How many unemployed young people in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy will it take to get the left to condemn Euro area policies?
How many general unemployed throughout the whole EU will it take to get the left on the streets in protest against EU policies?
Where are the UK left voices against the deep recession the European Exchange Rate mechanism inflicted on the UK, and against the banking and credit policies on the continent which damaged our own economy in the crash of 2008 and the Euro crisis of 2011?
Why does the left support the European semester, the policy which demands tight control of budgets and annual reporting to the EU to try to get all countries to conform to a one size fits all budget deficit regime?
In the UK it appears that any cut, tax rise or anti jobs imposition that comes from the EU is just fine, but any that is made in the UK is immediately blamed for all the  evils in our society. The left rightly condemns any evidence of unemployment or low wages at home, yet seems to accept them or turns a blind eye when the damage comes from the EU.
Where is the left’s solidarity with the unemployed youth of Spain , or all those made redundant in Greece by the austerity cuts, or with those who have had to accept actual pay cuts in Euro countries?
Where are the cries of anger over the walls and fences the EU is creating to keep migrants out, to balance the anger about Mr Trump’s Mexican wall rhetoric?
It appears that many on the left apply a double standard. They condemn anything done or said in the US and UK, that they sign up to and even welcome if it is done in the name of the EU.
June 1, 2016
Can we have an apostrophe in the title please (won’t)?
Very good article about one of the mysteries of the time … there must be some sensible Labour person in Remain camp who could provide some sort of explanation.
The horrendous levels of youth unemployment in the Eurozone ought to be figuring more prominently in the Leave message. At present Leave seems to be conceding ground unnecessarily to the Remain argument that EU is good for the young (when it’s clearly the opposite). Votes being lost here I think.
June 1, 2016
If is it obvious the apostrophe is missing then why bother with them? Are they really needed at all? They certainly slow you down when typing.
June 1, 2016
Dear Lifelogic– There are people who would think that if our illustrious and well educated host did not put one in then it was correct without, which it was not. You are wont (geddit?) to murder the language and that is nothing to be proud of.
June 1, 2016
Let it evolve, as it always has done and will indeed continue to do regardless. “Correct” is not something that is fixed in aspic. It is the “fixing” that would murder it in the end. Shakespeare with his wonderful variety of spellings and punctuation just helped it evolve.
To whom, fewer rather than less (save at Waitrose), infer/imply and “more quickly” rather than quicker have nearly all ready gone already.
June 2, 2016
They don’t slow me down, LL & English is a pretty good language, worth preserving in its accurate & flexible form. There are some blind spots, I’d agree; the lack of specific words for types of love & a grammar that looks as if a large bomb has detonated under it are two that come to mind at random from a long list but making it worse won’t make it better.
O/T, it is a pleasure to find a blog still easy to comment on without all the faffing about required when forced to use logins, Disgust, Twatter, etc. Thank you, Mr Redwood. I notice this doesn’t reduce the quality of comment.
June 1, 2016
An excellent point on the EU not being good for the young .
I’m really bothered by news that students are getting two votes – one at their parent’s address and one at their university address. This on top of the non UK nationals being sent voting cards.
All of this is in keeping with the corrupt and incompetent EU.
June 1, 2016
“All of this is in keeping with the corrupt and incompetent EU.”
Not to mention our very own Government!
June 1, 2016
@Mr Redwood,
I’ve heard that some students are getting two votes and EU nationals from the continent having postal votes sent to them abroad.
This added to the usual postal voting fraud which your govt seems unwilling to address demonstrates that the UK has become a banana republic.
June 1, 2016
The left never work with logic, reason or worry about what actual works. It is all about envy, raw emotion, fake “equality” regardless of merit and idiotic group think. Where for example does Corbyn stand on the current state of France, is he still a fan of the policies in Venezuela?
Why is Corbyn now allegedly in favour of remain when he has spent a lifetime in favour of leaving the EU? Even,like myself, being in favour of leaving the Common Market at the last referendum. One where Wilson, unlike Cameron, had the sense to stay above the fray.
What tentacle of the state or the EU, or body that feeds off the EU/ Government teat will tell us to vote remain, or suffer for evermore today I wonder?
The odds are improving for leave a little, surely voters will not really vote for the end of any democracy and for EU serfdom will they?
June 1, 2016
So Cameron now says a points bases system “would trash the economy”.
What compete and utter tosh. He does not even know the design of any points based system yet. Does he really think all points based systems would trash the economy? Does he think selecting on merit is worse than letting in everyone from the EU regardless?
How can a system, that takes the best people from around the whole World, rather than taking anyone at all (violent serial criminals included) just from the EU and restricting the others “trash the economy”? By what conceivable mechanism does Cameron think this might happen?
The man will clearly say anything to win his referendum, keep his job and retain his (clearly racist) EU good everyone else bad immigration policy.
He said:- “No if no but to the tens of thousands” and he must have know that was a lie too.
June 1, 2016
I suspect most people have stopped listening to him for some time. His claims and forecasts are way over the top every time now, and are only reported because it’s very hard for the media to ignore what a P.M. has to say.
Even the Remain-supporting media must clench their jaws when reporting his exaggerated statements, as it is clear that Project Fear has so over-egged the pudding that it’s beginning to lose any impact it might have had.
June 1, 2016
We already have a points based system, just large categories of entrants are exempt, such as EU citizens, Indian nationals with intra company transfer visas, and so on.
June 1, 2016
I have not heard his argument, apart from the headline – ‘trash the economy’ which doesn’t particularly strike me as a well thought out cogent analysis…..
I suspect that he could be referring to the unused Tier 3 of the PBS…. http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system/tier-3-unskilled-migration.htm
So what was wrong with that as a possible way of planning the necessary employment needs for the economy. I suppose for Cameron it might have had the useless (for him) consequence of providing empirical evidence (as opposed to the useless passenger survey) for the amount of people coming in to fill unskilled labour posts. Now that really wouldn’t do, would it?
zorro
June 1, 2016
EU = communism
Corbyn = communism
I see no contradiction.
