Close it down

The whole Westminster system is a complete farce and a national disgrace. Nothing more epitomises this waste of time than Prime Minister’s Questions. We may have seen Corbo asking serious questions, sometimes from the public. The Prime Minister gives a non-answer, with statistics about how they did better than the previous lot.

All this comes amid baying, cat calling, shouting and barracking. The Prime Minister always ends up with the last laugh along the lines that my party is better than yours. Bullying and undermining is part and parcel of the Westminster system involving the Whips, bribery, blackmail all orchestrated by the BBC and the national newspapers. The kind of nonsense that goes on here would not be tolerated in the typical school playground.

In my never to be forgotten 2015 general election in Bermondsey, I called for the crumbling Palace of Westminster to be “closed down” before it fell down or sank into the Thames. I alleged the Westminster system was doing such a bad job we needed a complete radical break. England desperately needs its own brand new 21st century people’s parliament. Given the deep division between London and the rest of the country it should be set up in the Midlands.

England is still deluded by Westminster. Many Brexiters voted to leave the EU claiming to restore Westminster parliamentary ‘sovereignty’. False expectations were stoked up by the same politicians who enjoy a Westminster job for life in their mainly safe seats. The antics of Westminster MPs are now seen in the daily diet of Corbo-horror stories.

The long running saga of ‘Westminster versus the People’ is now in overdrive with a fantastical series of Corbo-outrages. It is better than the Archers. I am getting addicted to the drama of the Westminster establishment aided and abetted by the national media doing everything possible to undermine, denigrate and bully the people’s champion. I can’t wait for the next episode to find out what terrible thing Corbo has done.

The whole Westminster establishment, Tory and Labour, wants rid of him. They fear he is letting the ‘mob’ have a say in their exclusive members club. A broad united front is working together to undermine Corbo at every turn. It was shocking to hear that Corbo had been throwing stones at the offices of Westminster champion, the Honourable Angela Eagle MP, in the middle of the night.

It was reported that Corbo had ‘allowed’ a culture of bullying. Tearful women MPs were seen on telly. Forty four Labour women MPs signed a petition against Corbo because “rape threats, death threats, smashed cars and bricks through windows are disgusting and totally unacceptable”. This was part of the big build up for a feminist challenge to male dominated Corbo.

Ms Eagle led from the front. Yet this challenge collapsed when she stood down for Owen Smith, a real man with a family. The Westminster brand of feminism crashed onto the rocks of New Labour political expediency. This was exposed as another Westminster game, a weapon which Labour politicians were exploiting, not least in supplying Cameron and May with ammunition to taunt Corbyn.

Next came ‘Corbo-Gate’, when Corbo sent a gang of desperadoes to break into the Westminster office of another Westminster MP, Seema Malhorata. My own theory is that Corbo wanted to bug her office, like tricky Nixon had done in the 1970s. He should have realised that MI5 had already bugged all the offices, and simply have asked Teresa May at PMQs for a transcript of what the plotters has been up to. It would have saved time.

Instead of being pinned down in a hail of Westminster bullets, Corbo should go on the offensive. These MPs hate democracy and fear nothing more than being held accountable by their party members or their electorates. The people have to take matters into their own hands. We need a revolution in democracy. The people are crying out for it.

This is the message from the Scottish referendum in 2014 and the EU referendum in 2016. Corbo must address the democratic deficit and offer real solutions. On June 23 Scotland voted to remain in the EU and England voted to exit. The Scottish people must therefore have the opportunity for a referendum on leaving the UK to remain in the EU. Every democrat in England must support it.

Neither the Crown, nor Westminster will allow it. The Tories will oppose it. If Corbyn is truly the champion of popular democracy, and not just another Westminster rebel who eventually falls into line he should immediately make this pledge to the Scottish people.

He should declare in his campaign for Labour leader that the next Labour government will call an early referendum to ask the Scottish people if they want to leave the UK and remain in the EU. The same is true for Northern Ireland.

The position of England is different. England voted to leave the EU. England has to change its mind. Supporting the right of the Scottish people to self determination will help to finally put the myths of Little England with its illusions in Westminster ‘sovereignty’ to the sword.

Steve Freeman
Left Unity and Rise

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