Brexit & the Project of British Capitalism
John Harris writing in the Guardian (28th December, link below) rehearsed the New Left Review argument of the 1960s that British capitalism was different to its European counterparts because there had not been a full industrial revolution here and a landed aristocracy via Eton, Oxbridge and the Lords was still winning out over a hard headed industrial bourgeoisie. It was an analysis that suited Harold Wilson’s Labour Governments of the 1960s but it wasn’t true then and it’s not true now.
Boris Johnson may play the Old Etonian joker, even if not very well, but he is serious. Not for nothing does the EU deal contain a ‘Singapore on Thames’ clause which allows the EU to complain if Britain departs too much from European standards.
That of course is precisely the idea of Brexit and the true meaning of taking back control. To make Britain even more of a high profit and low wage economy and provide competitive advantage over other economies in doing so.
This won’t help the productivity of core UK business or the living standards of those who work in it. Johnson’s project is that of a part of British capitalism but not all of it. Labour could exploit that split for the benefit of the many as opposed to Johnson’s few, but will it?
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