June 2, 2016
I’m not sure what the precise definition of communism is but I don’t believe that Lenin (nor probably Trotsky)would have been a fan of the EU.
From Marxist.com,Chapter 7,Lenin’s struggle against Bureaucracy:-
“Lenin and Trotsky saw the working class as the only basis for a struggle against a self-serving bureaucracy and the maintenance of a healthy workers democracy as the only check on it”.
It was Stalin who encouraged the growth of bureaucracy to consolidate his own power and put the state above the people.
June 1, 2016
Hello “Workers’ Rights”, meet “Unemployment”.
The EU is pretty good at both, but only one is mentioned by the left.
June 1, 2016
By the way I think you need to include Osborne in “the left”. His minimum wage policy will undoubtedly create unemployment.
June 1, 2016
Indeed and his moronic taxation of landlord’s non profits (and the 3% extra stamp due) will hugely harm the supply of rental properties (& thus job mobility) and push up rents by 10%+ too.
His open door migration from the EU will worsen his huge PSBR deficit and reduce wages. His sugar tax is clearly totally bonkers, his (now a full 10%) IPT tax is hugely damaging too as are his attacks on pension pot sizes.
The man is a socialist menace to the economy. His tax rates are far, far too high – even just to maximising tax receipts. The complexity of them is an absurd cost on top too.
Even HMRC do not have much of a clue round the system and cannot even be bothered to answer the phone or reply to letters competently (or often at all).
He is even now still pretending that he is keeping his IHT ÂŁ1M threshold promise of 7? years ago. He is clearly doing nothing of the sort. How stupid does he take people for?
Yet Cameron still has the temerity to say we “will continue cutting taxes” and he is at heart a low tax conservative. In practice he is neither. A “low tax conservative” would never employ Osborne as chancellor.
Vote Brexit and be rid of this dreadful economic illiterate. The best that can be said of him is he is not quite as bad at John Mc Donnell.
June 1, 2016
Joesoap
Actually the EU isn’t THAT brilliant on workers rights either. Germany only introduced NMW last year. In some parts of the EU the NMW is ÂŁ1.20 per hour. I’m sure the left aren’t going to be demanding parity there. The UK argued for longer parental leave than the EU put in place and the UK is the only country with a Living wage policy.
Like so much of our politics people believe the party rhetoric rather than to actually bother to check
June 2, 2016
“the UK is the only country with a living wage policy”:
Are you sure? There has been the Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel Garanti in France since February 1950 (first as SMIC then changed in 1960 as SMIG). It might not be strictly speaking a Living Wage, but is anyway about 9 euros/hour from January 2016.
June 1, 2016
The trouble with excessive workers rights is they so often just harm the workers and help the shirkers. In the end they destroy jobs and make everyone poorer as we see in so much of the EU. They often force the good workers to carry the shirkers and prevent management from managing efficiently.
The best protection for workers is lots of alternative jobs being available. Something that excessive workers rights works strongly against.
Workers rights should certainly be decided democratically and close to home anyway. Not at the, distant from reality, EU level. Lobbied as they are by vested interests in having OTT red tape.
June 1, 2016
The left employ endless double standards, look how many use private schools, become Lords like Prescott, ( a few ed)take tax free “expenses” for costs they do not even incur. Even pass laws to give special tax advantages to selected groups such as politicians and EU staff. Or provide them with private state funded accommodation.
The left is a temple built of double standards, envy and hypocrisy.
June 1, 2016
Similarly, the Left would never dream of protesting at the pillaging of medically qualified staff from poor, undeveloped countries that presumably need them.
They show no empathy for other countries outside of war zones.
June 3, 2016
Indeed.
June 1, 2016
Or jump the queue in the NHS, as (named Labour MPs did ed) must be on another planet if he thinks he would have had his heart treatment if he were not an MP (for one thing he would have been forced to use the hospital closest his non London address if he were like the rest of us, for 2 he would still be waiting) and so very much more
June 1, 2016
Maybe it’s because, like si many people on the Remain side, they’re condoning what the EEC has been, not what it’s going to become.
June 1, 2016
I would have changed the tense to ‘has’ become.
Too many people believe the EU to be the Utopia the BBC proclaims it to be.
I wonder how many people realise that we don’t make our own laws any more.
June 1, 2016
Here in Cyprus after a few years absence I have been amazed how the place has changed. We have not been served once in either the hotel or restaurants by a Cypriot. All the staff are overwhelmingly East Europeans.
Many places are advertising for staff and I asked a friend why the locals didn’t apply. He told me that the hourly rate on offer was half what it was and the young who couldn’t be absorbed into the family business have fled the country. Mainly to England.
Behind the scenes the place is a ghost town as there is no demand for property.
The local supermarkets have closed having been bankrupted by the French and German chains.
My friend asked me if I knew the words to Hotel California as that must have been written for the EU.
You may well ask where the Left are in this situation,it’s bizarre their silence.
Luckily we have France to remind us what it’s all about.
Fair play to Wetherspoons for printing thousands of Brexit beer mats.
June 1, 2016
Because they are selective in their arguments.
They push heavily on some facts that suit them, but conveniently ignore others which do not.
Its simply out of sight out of mind.
Those of us who can remember attending Union Branch meetings of years past, will know first hand how these things work.
Just look at the last Junior Doctors strike and the way they refused to accept any other argument, unless it involved an increase in pay or better working conditions, it never was about patient care.
June 1, 2016
Closer to home, how about the austerity that is making us drive on the worst roads in the developed world?
I’m down ÂŁ80 for a new tyre thanks to a jarring encounter with one of Gloucestershire’s many potholes yesterday.
