
Only the Conservative Party is today more divided.
And now Nigel Farage has the opportunity with his new Brexit Party to challenge the whole damn establishment.
It appears he United Kingdom is neither “united” nor “great” any longer.
Ted Malloch is the author of Service Leadership
