To Get On With Everything Else

None of the horror stories about a No Deal Brexit needed to have been true. But this Government has made sure that they all would be. While planning to install as Prime Minister, without a contest, the only Europe Minister that David Cameron ever had. Not that you ever heard from him in those days.

You rarely or never heard from many of the people who took over the country when Theresa May became Prime Minister, likewise without a contest. Britain has never seen another coup quite like the one in 2016, at which, without the casting of a vote by anybody at all, the people from nowhere took over the State and effectively reversed the result of the EU referendum while also promising, in policy terms, to reverse the result of the 2015 General Election.

No, May has never got round to implementing much or any of her Milibandian agenda of workers' and consumers' representation in corporate governance, of shareholders' control over executive pay, of restrictions on pay differentials within companies, of an investment-based Industrial Strategy and infrastructure programme, of greatly increased housebuilding, of action against tax avoidance, of a ban on public contracts for tax-avoiding companies, of a cap on energy prices, of banning or greatly restricting foreign takeovers, of a ban on unpaid internships, and of an inquiry into Orgreave.

But those were her agenda, and she has never recanted them. Those, and either turning the United Kingdom into a colony and a satrapy of the European Union, or simply never leaving the EU at all. One or the other of those is about to happen, and then she or her successor will be able to get on with everything else.

The choice of her successor as Leader of Conservative Party would in theory be a matter for the Conservative Party, but believe that when you see it. The choice of her successor as Prime Minister would effectively be a matter for her, since the Queen would act on her advice. Electing a Leader might take months. Appointing a Prime Minister would take an instant. Even in the unlikely event of a Conservative Leadership Election, the members of that party would never vote against the person whom the Queen had already appointed as Prime Minister.

Labour needs to be positioning itself to cooperate with the next Prime Minister, or with this one if she were still there, in order to bring about workers' and consumers' representation in corporate governance, shareholders' control over executive pay, restrictions on pay differentials within companies, a proper investment-based Industrial Strategy and infrastructure programme, greatly increased housebuilding, action against tax avoidance, a ban on public contracts for tax-avoiding companies, a real cap on energy prices, a ban or great restrictions on foreign takeovers, a ban on unpaid internships, and an inquiry into Orgreave.

All of that would be fine by the DUP, provided that it got a slice of the pie, which it would. The SNP, likewise. And so on. Indeed, following the European Research Group's furious reaction to Jim Naughtie's casual suggest that it would be in the FN in France or in the AfD in Germany, then who, exactly, would be opposed to any of this?

There would be no such opposition from the Gaullists and the Christian Democrats with whom we are told that all Conservative MPs identify on every issue apart from EU membership. Indeed, plenty of Gaullists are Eurosceptical, while there were Christian Democrats in Austria long before it joined the EU, as there are Christian Democrats in Switzerland to this day. Who, then, would be against these measures?

Most Labour MPs, that's who. Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. It has become a local commonplace that I am on 30-30-30 with Labour and the Conservatives here at North West Durham, so that any one of us could be the First Past the Post. I will stand for this seat, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.