June 1, 2016
JJE
Bliss,
I’ve had 5 new tyres in 3 months ( 1 of them a tyre that was less than a week old). In Kent we have some bits of road in our potholes . Consistently this Conservative Government, Conservative County Council and Conservative local councils are more intent on interfering in every facet of life, business & entertainment rather than providing the basic services they were elected to deliver. The Conservative party has ceased to be Conservative at all. They ceased to deliver services and become social engineering control freaks
June 1, 2016
I agree
Bit like the speed camera nonsense completely counter productive, as is the road thinning, and giving cyclists the impression the rules do not apply to them
And so very much more
We have different flavours of lefty liberal nonsense to choose from when most of us would prefer a Thatcherite government back
June 1, 2016
The only public services the state now tend to deliver efficiently are fines, taxes motorist muggings and the like. Pots holes and public loos are not something they are remotely interested in. Social services, as we see yet again today, allows young children to be (hurt ed) without any sensible intervention.
June 1, 2016
And completely biased in its versions of the “truth” you see for them “equaliy” is important with regard to race, or gender, but hey ho you can slag off people based on their class as much as you like thats different
A small section of society has imposed its own version of political correctness which is full of contradictions and active put downs of the people not in favour the very opposite of equality and justice for all
June 1, 2016
Indeed, ‘child protection’ policies are a blot on the landscape of our society with many allegations of official/unofficial abuse against children.
zorro
June 4, 2016
It is a pity that the press did not point out how the Beatles Abbey Road cover in the 60’s versus the ‘politicians’ version now…showed dilapidation, lots of graffiti, a worn out crossing and road, less trees and more traffic which all disputed any life is better now argument. More to the point the politicians themselves are presumably used to such low standards that they didn’t even notice, before photographing themselves.
June 1, 2016
This referendum has not only exposed the Conservative party as a complete sham but has also reminded us of the dishonesty and moral bankruptcy of The Left .
They clearly don’t care that less able Britons cannot compete for lower paid jobs with vastly over qualified immigrants and so are rendered jobless indefinitely .
Like the Conservative party , they fob everyone off with talk of an increase in minimum wage which is just insult to injury for the unemployed Briton watching a recent arrival doing their job .
I think the answer to your question is that The Left’s hated of Britain is greater than it’s love of the EU .
It’s much like f England was pro-EU , Scotland would be all for Scexit .
Look at Messr’s Khan and Umuna . Before they became MP’s they specialised in legal action against the British state . etc ed
The only other explanation is that Cameron and Corbyn know something we don’t , for instance how severely the International community will punish Britain if it dares defy it by Brexiting .
June 1, 2016
Dont forget all the main parties have also issued massive numbers of intra company transfer visas for entrants from India, allowed them to be subcontracted into other companies here for less than it costs to hire a Brit, given them massive tax advantages, and given many (and their familes) indefinite leave to remain for nothing more than working here a few years. We have the ridiculous situation where it is easier for an Indian national to work here than it is for a Brit to work in India. So much for the brilliance of our political class, completely screwing this country over time and time again.
June 1, 2016
I believe that Cameron’s position is purely out of selfish self interest, whereas Corbyn is a hostage to party fortune.
zorro
June 1, 2016
I think the reason the Left do not mention austerity in the EU, as they also do not mention 13% overall unemployment and 50% youth unemployment in some Eurozone nations as well as low growth and a falling share of world trade is…. that they think a prize of an eventual socialist Europe with them in positions of power is a price worth paying.
June 2, 2016
Agreed .
David Horowitz was a leftist in the 60’s who has trod the same path as Peter Hitchen’s , Melanie Phillips in being repulsed by The Left .
He points out how the anti-Vietnam was was in the main just anti-Americanism .
The leftists never felt the need to comment on the humans rights atrocities perpetrated by the North which when the American’s pulled out . The millions of murders , “re-education” camps and displacement of multiple millions of boat people .
The behaviour of the North immediately post the war pretty much confirms the U.S. assessment of the threat of asian communism was correct .
Much the same in communist China where millions were killed or sent to gulags .
More recently , the TUC condemned Lech Walesa’s Solidarity because they protested against a “fraternal” soviet leaning govt . When the TUC turned up to a 20 year anniversary and started saying how they support workers rights Lech hadn’t forgotten this and told them to foxtrot oscar .
June 1, 2016
The Left excels at double standards. Just a few examples:
Cameron’s Eton education is frequently used as an insult but Blair’s attendance of “Scottish Eton” Fettes was acceptable.
Your child can go to the local comprehensive but the Left use private education (e.g. Diane Abbott) or send their children to a distant school (Blair).
The SNP complain about unrepresentative distant rule from Westminster but embrace the same from Brussels.
June 1, 2016
And dont forget your place in the NHS queue is very much “some are more equal than others” as many lefty politcians have manipulated to their advantage. (named senior Labour politicians ed) needing urgent hospital admission made sure his mate the surgeon took him to A & E and made sure everyone knew who he was. Private room and proper attention the acceptable way of the left.
June 1, 2016
OT:
Politicalbetting.com posts an interesting article.
It refers to a FT report that, using a loophole in the referendum rules, hedge funds are commissioning exit polls so that they can place bets on the result – those bets being on the impact the outcome will have on the value of the ÂŁ. Soros made a few billion this way at the time of the UK’s exit from the ERM.
This seems wrong to me and something the Electoral Commission should rule against now.
Those with a devious turn of mind will also conclude that such activities would also provide convenient cover for the EU Commission to organise, with the help of its many friends in international institutions, a run on the pound in an attempt to influence UK voters. Would the EU Commission even dream of such a thing?
Why not? It has form in using sock puppet “charities” to influence public opinion towards the policies it wants to implement. This is well documented by the IEA – search “sock puppets”. Daniel Hannan has also drawn attention to this practice in his recent book Why Vote Leave; see pp23 ff for what it did at the time of the Bill to ratify the Lisbon Treaty and on other occasions.
This time around we have witnessed an array of “experts” paraded to predict doom if voters have the temerity to vote Leave. Doom will manifest itself in a sharp drop in the value of the ÂŁ. I have little doubt they have been rounded up and organised by Mr Cameron and the EU Commission to say what they have all been saying. Many of them will believe it too. Nothing is more terrifying to them than the propspect of ordinary voters actually having a say in how they should be governed – it puts their whole lifestyle at risk. But it is easily within their capacity to engineer a run on the pound at the critical moment late afternoon or early evening on the day of the referendum, if not before, to concentrate the minds of about to vote.
