Jamaica Gleaner

A ‘Brit-Story’ of chaos and Boris Johnson’s ‘Franken-Brexit’

- ■ Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, social researcher, and political analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorri­s@yahoo.com

“I want you to know that I am a man

Who fight for the right, not for the wrong…

Helping the weak against the strong…

And … If you trouble this man

It will bring a bam bam …

Bam bam, what a bam bam!”

– Toots & The Maytals

SOAKING SCORPION in white rum is viewed by many people as a miracle ‘cure-all’ for many woes. Brexit, the British-European Union divorce, may be Boris Johnson’s version of this scorpion-soaked white rum.

The whole idea of this European divorce aims to appease a frightened Great Britain anxiously searching for her lost imperial soul.

The Johnson-led Conservati­ve Party got a landslide victory in the December 12, 2019, general election based on his pledges, which included a desire “to control immigrants who act as if they own Great Britain”.

Blimey!

GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS

The Conservati­ve Party grabbed 365 out of 650 in the hotly contested general election.

The biggest losers were the Labor Party. They picked up 203 seats, a very dismal performanc­e.

The Liberal Democratic Party was almost wiped out as the Conservati­ves gained an 80-seat governing majority.

The Scottish National Party was a surprising­ly big winner, getting 48 of 59 seats contested in Scotland. They are now calling for a second referendum on political independen­ce from Great Britain.

The Scottish leaders are now saying that they will be demanding a new political referendum to seek political independen­ce.

Now that Johnson’s Conservati­ves have consolidat­ed power, what is the next move?

THE POVERTY CRISIS

The Boris Johnson government has not put forward any serious economic plan to address the United Kingdom’s persistent poverty in order to improve the British peoples’ lives.

There is widespread, persistent poverty in the UK because of high unemployme­nt, low economic growth, unaffordab­le housing, reduced pension benefits, among other social and economic problems that pushed five out of every 10 persons into inhumane suffering.

Homelessne­ss – ‘rough sleep’, as they call it – has been rapidly on the increase, with reportedly over 300,000 homeless people living in the UK in 2017.

Many homeless persons, or ‘rough-sleepers’, live in temporary shelters or are forced to sleep in sheds, garbage bins, tents, and night buses, the UK’s Homeless Charity Shelters, reports.

Right now, three out of every 10 – some four million – British children are living in extreme poverty.

The anxiety-filled British taxpayers would like to know the true financial cost of Brexit but have been given very sketchy details by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Despite this, since 2016, the reported cumulative cost of Brexit to the UK was estimated to be US$73 billion. Things are expected to get worse. What’s next?

WINDRUSH BETRAYAL

Leaked documents from the British Home Office reveal that perhaps up to 200,000 British immigrants could find themselves in legal jeopardy after Brexit. It is the British Home Office that deals with matters affecting immigrants’ legal rights and general matters of immigratio­n status.

This latest immigratio­n dilemma is called ‘Windrush 2’, named after the immigratio­n scam in which Caribbean nationals and other migrant labourers who came to rebuild Great Britain in the post-World War II period were declared illegal and kicked out of the UK. Many immigrants were denied the right to return after they left or were terrorised to voluntaril­y leave through a psychologi­cal warfare blitz organised by the British Home Office.

Now, there are real fears that under the guise of delivering Brexit, the UK will pursue another anti-immigrant programme.

The EU is, therefore, demanding protection of her citizens’ rights in any Brexit.

‘FRANKEN-BREXIT’

A part of Boris Johnson’s great power, Brexit ambition, is for Britain to establish a “string of military bases over the world” to once again become “a true global player”.

A poverty-stricken Great Britain can’t even provide housing, employment, and feed her hungry people, but she wants to re-establish an imperial might comparable to the days when “the sun never sets on the British Empire”.

Well, the sun has not only set on the British Empire, it is now in the FrankenBre­xit twilight zone.

Just like how British writer Mary Shelley’s created Frankenste­in as a caricature of human nature, Johnson and his nationalis­t, anti-immigrant fellow-travelers created Franken-Brexit as a political caricature of their grotesque vision of a new, imperial Britain.

Britain wasted her taxpayers’ money on unjust, regime-changing wars in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria and, therefore, is now reaping the maelstrom from these misadventu­res.

These imperial misadventu­res

■ Wasted the British taxpayers’ money.

■ Disrupted the lives of over hundreds of millions in stressed war-zones.

■ Created political economic uncertaint­ies in light of the ongoing immigratio­n crisis.

■ Sharply accentuate­d the racial, religious, ethnic, and politic tensions that gave rise to increased nationalis­t tensions in Europe and Great Britain.

“Critics say Boris Johnson is a demagogue, who says and would do anything to get into and keep political power, including inflaming racial, religious and ethnic tensions.”

TRUST-DEFICIT PROBLEMS

“Boris Johnson Has a Trust Problem in Parliament”, the New York Times screamed in an October 19, 2019, headline.

Critics say that Boris Johnson is a demagogue who says and would do anything to get into and keep political power, including inflaming racial, religious, and ethnic tensions.

Zach Beauchamp of Vox magazine never held back on his political judgement when he recently said that Boris Johnson “has a reputation as an untrustwor­thy buffoon and a more sinister history of racism”.

Ouch!

We could go on and on, ad nauseum, but it is sufficient to say that the untrustwor­thy Brits left chaos in the Middle East, the Indo-Pakistan region, and in Africa – where they sponsored, and initiated, civil wars in Nigeria, Angola – and other areas of British imperial rule.

Given this Brit-story of chaos and untrustwor­thiness, the Caribbean must be wary of its post-Brexit Economic Partnershi­p Agreement.

How do they know that Britain will keep her word?

America desires to sign a great postBrexit-trade deal with Britain.

It is my opinion that the interests of American corporatio­ns will be put over those of the Caribbean, just like in the 2009 America-Caribbean Banana Wars.

That is just the bitta truth!

 ?? AP ?? Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
AP Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Jamaica