Page 16 Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 2019
T
he great 19th-century Tory
statesman Benjamin Disraeli
described his party as ‘an
organised hypocrisy’. But
today that term is bettersuited to Labour, whose double
standards are breathtaking.
On every front, Labour politicians’
actions regularly make a mockery of their
supposed principles. Despite howling
about the need to renew democracy,
incessantly calling for a General election,
they have prevented one taking place.
While promising to honour the eU
referendum result, they do everything to
thwart the decision of the people. And
a laudable aspiration of most
people. But unlike McDonnell,
most people are not enthusiasts
for Chairman Mao’s Little Red
Book who spend their time arguing
the case for wealth confiscation.
If Labour is ever elected togovernment, McDonnell has
vowed to impose heavy new
income and property taxes,
compulsory land-grabs and state
expropriation of company shares.
Private tenants would be given
the right to buy their homes from
their landlords at rates set by a
government agency.
Labour has also called for a new
tax on second homes, used for
holidays, to raise £560 million to
‘ease the housing crisis’.
The party’s housing spokesman
said Labour would act ‘to put abrake on the growing gap between
Britain’s housing “haves” and
“have nots” ’.
how rich that McDonnell, the
hammer of affluence, is one of
the ‘haves’.
his two-faced approach is typical
of so many socialists who think
they do not personally need to
abide by the dogma they advocate
for others. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’
is their watchword.
They are like the elite of the
former Soviet Union, who
wallowed in privilege, owningweekend dachas rather than
second homes in the Norfolk
Broads while demanding ever
greater sacrifices from the
masses oppressed by freedom-
crushing, wealth-destroying
communism.
hypocrisy runs through the
Labour Party like the name of a
holiday resort through a stick of
rock. Jeremy Corbyn’s mentor,
Tony Benn, was behind the party’s
1983 election manifesto whichwhile posing as champions of
racial diversity, they let anti-
Semitism flourish in their ranks.
hypocrisy also applies at a
personal level. Labour MPs
condemn inequality and free
market excesses, yet some happily
indulge in such behaviour.
A classic example is how Shadow
Chancellor John McDonnell,
despite threatening to clamp
down on buy-to-let owners, has a
second home himself — a £170,
two-bedroom riverside chalet on
the Norfolk Broads.
Of course, there is nothing wrong
with owning a holiday home. It is
COMMENT
TheY have outlawed No Deal, yet
they have spurned every deal put
before them.
They have seized control of the
Commons but have no viable plan to
take the country forward.
They claim to respect the referendum
result, yet they have done everything
possible to neuter or overturn it.
And now, even though the British
constitution is marooned in a sorry
state of suspended animation, MPs
refuse to let the people revivify it with
a general election.
This is what the Mother of Parliaments
has been reduced to in 2019. The long-
suffering British voter really does
deserve better.
Democracy depends for its survival
on the losers in any mass vote
accepting the result. They don’t have
to like it, but if the system is to work,
they must live with it.
This is not, as Sir John Major would
have it, the ‘tyranny of the majority’. It
is an explicit pact between all parties.
And imperfect though it may be,
history has shown majority rule to be
the fairest and most enduring form of
government yet devised.
But when the ruling elite disregards
the will of the majority, it follows that
democracy is compromised and we are
on the road to dystopia.
For more than two years, this
Parliament has jumped through every
possible procedural hoop to frustrate
the result of the 2016 referendum. The
people voted decisively to leave the
eU, but MPs arrogantly refuse to carry
out their instruction.They claim people didn’t know what
they were voting for. They were gulled,
too simple, too stupid or too racist to
understand the dire consequences of
letting go of nurse.
encouraged by a plainly partisan and
deeply tainted Speaker, the Remain
alliance has been allowed to rip up the
rulebook again and again. They have
taken control of Commons business
and – having previously trashed
Theresa May’s deal – are now trying to
force the new Prime Minister to
postpone or kill off Brexit by seeking
yet another Article 50 extension.
For all their howling about the
‘constitutional outrage’ of BorisJohnson’s prorogation of Parliament,
it is they, not he, who have mounted a
coup d’etat.
To his credit, Mr Johnson refuses to
bend to their machinations, saying he
would rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than
beg Brussels to extend the deadline.
he believes this Parliament of cynics
is acting against the national interest
and he will not bow to its whim. So hehas called for an immediate general
election, to ask the public whether
they want him or Jeremy Corbyn to
lead them through Brexit and into
the future.
In previous times, he would simply
have named a date and battle would
have been joined.
But because of the wretched Fixed
Term Parliaments Act, he needs a two-thirds Commons majority to go to the
country – and that means the
agreement of the Labour Party.
For any Leader of the Opposition,
one might think an election couldn’t
come soon enough.
Indeed, Mr Corbyn and John
McDonnell have been positively baying
for one, claiming Mr Johnson was
appointed only by Tory members and
therefore has no mandate.
Yet when the opportunity arrives,
they take fright and run for cover.having initially said they would back
an election after the Bill taking No Deal
off the table gains Royal Assent on
Monday, they now say they will do so
only after the Brexit deadline has passed
on October 31. More prevarication,
more dissembling, more delay.
Mr Johnson accuses Labour of ‘a
cowardly insult to democracy’. And
who could disagree?
The proposed timing would mean
Brexit once again being kicked into
the long grass – possibly permanently
this time. So doesn’t the public
deserve to have its say on such a
momentous decision?
Of course the path to Brexit is a rocky
one and Mr Johnson has stumbled
several times in recent days.
his decision to expel senior Tories for
voting against him, the resignation of
his own brother from his ministerial
post and disquiet over the boorish
behaviour of his close aide Dominic
Cummings have all set him back.
But today he is the only party leader
even trying to honour the referendum
result by getting Brexit over the line,
and for that, this paper applauds
him. however, if he’s to succeed in
the coming fight, he must rediscover
the energy and optimism for which
he is renowned.
Mr Corbyn may run, but he can’t hide
for ever. This zombie Parliament has
had its day. It is paralysed by funk and
indecision and has become a national- and international – embarrassment.
In the overwhelming national
interest, it must be put out of its
misery. The sooner the better.
As Oliver Cromwell famously told
another rickety Parliament that had
outlived its usefulness: ‘In the name of
God, go!’
No hypocrite
like a socialist
by Leo
McKinstry
TURN TO PAGE 20
As Marxist McDonnell’s second home is revealed, why there’s...
We deserve
better than
this zombie
Parliament.
In the name
of God, go!