We shall have to wait and see what happens. But after reports of the tendentious adsvice on how to vote and reports of voting cards being sent to those not entitled to vote anything seems possible. The whiff of banana republic could easily and quickly become a stench.
June 1, 2016
“Why won’t the left condemn EU austerity?”Because they are not the Left. There is no longer a mainstream genuinely Left Party in the UK. The Labour Party feeds off the corpse of its former self. The loyalty built over decades by arguably misguided but wholly genuine and good socialist-minded activists in the coal, steel, textile and fishing industries. Those people are dead or long since cancelled their Party membership.
As one elderly ex-Labour Party member told me. “I’ll always be Labour. But they’re gone. I’ll never vote Tory. Hate their values and principles. But at least they’ve got them.
June 1, 2016
There are strikes in France and Belgium over workers’ rights. Mostly unreported in particularly broadcast media. Perhaps that’s because the remainiacs tell us that membership of the EU is essential for workers’rights.
There is a growing feeling that this referendum is being rigged. Firstly we had Cameron using the full power of the government to make his case whilst denying that opportunity to Brexiteers. Since then we have seen postal ballots sent out which in some cases showed a pencil above the remain box when instructing voters. Yesterday it transpired that polling cards have been sent to EU citizens resident in UK who are not entitled to vote. It looks as though we are fasr becoming a banana republic.
I am of the opinion that this referendum should be declared null and void, a new date set under rigorous and effective scrutiny.
June 1, 2016
The (official) left were late coming to support for the EEC/EC/EU/USE project and now they are late coming to recognition of its gross and irremediable failures.
June 2, 2016
They think they can just blame everything on the Tories but they are fools, Labour voters I know are watching them and thinking they’re not giving any views, direction or reasons to stay in or leave and so are useless.
People in Scotland had wanted a change and got one, and people in England are watching this spectacle play out too. Too many lies and false promises and there will be trouble. No more blaming the EU for every horrible little policy they know we won’t like, they tell us they have a say and control well we’ll be expecting them to exercise this great voice and power we have!
June 1, 2016
“the banking and credit policies on the continent which damaged our own economy in the crash of 2008”
The EU may be party to fraud when disbursing our money to ClubMed farmers under the CAP; however, they did not encourage the fraudulent behaviour of the foreign banks which severely damaged the world economy and the lives of millions but which were only fined billions of dollars despite their egregious offences but then according to the self-serving rules created by CMD for the Referendum have become major backers of depriving the English of their country and their birthright. Brexit will not only allow us to take our country back but will enable us to deep cleanse the Augean stable etc ed.
June 1, 2016
An excellent question!
I think the left believes that the ‘rights of workers’ will be defended by the EU juggernaut. That is the message coming from some of the Trade Unions. Global capitalism is somehow the ‘bad guy’ even though global socialism has consistently failed to feed its people and suppressed their rights.
We need to make clear that the values of Brexiters are positive and include not only free trade and entrepreneurial energy but the historic protections of British law.
June 1, 2016
That the EU defends workers’ rights is fallacious.
The EU Working Time Directive stipulates only 20 days annual leave. The UK stipulates 28. If we applied EU standards we’d be worse off in many respects.
June 1, 2016
Excellent comment, Dr JR. As usual you have hit the nail on the head by pointing out an inconvenient truth. Double standards are indeed the preferred option of the Left. In this instance one can only conclude that the Left has made a moral choice that rejects nationalism and lauds supranationalism. As we well know, the Left alone is capable of making these profound decisions in the interests of man and womankind. To challenge the Left is to be deemed immoral, something we can be certain that a British Conservative PM would never do to those who opposed his policies. Oh, now wait a minute…
June 1, 2016
There are three standards which apply to the Left in Britain:
– a hatred of Israel
– a hatred of America
– a hatred of the English
Anything contrary to these things is either good, or can be overlooked – including the oppression of females and FGM, so long as it is not done by white Englishmen.
June 1, 2016
And a hatred of anyone with more money, more intelligence or just more hard working than themselves.
June 1, 2016
The left’s behaviour at Northampton town square yesterday denying the right for free speech with their obscene chants and posters was a disgrace. People have a right to hear Farage on his Brexitbus tour, but his speech had to be cancelled for safety fears for Farage and the crowd trying to listen to him. They were masked agitators, keeping up a deafening chant, apparently from Hope not Hate, among other groups. Some local took them on, but in effect the agitators successfully prevented freedom of speech. It is very frightening when these individuals mock our freedoms and prevent us from enjoying that freedom. What bullies they are. NF later addressed local people (in a pub!). Police were present – one at least – but he seemed powerless.
June 1, 2016
There should be no need to mask one’s face if protesting peacefully.
The police should have powers to have demonstrators remove anything which disguises their faces, or else arrest them.
June 1, 2016
On the contrary, Chris, I think the behaviour in Northampton and similar behaviour is brilliant. Every time those thugs are on the news, I think, there’s another 10,000 conservative votes.
I just wish our lazy Police would prosecute them. I have no problem with Farage (or Redwood or Corbyn for that matter) being heckled and booed but the use of threats of violence is appalling. Still not quite as bad as what happened to Carswell.
The left do appear to genuinely think threatening Farage is okay. Needless to say, threatening (say) Corbyn would be completely unacceptable. I think it’s because “Farage is wrong” and “Corbyn is right”, and it doesn’t go any deeper than that. Conceptually, the idea that Farage (or Corbyn) might be right about some things and wrong about others doesn’t seem to process.
It’s a bit like debating creationists or biblical inerrantists, they don’t ever admit to anything ever being wrong or in possible need of revision. I think it’s the “House of Cards” mentality, if they don’t lock into their little closed world, where the likes of Mr Redwood is wrong about everything (even if you just asked him what the time is !) then the whole thing might fall apart.
