The Future of the Labour Movement.

Welcome to Modern Britain. A divided nation where families and friends tear each other apart due to one issue... Brexit. The story of the have nots, the ignored and the left behind asking for a change from the status quo.  University towns vs former Industrial towns, North vs South, London vs Grimsby, England vs Scotland.

This is a story that has been greatly misunderstood by individuals from across the political spectrum. This is the case with the public support for the Brexit Party, a political party that was only several weeks old that won the European elections in May.

The main question that is always asked is why working-class people back the Brexit Party? It's not simple. Yes, people feel abandoned by the mainstream parties, and that is easy to see.  UKIP was the only renown party that entirely backed leave, there was a gap in the market. Many of the politicians that dominate the Brexit Party are far from being working class, the majority of Brexit Party MEP's are either business people or aristocrats. This relationship is rather similar to what the former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had towards the working class. An Alliance of the working class and the aristocracy against the "Liberal Metropolitan Middle Class."

The left within Britain focuses too much on identity politics. Idiotic statements by individuals such as David Lammy who accused Stacy Dooley of perpetuating “tired and unhelpful stereotypes” about Africa. Paint the left in a negative light. Statements like these push working people away from the left.  I conclude that most forms of Intersectionality act as a Trojan Horse. We should always pursue equality; however, Intersectionality has also harmed many working-class men. If you are both white and working class, you are less likely to do well in school and get a good and well-paid job. There are also issues with the rise of male suicide in recent years. I guess what I am saying stand up for everyone's rights, don't just ignore groups of people who you believe to privileged.

Many Eurosceptics on the left talk about the idea of a traditional working-class vs a Metropolitan Middle Class based around London. This rhetoric is rather misleading, different people face different problems across the country, many working-class people in cities like London suffer from different issues than working class people in towns like Barnsley.  Any new mass working-class movement must take these issues into account. There is no traditional working class, what the working-class changes with the times. How many coal miners are there now? Like it or not we have a multicultural working class this includes Somali plumbers from London and white call centre operatives in Rotherham. We must remember that we are an extremely regionalised country when it comes to what the working class is.

Working class people face discrimination in all aspects of society, from education to lobbying politicians. How many working-class people are journalists? The majority of our Members of Parliament come from relatively wealthy backgrounds and many Middle-Class MP's are implanted in Working Class areas that are safe seats for the mainstream parties take the MP for Don Valley Caroline Flint for example. Blair placed Flint who was from Twickenham in a constituency that has been Labour since 1922.  We need more working-class representation in parliament by MP's that have historic ties to the local areas. We need to tackle class discrimination when it comes to education as well, private tuition education must be abolished. Private education enforces the class system of which we live under.

Many working-class communities across the country feel outright ignored by society.  Many of these areas voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU.  Blackpool like most seaside towns has been in decline for decades voted by 67% to leave the European Union and Bolsover like most former Industrial and coal mining areas voted by 71% to leave the European Union. You will see the reverse in large University Towns and London. There has been an enormous geographical split in England and Wales between the areas have seen economic growth that areas have not seen the same economic growth.

We should rethink our approach to these regions.  Many of these communities still today have a radical left-wing tradition. In 68% leave Rotherham, where the battle of Orgreave took place in 1984, voted overwhelmingly for the Brexit Party in the 2019 European Elections.  The Labour Party like with Scotland is taking people for granted.  Is a Party dominated by Fabien Society and various pro-European Groups representative of its impoverished voter base in these parts of the country? 

When Labour was founded by Kier Hardie in 1900. It was a union between Middle-Class Academics in the Fabien Society, Liberal Trade Unionists and Marxist Social Democratic Federation. The Labour Party was a union between the radical Middle Class and the Working-Class mass movement. I do hope most individuals on the left remember this going forward. We must try to listen and represent many left behind working-class communities across the country.  For the same very reason, the Labour Party is called the Labour Party. Labour was the party intended to represent and protect workers from all backgrounds. It is something that we need to remember if we truly want to defeat the Brexit Party.