Let's get the bad news out of the way first. Whatever happens, Brexit is going to dominate parliamentary politics for at least another year, maybe more. No matter how bored you are by it, no matter how tempted by the thought, "Oh, sod it, let's just jump and get it over with", the nightmare still has years to run.
After the Parliamentary votes on 29 January, which gave Theresa May a mandate to try to tear up commitments to an “invisible” border in Ireland, Jeremy Corbyn said he would meet her to discuss Brexit terms.
Not a good move after previously refusing, since Parliament had just voted to seek an “alternative” to the “backstop” which protects Ireland.
On Monday 28 January the Labour front bench said it would abstain on Tory legislation to enable the Tories to write restrictive new immigration laws which would bar many workers and make others insecure with temporary visas.
In response to Theresa May’s defeat in her EU Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons on 15 January, and the looming prospect of a “no deal” Brexit, Irish transport minister Shane Ross told reporters at a press conference that he “would anticipate that there would be checks” on lorries coming from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland via Northern
Ireland.
Afterwards, speaking “privately” to Foreign Minister Simon Coveney (so Ross thought, but his words were caught on microphone), he asked whether or not he should have revealed that fact.
Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) General Secretary Manuel Cortes, a prominent supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, explains “Why I’m calling for a special Labour conference on Brexit” in an interview on The Clarion website.
According to the Financial Times (18 January), "Britain has failed to finalise most trade deals needed to replace the EU’s 40 existing agreements with leading global economies and will not be close to doing so when Brexit occurs on March 29, according to an internal Whitehall memorandum...
"Almost none of them are ready to go now and none will be ready to go by March,” said one government official who has seen the internal analysis of the Department of International Trade’s progress".
Talk, fed to the media, of "mass resignations" by junior shadow ministers if Jeremy Corbyn activates Labour Party conference policy and goes for a new public vote on Brexit (Guardian, 18 January 2019) - this is treachery similar to June 2016, only worse.
Justine Canady is running as the left candidate for NUS President, challenging current President Shakira Martin’s move to suspend all NUS officer elections this year and shut down NUS democracy and campaigning, on the pretext of a financial crisis.
The Brexit crisis at Westminster is also rippling across the left in Britain. Although the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) remains committed to its pro¬Brexit position, its report of its conference on 29¬30 December show that at least some of its members are uneasy.
Last week Solidarity published an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn from Sacha Ismail, an organiser of the new Labour stop-Brexit campaign Labour for a Socialist Europe.
The conclusion of that letter becomes even more urgent after the parliamentary vote on 15 January. We say again to Corbyn:
Now you should campaign boldly for a “People’s Vote”, and advocate a vote against Brexit.
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