June 1, 2016
I agree.
June 1, 2016
Because in part, the Left are blaming the wrong people:
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-news/2016/06/01/eu-referendum-old-white-men-are-the-problem-for-the-remain-campaign-says-labours-shadow-europe-minister/
June 1, 2016
Why?Because the intellectuals of the British Left,with honourable exceptions like George Orwell, have always been attracted to totalitarian structures and the lesson learned by the ultimate failure of the “socialism in one country” espoused by the Stalin strain of bolshevism,is that you need a transnational,if not global,order to impose socialism.
Criticising Khan’s decision to appear on the same platform as Cameron,John McDonnell said yesterday that “The Europe the Tories want is not our Europe”.Same authoritarianism,different ruling cliques.
June 1, 2016
No the Corbynites seem to want a Venezuela type of EU a complete basket case, as it seems do the French and some other members.
June 1, 2016
Very true. The Left has a masochistic desire to submit, and any interest which commands submission is acceptable and perceived as a kindred spirit. Wait for the next opportunity to see Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a TV panel shared with some Polly Toynbee clones. The feminists will attack her rather than the system she fled from.
June 1, 2016
Call me cynical, but I would suggest that it suits organised socialism to have a disadvantaged working population. The workers and unemployed are the drones to be collectivised and marshalled to further socialism. The newish socialist elements in Greece and Spain do not seem intent on offering an economic alternative. They seem content to continue as dependents within the Euro.
During the Russian revolution it was not working class led , but middle class led. The workers were the cannon fodder. Ultimately their lot was no better under Stalin than it was under the Tsar.
Just as the wishes of the people of Europe have been repeatedly ignored by the EU, so their socialist brothers ignore the downside of the Euro and everything the EU has planned for Europe.
The Hampstead intelligentsia of Labour and their equally fat cat union bosses have a very different goal to an unemployed workforce. It suits them to berate left wing conservatism for it’s failures in their own quest for power. Their socialist brothers in the EU have achieved power without the inconvenience of democracy. Quite an achievement that they are not likely to criticise for failure, because they are envious family members.
June 1, 2016
Slightly O/T, but there are reports of EU citizens receiving polling cards, enabling them to vote, (and one claims to have already used a postal vote) even though they do not have the necessary dual nationality. Articles in Express and also Breitbart London.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/675573/EU-referendum-fears-over-Brexit-vote-integrity-as-EU-citizens-sent-polling-cards
It would seem the Electoral Commission needs to act, and also the Chief Executives of Local Authorities, who are in effect the Electoral Registration Officer for each area, and in charge of issuing the cards (details apparently based on DWP database).
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/contact-us/our-offices
Public enquiries and information
Please telephone 0333 103 1928 or email info@electoralcommission.org.uk. Alternatively please write to the Electoral Commission
June 1, 2016
Off topic, if Mr Redwood will permit: assiduous internet trawlers will have noticed strong rumours that hedge funds and other large players are commissioning private opinion polls on the likely referendum result to guide them in placing very big bets on the currency markets.
On polling day in particular, private exit polls will be used to help them harvest colossal profits out of sterling. A sharp fall in the pound during voting would indicate victory for Brexit, a sharp rise victory for Remain.
Public-spirited citizens may conclude they have a national duty not to tell the truth to pollsters between now and June 23.
June 1, 2016
The head of the TUC was on TV this morning. She spoke of the way the EU underpins workers rights. Never referred once to her CGT colleagues 20 miles over the Channel fighting President Hollande’s Socialist Government with week long national strikes, demonstrations, riots, blockades of refineries. No sign of the EU underpinning anything at all. The TV questioners mysteriously did not mention our EU neighbour France.
What is not really known by the public is that once upon a time when Russia was the Soviet Union and sported red flags and words about the working class, it held numerous conferences and meetings. Delegates and guests from “comrade trades unions” would be sent either at British trades union expense or simply provided with accommodation, food and…….entertainment…. in Moscow hotels by “Russian Trades Unions”. Same thing throughout the Soviet Union’s satellite “Socialist” countries with “Peace and Cooperation” oozing through every crevice and hole.
Nowadays the EU provides numerous freebies with delegate’s and accompanying guests to do with trades unions and other cultural events. There are odd jobs for the larger Labour and Trade Union movement based in certain EU states on the “cultural” level. I don’t think the entertainment is quite as comprehensive and free as in the former Soviet Union but the money is good I’ve heard and it’s the free market system by and large.
In the “good old days” of the Labour Party and TUC it was an urban joke and was set rudely to the Red Flag anthem that a militant trade unionist would stop being militant as soon as he was offered the foreman’s job and would then tell people exactly where to stick the Red Flag.
All that is EU-institutionalised now. Bought and paid for.
June 1, 2016
Why also do all the left support the anti-scientific climate alarmism agenda too – it is just leftly group think/religion. Almost none understand the first thing about the science or the engineering but still “believe” as it suits their anti business and the fake PC “equality” agenda.
Many even seem to think that we need the EU to force these expensive, bird killing machines & the greencrap agenda on the UK. Just as they force the absurd & counter productive employment “protection” laws on us. Mind you Osborne can do enough damage here by himself.
EU red tape is reducing our pension returns too it seems in the Mail (on top of Osborne’s and Brown’s serial muggings).
June 1, 2016
Ll. The left love the climate change argument because they can tax it.
June 1, 2016
I have spoken to a few on the Left recently who say that the eu has provided the UK with safeguards to workers that the UK government take away if it left the eu.
Quite apart from the fact that this is nonsense, they are not able to answer one question: what if we get very different governments across Europe and these governments stuff the Council of Ministers and the eu commission with people who decide to get rid of these so-called worker protections?
What will they do them?
Who will they write to?
June 1, 2016
The EU does not stipulate a minimum wage. It’s Working Time Directive is far below the standards of most European countries. If we applied the WTD here we would lose 8 annual leave days a year.
