Zombie Logic

This page took a break from Brexit for the holidays. But with the vote on May's Brexit proposal scheduled in parliament on Tuesday, I suppose it's time to cast a glance Westminster way.

Brexit, at least prime minister Theresa May's handling of it, has been a perfect illustration of the zombie logic that governs Western capitals in our present age. Call it peak neoliberalism, late-stage capitalism or market orthodoxy. From a political perspective it has very little popular support. The job of the politicians and the media, subsequently, is to conjure up a sensation of social momentum while things stay exactly the same. Stasis is what the elite desires because as long as things stay as they are more wealth and power accrue to the elite.

So for Brexit, this has meant a lot of back and forth between Brussels and London, a lot of Tory cabinet resignations, but nothing much has changed.

May did lose two parliamentary votes yesterday and Tuesday. According to Stephen Castle in "Brexit Is Coming Down to a Game of Brinkmanship":

On Wednesday, lawmakers passed an amendment that aims to limit Mrs. May’s ability to play for time, by obliging her to return quickly to Parliament if she loses the vote next week. She would have to explain her plans for proceeding, and lawmakers could submit their own alternatives.

It was the second defeat in two days for Mrs. May. On Tuesday, lawmakers voted for a measure designed to make it harder for the government to leave without any deal.

The latest iteration of endgame emerging, at least the Blairite endgame, admirably limned by Robert Stevens in "British prime minister suffers second defeat at hands of pro-European Union MPs," is as follows:

Corbyn heads a party whose MPs do not want to come to office, but rather seek to ensure a change in orientation under the Tories. These are the forces he allows to dictate events thanks to his refusal to mobilise the massive opposition to the Labour right wing and his non-stop efforts to convince the ruling class that he can be trusted with the fate of British capitalism.

Labour’s pro-Remain Blairites are in favour of a no-confidence motion being moved, anticipating that it will fail and thereby clear the decks for delaying Brexit and eventually securing a second referendum, in which they hope to overturn the 2016 Leave vote.

Speaking to Sky News Wednesday, Chuka Umunna said, “The two big problems we have to solve are… how to break the deadlock and… how to prevent us leaving the European Union without a deal.” This meant getting “that vote of no-confidence out of the way so that we can move on to resolving the impasse.”

With 79 days until exit day, “if you take out the weekends and Fridays when Parliament doesn’t sit, that is about 40 days to resolve this mess,” he added. “I’m not sure that quite frankly a general election is going to resolve this issue… ultimately we are going to have to refer this back to the people.”

Corbyn's wish appears to be for May's Brexit proposal to fail Tuesday, followed by a vote of no confidence, and  then snap elections.

This will not unfold in a tight sequence though. May, after the yesterday's parliamentary vote, will have to return in three days with an alternative proposal. But then amendments can be attached. The whole thing could take a while before a vote of confidence is moved.

While the Momentum core of Labour wants elections, the Blairites want a Brexit re-vote, and the Leave Tory ultras want a crash-out, the neoliberal zombie hive mind is backing the millenarian fantasy of a May defeat Tuesday followed by parliament rapturously coming to its senses and accepting May's Brexit deal maybe after a few tweaks granted by the EU. This is the final, single-sentence paragraph from a Reuters story:

Some investors and major banks believe May’s deal will be defeated on Tuesday but that eventually it will be approved.