Sold

There was a joke doing the rounds during the early part of the Covid crisis. At least, everyone said, we've stopped talking about Brexit. Ha ha.

Then, as the crisis rolled on longer than we'd feared, a few thoughtful souls pointed out that this was no time to be negotiating a trade deal. Perhaps, they said, it might be wise to postpone things a few months. Absolutely not, said the Government. This seemed odd. After all, even the more rabid elements of the Brexiteers saw the sense in this. We all had a lot on our plates.

Nope, said HMG, we're out by the end of the year, come what may. Now, this may strike you as a little odd. They had, after all, spent years harping on about the importance of a deal. The details of said deal had already brought down one Prime Minister, and forced two elections. Insisting that we're out by the end of December brings the dreadful prospect of no deal a lot closer.

Unless, of course, no deal was the goal all along.

Cards on the table, I voted Remain in 2016. I did so for a number of reasons, but chief amongst them is that I didn't want us doing a trade deal with the US; even under Obama, there's no way that we'd get the better end of the deal against an economy as big as theirs. Under the rapacious Trump, it would be even worse. As part of the EU we were part of a bloc with enormous economic heft. As the little old UK, not so much.

But still, I reasoned, after my side lost, a trade deal with the EU would see us protected from the worst excesses of US disaster capitalism. And we were definitely going to sign a trade deal with the EU, our largest trading partner, right?

We're less than six months away from that not happening. Talk have ground to a halt. The EU complains about our negotiator's intransigence, their stubbornness. But is that a deliberate ploy? Is the whole strategy to kick the can so far down the road that no deal is inevitable?

Writing in today's Guardian, George Monbiot makes a persuasive case that this, indeed was the plan all along. And it certainly fits with the rabid "Britannia Unchained" pamphlet co-written by Raab and Patel. We have a Government of ultra-Thatcherites, ideologically driven to shrink the state until there's nothing left. A US trade deal provides the perfect cover for this.

The Government has already U-turned on its promise to uphold animal welfare standards. It's already bent on opening our market up to cheap US imports, farmed in appalling conditions that we would never countenance. There is no reason to imagine that they won't cave to US demands for full access to the NHS. From there on out, it's open season. Government will be subject to rules which allow corporations to sue them if they pass laws that "may affect future profits". In practice, this could be anything. Environmental legislation? We might want to drill for oil there. Safety standards? Too expensive. Worker's right? Are you kidding, that'd cost. Sue 'em.

Since 1980, there has been a steady erosion of consumer rights in the US, as more and more money has been funnelled into corporations and the very wealthiest. It's no co-incidence that one of Trump's first actions was a tax cut for the richest. The school system has been eroded, Social services defunded. America is in a death spiral of falling living standards, where an entire city can be poisoned by polluted water but those at fault are legally protected from prosecution. The eruption of rioting that we've seen over the last few weeks is but one symptom of its deep malaise. And now, the corporations that have overseen this dystopian descent are coming after us.

A touch hyperbolic, perhaps. But this Government has eroded belief in the fundamental power of our parliamentary democracy. They've ridden rough shod over the usual checks and balances of good governance. Last year's illegal prorogation of Parliament being a case in point. They don't want accountability. The extraordinary protection of Dominic Cummings proved that they simply don't care about public opinion. The highest number of deaths in Europe is an "Excellent response". They lie without thinking, and without caring if they're caught. So I have no faith in their ability to defend us from the worst excesses of US disaster capitalism. I suspect that they welcome it.

In 2016 people voted, however misguidedly, to "Take Back Control". And as a result we now stand on the verge of giving all of it, and more, to people who only care about profits. This is not sovereignty, this is vassalage. And in achieving it, Johnson and Co will have gone further than Thatcher ever managed, they will have destroyed the post 1945 settlement, they will have destroyed the state. And they'll tell us that it's what we voted for, all along.