YOU don’t need an advanced knowledge of the disposition and arrangement of tea leaves to fear tumultuous times are coming.
Consider disquieting remarks made yesterday from opposite sides of the UK political divide. Tory Brexiteer and putative Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured us there’s nothing to fear from a no-deal Brexit. It was the type of assurance – and source – that will tempt thoughtful people to start stockpiling food and medicines.
On land, sea and air (if we can put it in terms that might faintly echo Mr Johnson’s hero, Churchill), problems mounted: food exports threatened by a lack of vets; no EU officials allowed at British ports serving Ireland; pilot licences having to be reissued at a cost of millions.
Meanwhile, Labour Shadow Chancellor – and aspiring Government minister – John McDonnell averred he’d be down on the picket line with rail workers should they choose to form such ancient industrial configurations in an impending “winter of discontent”. Mr McDonnell is so disposed because he predicts chaos in the next six months, with the Tory Government tearing itself apart over Brexit.
He believes an election is in the offing and is preparing accordingly, with Labour’s most left-wing manifesto in decades. At the TUC Congress in Manchester, Mr McDonnell outlined plans for workers’ representation on boards, dividends shared with staff, and full employee rights for those toiling in the gig economy.
The insecurity and bullying associated with the latter have led to a sympathy with “the workers” that has been absent for some time, though it’s fair to say the gig economy suits some and, more generally, to point out that unemployment is low.
However, Mr McDonnell is right to say the balance has shifted away from workers. Railway employees are deeply angry at how they’ve been treated, he says. More generally, workplace insecurity is at its worst since the 1930s, he says. His critics say a prospectus from the 1980s isn’t the answer. As back then, Bennite-style deselection plans could also split the party, leaving it little chance of governing the country if it can’t govern itself.
The left-wing prospectus could play well in Scotland, but Mr McDonnell has already ruled out a progressive coalition with the SNP, possibly to the relief of the latter. It is progressive – but only up to a point. Apart from which, all this is predicated on progressive unity breaking out in the Labour Party itself, a condition never likely to last long at the best of times.
Europe is in crisis. The Tory Government is in chaos. The Labour opposition is split on several issues. Industrial discontent is being fomented. And, as the tea leaves form into a question mark, we wonder where the country is going.
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