Although there’s hardly anything about it in the news, one year ago Theresa May held a snap General Election in a bid to win a bigger mandate for her Tory version of Brexit.
Instead, she lost her mandate entirely.
The Tory’s majority in the House of Commons was crushed in the General Election of 8 June 2017. Any sane Prime Minister would take that as a message from the electorate that the country didn’t want the Brexit she was planning.
Instead, Mrs May is carrying on as if last year’s election hadn’t happened; unfortunately, aided and abetted by Her Majesty’s Opposition, the Labour Party, who have squandered opportunity after opportunity to effectively challenge Brexit following the Tory’s election defeat.
Leading Brexiters claim that since around 80% of the electorate voted for Brexit-supporting parties, that means the country has endorsed Brexit. That’s nonsense.
Voters didn’t vote for Labour because they wanted Brexit. They voted tactically for Labour because they didn’t want the Tories.
Most Labour voters voted for Remain, and according to current polling, most Labour members and supporters want Britain to remain in the EU or at least the Single Market.
- The Tory Brexit lost last year’s General Election. But they are ignoring that result.
- They will not let us, ‘the people’, have another say on Brexit.
- They are trying their damnedest to prevent our Parliament from having a ‘meaningful say’ on Brexit.
- They insist that Brexit is permanently irreversible, even though in a democracy, no decision is supposed to be beyond recall, or perpetual.
This is no longer just about Britain leaving Europe. This is about democracy leaving Britain.
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Below is my story of 8 June 2017, the day of the General Election, written for my Reasons2Remain campaign, as the country was going to the polls to give Mrs May a message that she has still not read.→ A vote against Mrs May can stop her plans – please share
WE SAY: VOTE TO STOP HER
Today’s snap general election is as close as we may get to a second EU referendum. This is our chance to soften Brexit, if not to stop it completely.
When, on 18 April, Mrs May stood outside 10 Downing Street to announce a surprise general election, she said (yet again) that, “Britain is leaving the European Union and there can be no turning back.”
Don’t believe her on that.
Just one year ago, Mrs May campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union, which she urged then was in Britain’s best interests. But she turned her back on that and instead volunteered to be the gung-ho Brexit Prime Minister.
And Mrs May also turned back on her pledge that there would not be another General Election until May 2020. Out of the blue, she called for a General Election three years early.
Now it’s our turn to turn our backs on Mrs May.
She cynically called an early General Election because she thought she could make a political land grab. She seeks a new mandate to bulldoze Britain out of the European Union, with a hard, harsh version of Brexit that will only benefit speculators, spivs and off-shore spongers.
Mrs May said in April:
“Every vote for the Conservatives will make it harder for opposition politicians who want to stop me from getting the job done.”
So, let’s vote to stop her.
The General Election today is our legitimate, democratic opportunity for a softer Brexit or even to stop Brexit. That would be almost impossible if Mrs May is returned to power.
Mrs May said Brexit means Brexit, but has made clear that she wants her version of Brexit, without us, the people, having any further say on the matter.
In announcing the snap General Election, May said she had a “simple challenge to the opposition parties.”
She continued, “you have criticised the government’s vision for Brexit, you have challenged our objectives, you have threatened to block the legislation we put before Parliament.
“This is your moment to show you mean it, to show you are not opposing the government for the sake of it, to show that you do not treat politics as a game.”
Agreed. Now is the opportunity for opposition parties to show they mean it. And now is our moment to vote to stop Mrs May’s true-blue right-wing Brexit plans for Britain.
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Other articles by Jon Danzig:
- Why referendums and Parliament are incompatible
- Why we need another vote on Brexit
- Why the EU referendum was flawed
Follow my journalism page on Facebook: Jon Danzig writes
Follow my Stop Brexit campaign on Facebook: Reasons2Remain
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