June 1, 2016
Easy answer really, if your rich you tend to want to remain. Regardless of the average mainstream careerist Labour MPs. The leading Corbynistas are millionaires, have large property portfolios, have been to/sent their kids to private schools etc. Although she does not use it one of them even has a title. Lenin was absolutely correct about the limited political consciousness of the working class , if they keep thinking its in their interest to vote for this lot.
June 1, 2016
DRW
Not sure thats the right answer. I have no idea why the left has suddenly changed its mind on the EU. Unless they can see the writing on the wall that its their last chance at socialist control freakery.
You’re * rich you want to remain doesn’t resonate with me. I’m very rich and I want out, most of my friends in similar circumstances want out. My kids all went to public schools and in a discussion with a bunch of them and their friends they ALL wanted out including my daughter in law who is French . Not a huge sample I know , but I dont think that rich/public school educated is the reason why leftist politicians or anyone else want to remain
June 1, 2016
If you were better looking you would be lining up with Emma, Kiera, Benedict et al and telling everyone to vote remain!
June 1, 2016
You Gov on voting intention and income https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/09/22/eu-referendum-state-public-opinion/
June 1, 2016
Lenin was also adamant that for the revolution to succeed the working class had to be educated(in the old-fashioned,rather than the Blairite sense),so that the bureaucratic class could be eliminated and freedom achieved.No surprise then that state education for the masses is so poor.
June 1, 2016
The role of the Party cannot be under-estimated. Wasn’t the idea that selfless intellectuals should run the Party for the Proletariat? It was never conceded that the Proletariat could actually manage themselves, their inferiority was implicit in the whole structure. Essentially Marx-Leninism was a system with intellectuals assuming the role of the aristocracy they despised and deposed. Yet another double standard of the Left!
June 2, 2016
Yes,until the proletariat could be raised up to do it for themselves, an advance guard would be needed.I actually believe that Lenin was sincere -and he was pragmatic enough to allow a partial reversal of dogma with The New Economic Policy-but with his early death and Stalin’s subversion,we will never know!
June 1, 2016
Can we have an apostrophe in the right place Dame ?
June 1, 2016
and an “e”……!!!!
June 1, 2016
Sorry I am the victim of a sub bog standard comprehensive.
June 1, 2016
“EU austerity?” . . don’t see any of the EU bosses suffering any austerity at all. They will make sure THEY are alright. The rest of us will be renamed Jack.
June 1, 2016
Just 21% tax for EU officials too, and over generous tax free expenses (that do not even need the costs to be actually incurred). Rather like the Lords daily allowance.
June 1, 2016
Trying to get the Left to condemn the austerity and unemployment of the EU is like trying to get the feminists (and the left) to condemn FGM, sexual segregation, polygamy, arranged marriage, rape within and without the family, etc. They just know they mustn’t.
June 1, 2016
It would be no different if there was a Labour government here. They don’t criticise stuff their own side does. Much the same as the Tories don’t complain much about Cameron’s follies (excepting the EU of course). It is not unknown in political circles and is what keeps parties together, however foolish their ideas may be and regardless of whether their members agree.
The EU is a strange pantomime horse construction which is one reason it will never work, for the ordinary citizen, although of course it is absolutely wonderful for the elite. It is on the one hand a Soviet kind of construction which is very left/liberal with all the centralised planning of the USSR and also at the same time a corporatist regime which passes laws for the rich and powerful and enshrines their advantages in law in perpetuity, with no chance of a challenge from the people, to the detriment of the lower orders who are just required to keep funding it all.
The Remainsers keep saying we will be bust if we leave the EU, but can they point to any success stories, other than Germany, which success is in any case largely based on a lower than should be currency for its benefit, mounted on the backs of the poor of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, none of which has even recovered from the big crash. The same crash which the ‘experts of the IMF, BoE, Treasury and all the others on the Remainers list of credible economists, failed to spot coming, or the ERM debacle or the Euro failure and were, right up to the eve of the crash, assuring us all was well in the world. People either don’t understand or have short memories.
June 1, 2016
All done to make Britain weaker to enable our being sucked into the EU maw and turned into mere regions of the new super-state of Federal EU, ruled by Brussels (Germany) and enabled by our own Government who do not even pretend to protect us – traitors, the lot of them.
June 1, 2016
There is’n’t any logic or basic reasoning in the EUs’ policies ; they are hell bent on a direction of their own – to disaster . Why they are so stupid not to listen to the voices of correction and re-invent themselves beggars belief.
The polls today show that the public have shifted their position ; “Brexit is much stronger and the voices of those who are leading the campaign are having the right effect – well done John and those like him .
June 1, 2016
Agree with you BY and even if we vote to remain, the EU will probably self-destruct in some way at some time in the future, more than likely precipitated by the actions of a southern European country.
June 1, 2016
It is said that here the young mostly will vote to remain. I wonder how the young unemployed in the south EU would vote? Has the BBC asked any of them? No, I should think.
June 1, 2016
“How many unemployed young people in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy will it take to get the left to condemn Euro area policies?”
I guess at least 80%
June 1, 2016
It will happen when they stop voting for leftist parties, thus rendering them powerless. The left only crave power, not responsibility.
June 1, 2016
The British Labour Party and British Trades Union stance on the EU, being pro-EU, does not marry up to their historic, traditional, ostensible and declared principles and values. Incongruence of this nature arising in any society usually denotes corruption of one kind or another arising within the entities themselves/ in their relationship to entities within the nation or, in their relation to foreign bodies, via the foreign bodies, improperly influenced by those foreign bodies and in effect controlled by those foreign bodies.
June 1, 2016
Indeed as are many of the “charites” and other countless tentacles of government that are EU or UK government funded in order to push their agenda.
June 1, 2016
What a pity you can’t get an opportunity to tackle Corbyn over this question and we can all see him squirm.
The hypocracy of the left is sickening. But then it is on almost every issue.
