Roger Silverman in London writes the New Year message he’d like to hear from Jeremy Corbyn:
British PM Theresa May.
Her Brexit plan has been rejected.
As we go into 2019, Britain under the Tories is hurtling towards disaster. May’s Brexit plan has been rejected from all sides, by those who voted Leave and Remain alike. Within weeks we will find ourselves staring into the abyss of a no-deal outcome. Far from “strong and stable”, this government is on the brink of collapse.
Tory Britain is haunted by spectres not seen since Victorian times: workers queueing up at food banks, children going to school hungry, ex-
Meanwhile, homelessness has reached epidemic proportions in Britain
soldiers sleeping on the streets. That’s the real reason why millions of people rose up in protest by voting for change. What counts now is what we’re going to do to give people back their hope and dignity. And that is impossible under this government of billionaire crooks.
That’s why I’m calling on the British people to stand up and demand their voice be heard. Let’s take a tip from our fellow workers in France and around the world. We need a general election now and a new government with a fresh democratic mandate for real change. I’m not prepared any longer to confine my contribution to parliamentary manoeuvres. I’m calling on everyone: Leave or Remain, workers, students, unemployed, pensioners, migrants… Whether your family roots are in Britain, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Poland or Pakistan… Come to Parliament Square and make yourselves heard in the corridors of Westminster and Downing Street. We want at least 100,000 people there, with or without your yellow vests, chanting with one voice: May Resign! Tories Out! General Election now!
You will ask: but what alternative programme can Labour offer? My answer? Whether or not we leave the EU, what matters is to defend and promote the rights of ordinary working-class families. We will put our collective skills back to work, invest in growth, restore decent pay and conditions and trade union rights, take back control of our transport and energy resources andof our health service, put a stop to austerity poverty and corporate greed. We won’t let anyone stand in our way, whether from Brussels, Washington or the City of London. A Labour government will seek to negotiate a Brexit deal which gives us the freedom to achieve these goals. If we fail, we will go back to the people for their decision. What I will guarantee is that, in or out of the EU, no Labour government from now on will submit to the dictates of unelected corporate bosses.
That is the only way we can achieve a genuinely Happy New Year.
