Johnson’s Brexit bluster.2 and Britain’s “rule of law”

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
17 September 2020

Former prime ministers and even Johnson’s own former cabinet officials are lining up to condemn his “Internal Market Bill”. Of course this bill is a distraction, allowing Johnson to resurrect the “popular” issue of Brexit, in the hope that this will divert attention from his mishandling of the pandemic.

    Ironically the opposition to the bill is based on similar nationalist rhetoric, with the likes of Labour’s Ed Miliband claiming Johnson is "trashing the reputation of our country"and is "cavalier with international law, ... cavalier on our traditions". Yes, the “great” reputation of a Britain which already had one of the highest poverty levels and death rates from preventable disease among the rich countries, even before it started winning the sweepstakes in C-19 deaths.

    Anyway, Johnson now poses as Churchill: fighting the EU on the beaches... of Northern Ireland... with a law against the “extraordinary threat”that would result in the "blockading (of) food and agricultural transport within our own country”.

    In fact Johnson’s over-the-top hype, refers to the “border in the Irish sea” which he himself counterposed to May’s “backstop” last year, in his oven-ready Withdrawal Agreement.

    At the time, Northern Irish Unionists complained, as it implied some checks on their goods bound for Britain. But they were told to keep quiet. The Johnson government would sort them out at a later date... And that date, is apparently, today, since it now suits Johnson’s Covid-damaged “reputation”!

    In fact the issue of Brexit back in 2016 raised again the irrationality (and stupidity) of the border across Ireland, separating its northern (“British”) 6 counties from the southern Irish 26. The majority in Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, precisely because they preferred to stay within Ireland and the EU rather than outside, with Britain. Yet in this absurd current debate, nobody is even asking them what they want. That says it all about this country’s “rule of law”, doesn’t it?