June 1, 2016
The hypocracy of the left is indeed sickening. As too is the hypocracy of no if no buts to the tens of thousands, but they too are clearly well to the left.
June 1, 2016
I’d put my money on hypocrisy.
June 1, 2016
Now is not the time for the left to condemn EU austerity. This could be done while at the same time supporting membership of the EU. Once remaining in the EU has been achieved then support or rejection of individual EU policies can be brought back to the fore front. These distractions should not be allowed to divert attention from the main objective staying in the EU.
June 1, 2016
I do not think it is a left or a right battle these days as factions change their views like the wind. There are of course those whose views will be categorised into what original principles founded their beliefs , but when looked at they would see that they have kept the same views , but what belonged to the right was now the left and vice versa.
No one wants austerity , but being sensible politicians try to moderately enforce it, but the impact will not be dynamic and life changing for the EU. It is about gathering capital.
June 1, 2016
BBC hits new low, on 1300hr news, Five minute article on the Birmingham Pub Bombings, but somehow managed to talk to various groups but no mention of the group that planted the bomb. Re writing History?
June 1, 2016
Of course. The BBC is a political movement with its own agenda. Revisionist propaganda is a core competency.
June 1, 2016
Why? The reason is so so simple. They are traitors who put the cause of international socialism first second and third.
I’m more concerned about the lying quislings in the Conservative Party! I want there heads Mr Redwood! Nothing else is acceptable!
June 1, 2016
Why won’t the left condemn EU austerity? Because many of them have never tasted austerity’s full horror never mind the EU’s austerity – Greece they will tell you brought it on themselves – so all can be excused. They just can’t or won’t accept the doctrine of socialism can possibly be flawed so each generation it would appear has to put it to the test before they find themselves entwined in its ever repeating suffocating mess.
June 1, 2016
So will David Cameron be disciplining Anna Soubry for her comment about Leave supporters being older, male and pale? Of course not, any more than Jeremy Corbyn will be disciplining his shadow Europe Minister Pat Glass for her similar comment about old white men a problem.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-news/2016/06/01/eu-referendum-old-white-men-are-the-problem-for-the-remain-campaign-says-labours-shadow-europe-minister/
“Go and speak to your mother, your grandmother. Don’t speak to your grandfather, we know the problem are older white men.”
Disgusting hyprocrites, all four of them.
June 1, 2016
And are Remain supporters middle aged, female, and ugly?…. Of course not ? ….. Some of you may have noticed a very lateral reference to a Churchill quote there….
zorro
June 1, 2016
How on earth did anyone of such meagre ability as Anna Soubry ever qualify to become a British minister?
June 2, 2016
As quoted by Peter Oborne in his article in last week’s Spectator,Anna Soubry reckons that if we leave the EU “all exports to Europe would go down to almost and absolutely zero”
Mangled English aside,isn’t this creature supposed to be a Business Minister?
And doesn’t her old/male/pale/stale comment constitute the crime of “othering”which normally her type are so keen on accusing others of.Looks like the old,male pale constituency is one step away from being declared class enemies, if not “former people” as in early Bolshevik Russia.
June 1, 2016
I sometimes think leftism requires doublethink, the ability to believe black is white. There is no logical coherency to it, just a disconnected collection of emotions.
I might be wrong about many things, but I try to at least be logically consistent.
I don’t think they think things through, just emote at them, usually pointing at (carefully selected) examples. Most of which fall apart under examination.
Para left out ed
Incidentally, on Europe, I seem to recall when Hollande was elected Mr Milliband (E) and his acolytes celebrating and saying how brilliant it was going to be.
I can’t, for some reason that escapes me, recall them saying anything about it since, and nothing at all about the current worker’s rights civil war.
June 1, 2016
Off-Topic:
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, popped in yesterday to see President Hollande of France and voiced his and EU support in the battle against French trades unions striking week-long to defend their rights.
Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party in the extremely unlikely event they ever get into government again can rely on EU support similarly in suppressing trades unions and rolling back the conditions and rights of the working people of the UK.
The visit and its significance, as far as I am aware, was largely ignored by UK media here. Well, it doesn’t fit into the propaganda of the Remain Campaign that the EU “underpins workers rights”
Many young people of the Labour Party are really not aware just what they are a member of and the real nature of the EU. Whilst few sensible people can be in favour of union despotic leaders,- rights of working people…as we are all working people, should not be dictated by the likes of Socialist President Hollande and the visiting EU troublemaker and gross anti-democrat Juncker.
June 1, 2016
Why wont the TUC admit that all EU directives on working conditions are transferred into UK Law by Act of Parliament. Leaving the EU does not take them away.
The lefties like being in a Communist inspired empire like the USSR.
June 1, 2016
If you watched last night’s TV prog on the EU with Laura K. you might have missed any Labour Party contribution if you blinked at the time the momentary picture of J. Corbyn Esq. appeared on the screen.
Indeed, slightly off topic:
Laura did not seem to dwell on the point that out of the EU we would not have to pay EU import tariffs – hence some of our imports would be cheaper so reducing the cost of living. (It could also help agricultural imports from Africa thereby giving them a leg-up out of poverty)
June 1, 2016
Atlas. One point in that programme mystified me. The lady who made the hovercraft said that the EU made it virtually twice as expensive to export to Brazil as it did to an EU country. How does that work?
If the EU is imposing some sort of tariff or financial penalty on exports, then where is the money going and what is the point of it?
June 1, 2016
To Cameron’s discredit the referendum now has a whiff of Mugabe tactics about it.
The biased broadcasting corporation is suppressing any news detrimental to the remainders (Cameron’s) campaign.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports in the Telegraph Donald Tusks speech to a conclave of Christian-Democrat and centre-right leaders in Luxembourg. In a passionate plea to Europe’s top conservatives, he accused the EU elites of living in a fool’s paradise and provoking the eurosceptic revolt now erupting in a string of countries.
“Obsessed with the idea of instant and total integration, we failed to notice that ordinary people, the citizens of Europe, do not share our Euro-enthusiasm.”
