Thousands of activists will be descending on London’s streets tomorrow, marching to demand: Tories out! This criminal government is responsible for social murder. The labour movement must mobilise and fight for a clear socialist alternative.
You couldn’t make it up – well, unless you were a Tory minister. After all, Boris Johnson’s government is made up of liars and cheats, representing the most backward and obtuse sections of the British ruling class.
Their idle boasts about Brexit-loving ‘Global Britain’, and the return of the so-called buccaneering spirit, is so much hot air in the face of a sharp decline for British capitalism.
Despite their blissful ignorance, British capitalism faces not a renaissance in the coming period, but absolute ruin.
Astonishingly, these buffoons are trumpeting a trade deal with Australia that threatens to undermine swathes of British farming. So what, they say, if the Australian government allows the use of banned hormones and pesticides? As long as they have their ‘glorious’ deal, to hell with the consequences.
Now that ‘we’ are freed from the ‘shackles of the EU’, all they can crow about is their new trade deals with Iceland and Liechtenstein!
As the saying goes: those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. And these people are crazy.
Join Socialist Appeal supporters in London tomorrow (Saturday 26 June) at the People’s Assembly national demonstration – starting at midday outside the BBC HQ on Portland Place, and marching to Parliament Square.
?JOIN THE SOCIALIST APPEAL BLOC THIS SATURDAY IN LONDON! ?
This Saturday, a national demonstration will be taking place to protest against the failures of this rotten Tory government and the system they defend.
Message us to get involved! #ToriesOut #NotFitToGovern pic.twitter.com/S0qISnVmZU
— Socialist Appeal (@socialist_app) June 22, 2021
Cabinet of charlatans
Boris Johnson has never been regarded as a serious figure, but as a clown. His supposed popularity is a myth. He is, in the words of his former political advisor Dominic Cummings, “a gaffe machine clueless about policy”.
John Bercow, who recently jumped ship from the Tories, described the Prime Minister as “someone who has only a nodding acquaintance with the truth in a leap year”.
But Johnson is only the figurehead of a government of half-wits, liars and imbeciles. Even he described his health minister, Matt Hancock, as “totally f***ing hopeless”. While no doubt true, the description is rich coming from a lazy fool who is clearly out of his depth.
Amongst the others in his incompetent cabinet is Priti Patel, the home secretary, who – while dabbling in racism – likes to throw her weight around and terrorise Whitehall officials.
Then we have Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who thinks that Britain should be turned into a Singapore-on-sea. The rest are of the same order.
Open splits
Of course, even many of these cabinet ministers have been sidelined by a clique in Number 10. This has led to complaints.
“The cabinet has to be involved in all the big decisions that reflect what the party stands for,” one Westminster source bemoaned. “The cabinet needs to be more involved in those decisions.”
Many years ago, Leon Trotsky pointed out that the British ruling class always takes extreme care to avoid the appearance of division in public. They are conscious that a ‘third party’ – namely the working class – is observing their every move. Sensing splits, workers could easily draw their own conclusions about the upper class.
These days, however, all caution is thrown to the wind. Ministers are constantly involved in public brawls and open clashes. The embarrassing public submissions of Dominic Cummings have certainly raised the temperature.
Explosive situation
The Tory Party these days has changed beyond recognition. They are dominated by Little Englanders. This gang has never been so short-sighted. In its ‘populist’ mode, it has appealed to the mob. Bercow says he regards today’s Conservative Party as “reactionary, populist, nationalistic, and sometimes even xenophobic”.
Johnson has always put political ambitions above everything. When asked about the concerns of big business and their opposition to Brexit, the Tory leader replied: “F*** business!”
The Tories have gone their own way. But this is a dangerous path. The combustible cocktail they have created could easily blow up in their faces.
Blustering along
Despite their incompetence and corruption, the Tories are riding high in the opinion polls at the moment. But this is more a reflection of the pathetic opposition under ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer.
Starmer has simply trailed after Johnson. And why support the imitation when you can have the real deal?
The Tories’ loss of the solid Chesham and Amersham seat to the Lib Dems reflected a growing disillusionment with the Johnson government. But it is also a vote of no confidence in Starmer’s Labour opposition, which lost its deposit in the recent by-election.
Nevertheless, Johnson and the government bluster along regardless. They are like the Bourbon kings before the French revolution, who learned nothing and forgot nothing.
Kicking the can
Yes, the Tories are mad. But there is a method in their madness, which is a reflection of the degeneration of British capitalism. They are content to kick the can down the road. But events will soon catch up with them.
Hospital waiting times, for instance, have rocketed, with a massive backlog. The furlough scheme is winding down, and will come to an end in September, resulting in bankruptcies and large-scale redundancies.
Eventually the bill has to be paid for the massive economic bailout during the pandemic, which has sent the budget deficit leap into the £400 billion stratosphere. And it will be the working class who will be asked to pay.
Dustbin of history
This government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich has nothing to offer the working class. Instead of reforms, we are in a period of counter-reforms and cuts. The situation is preparing a massive social explosion.
Our task is not only to get rid of this reactionary Tory government, but the rotten system it represents. We are not interested in tinkering with the system. Instead, capitalism and the whole capitalist establishment should be thrown into the dustbin of history, where they belong.
The economy must be taken out of the hands of the billionaires, and placed into the hands of the organised working class. We must nationalise the giant monopolies, banks, and insurance companies that dominate our lives, and place them under democratic workers’ control and management.
This will allow us to draw up a democratic, socialist plan of production, and use the resources of society in the interests of the majority – not of the super-rich and their hangers on.
