Say it ain't so.
The Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party deserves British allies with deep roots in the former mining communities, in the women's suffrage movement, in the 1945 General Election victory, and elsewhere. We are unsullied by the weird cult of Winston Churchill. Instead, we can and do condemn his carve-up of Europe with Stalin, as surely as we condemn genocidal terrorism against Balts no less than simultaneous genocidal terrorism against Arabs, blowing up of British Jews going about their business as civil servants, and photographed hanging of teenage British conscripts with barbed wire.
The Czech Civic Democrats, scourge of global warming hysteria, deserve British allies like the trade unionists who have spent decades defending the high-waged, high-skilled, high-status jobs of the working class. Not for us the restriction of travel to the rich, or the arresting of economic development in the poorer parts of the world.
The Polish Law and Justice Party deserves British allies like the Catholic and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against abortion and easier divorce. Like the Methodist and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against deregulated drinking and gambling. Like those, including John Smith, who successfully organised (especially through USDAW) against Thatcher's and Major's attempts to destroy the special character of Sunday and of Christmas Day, delivering the only Commons defeat of Thatchers Premiership. Like the trade unionists who battled to secure paternal authority in families and communities by securing its economic base in high-waged, high-skilled, high-status male employment, frequently marching behind banners that depicted Biblical scenes and characters.
They all deserve British allies like the Labour MPs who mostly voted against Heath's Treaty of Rome. Who all voted against Thatcher's Single European Act. And who voted against Major's Maastricht Treaty in far greater numbers than the Tories, including, in Bryan Gould, the only resignation from either front bench in order to do so.
And they all need those British allies in order to call them away from neoliberal economics and neoconservative foreign policy, both of which have in any case collapsed. Nothing could be more destructive of national self-government, or traditional family values, or the historical consciousness of a people. Cameron is completely signed up to both.
Václav Klaus president of the Czech Republic is certainly a under informed global warming denialist (a flat earther) but is also a prominent member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the ur-think tank of neoliberalism - indeed he gave the keynote address at their conference a few years ago. I'm not sure then he is a friend at all of trade unionists. In fact I would say just the opposite.
ReplyDeleteHe is if he wants proper jobs. Such in mines. Or in nuclear power stations.
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