“The spectre of a break-up is haunting Europe and a vision of a federation doesn’t seem to me like the best answer. We need to understand the necessity of the historical moment.”
“The Dutch say they never want another EU treaty ever again because that would require a referendum and they know they would lose it. The French don’t want any treaty changes either.”
Why cannot I find any reference on the major BBC news broadcasts?
June 1, 2016
Off point but not actually! (what a contradiction in terms yes?
EVERY time I try to post a comment regarding Turkey’s (history with the Armenians it gets deleted ed)
Reply Yes it will, as I have not studied it and cannot comment on it as a result. If I let you comment there would then be people on other side also wishing to comment etc.
June 1, 2016
Why hasn’t the battle bus got a picture of David Cameron on the side and the words ‘No ifs, no buts – immigration down to the tens of thousands’ and, underneath – ‘He can’t and he KNOWS he can’t – Vote Leave’.
And on the other side another picture of him with the words ‘I want to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels’ with ‘So that’s another 80 million with the option to come to the UK – How many more can we take Cameron?’
And a picture of Corbyn too – with ‘What about the unemployed youth in the EU Jeremy? 50% youth unemployment is okay with you?’
June 1, 2016
Why have the left not spoken loudly and clearly about their failure to administer Rotherham to a basic standard that avoids systematic abuse of children in their care?
Why have the left not spoken out when NHS whistle blowers have been hounded out of town by the idiots who will not hear anything said against the NHS no matter how many people it kills?
June 1, 2016
There is no mystery about why business wants cheap labour in a quite shameless way. I envisage them sitting at a huge desk with two telephones. One is a hotline to Mr Cameron; the other is a hotline to Mr McCloskey. From this one desk they can pretty well orchestrate the whole puppet show with a little help from American banks and hedgefunds. The real mystery is why so many young innocents support Remain despite the fact that half of them would be out of a job on the continent. This teenage view of life is found at its most appealing form in Alan Johnson, who though himself a union man, sees only the dream and not the realities of life in the EU today.
June 1, 2016
The United Nations has a membership of 193 countries. These are all independent and sovereign states. All have chosen to be independent and it is hard to think of any countries which have chosen not to be independent. There are some borderline cases like Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. The general pattern however is very clear: every country which can manage it has decided to become independent and sovereign. Why should we be the odd man out?
June 1, 2016
The civil revolt in France is enormously positive, and the summer is still young.
2016 is shaping up as something that should re-awaken in the Soixante-Huitards a warm glow of nostalgia, but it won’t. This time they find themselves as the ruling elite, desperately out of touch and and unable to comprehend what is going on.
There is every chance that 2016 will be a summer in Europe with more turmoil than at any time since 1848. Even if Brexit were to fail, the EU will tumble sooner rather than later, the signs are all there.
June 1, 2016
Is it too cynical to say that the lavishly paid jobs in Brussels are significant factor for Labour politicians -who may not have the wealth of their Tory counterparts – wanting to remain?
June 1, 2016
Wonder if Mario Draghi ( President of the European Central Bank, for the many who haven’t a clue who or what he is ) who has steered the Eurozone and the EU into deflation with aplomb and, is as inaccurate in predicting the onset of inflation and rising interest rates as the Oracle of the BoE, will , somehow, and totally unprofessionally say or imply that the UK is better to Remain in the EU at yet another of his lacklustre Press Conferences 02/06/2016 which will coincide with Mr Cameron’s TV “Debate” on the Referendum…and will be used by Mr Cameron, conveniently, to promote his nonsensical argument for Remain.
Well, if Mr Draghi does, coincidentally, take his professional hat off and comment one way or another then it is to be hoped that the following night’s “Debate” by The Rt Hon Mr Gove is called off.
The bias in this Referendum should not be tolerated any further.
Mr Draghi’s Press Conference will have some interest however in that he has to explain why the Eurozone is still in becalmed waters and that he has run out of “financial tools” to enable him to do anything at all to remedy the situation. All he can do is pray for inclement weather over the Med and the Channel, to retain some political time if not economic.
June 2, 2016
Exactly, one-size-fits-all budget deficits is a terrible idea. Those of us who understand Wynne Godley’s sectoral balances know that they must net to zero! And so for the government to run a surplus, the private sector must necessarily run a deficit (build up debt or drain savings) unless there is a current account surplus to provide outside spending into the economy.
Contrary to popular belief, recessions and depressions occur when the government’s deficit gets too small. The deficit only increases going into a recession because the private sector begins to save more (paradox of thrift) and automatic stabilisers kick in.
With this said, countries like Greece need much larger budget deficits and more government debt, not less. Government debt is net financial wealth to the private sector yet somehow reducing it is what the EU wants when all it will do is reduce demand further!
Get out of this madness, restore our democracy, and end austerity with massive tax cuts for low and middle earners.
June 2, 2016
These are fair comments, Dr Redwood but half of your party also seem content with EU economic, fiscal and monetary policies and the resulting chaos and unemployment that they cause. When did Mrs May, for example, who thinks members of her own party are ‘nasty’, last utter any condemnation of EU youth unemployment?
Mrs May and half of Conservative MPs are in favour of the entire EU construct otherwise they would be campaigning with you.
June 2, 2016
The title of this piece poses a good question.\
But, there are still a few of us who are pushing Left based exit arguments. There aren’t as many as I’d like but I should mention Kelvin Hopkins, the MP for Luton, who presents an excellent case.
The left isn’t just the establishment left. It is the many decent people who are members of the Labour Party and the Trade Unions. They are much more aware about the failings of the EU, from a left erspective, than the party elite give them credit for.
June 2, 2016
It is a mystery why the Labour leadership, the Lib Dems, the Greens and the TUC, without a business friendly bone in their bodies, have swallowed the CBI and Goldman Sachs line on the economy. They all have their ulterior motives no doubt – I suspect that an out vote would put end to the prospect, however distant, of joining ths Euro and a single European Govt. has a lot to do with it.