Dave (the editor)

The People’s Assembly are organising a national demonstration this coming Saturday (12th January), assembling from 12noon onwards outside the BBC on Portland Place. The protest has been branded as ‘Britain is Broken (no shit Sherlock!) General Election Now’. We’re sure you get the picture – it’s going to be yet another Corbyn love fest! Presumably the thinking is that if a general election can be called and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour win, he’ll have a mandate to go back to Brussels to secure a better Brexit deal for the UK.

Reality check part one – Brussels have made it abundantly clear that the withdrawal agreement they have given to May and which is due to be voted on in Parliament on Tuesday 15th January is the best they’re prepared to offer and cannot be changed. Whatever Labour are smoking to make them think that if by some fluke, they get into government and can magically negotiate a new withdrawal agreement must be bloody potent stuff. Can we try some? Might bring the revolution on a bit quicker!

Reality check part two – May is tenacious and will hang onto power for as long as she can in order to deliver a Brexit that will fulfil her cherished aim of shafting Freedom of Movement. Yes, she will most likely be defeated next Tuesday and will then be obliged to appear before Parliament three days later with a Plan B. Well, it looks as though May accepts this but is imposing her own terms on the ‘debate’ that will take place: Brexit plan B debate will last only 90 minutes, says No 10.

We’ve suggested a few times before that this whole scenario could end up with May invoking the Civil Contingencies Act which will grant (trusted) ministers with Henry VIII powers which allows them scope to bypass Parliament: What are Henry VIII powers? Given that the alternative to the ‘agreement’ that May is the default of crashing out of the EU with no deal, she could go even further than that and declare a state of emergency. Bear in mind those shady references she’s been making about being in ‘uncharted waters’. A general election? Somehow, we don’t think so…

So to Saturday – what will it be like? The last People’s Assembly point A to point B I had a presence on was way back in the summer of 2017 and this is what I wrote about it beforehand: Whatever you do at Tories Out! on Saturday, don’t rock the boat… This is what I wrote afterwards about the march plus a little intervention made with a few comrades to make some points about the abysmal record of Labour councils in London to some of the ‘great and good’ of the party: The weird cult of Jeremy Corbyn.

Somehow we think the organisers of the march this coming Saturday will be even more paranoid about random awkward squads and malcontents deviating from they hope will be a carefully choreographed Corbyn love fest. So, expect the stewarding to be a bit more intrusive and even more willing than normal to grass up anyone they deem to be deviating from the script to the cops. Folks, if you’re going to exercise any degree of independent thinking and possibly be a bit ‘naughty’, please be careful!

It all depends who turns up really. If it’s the usual suspects, it’ll be the same old same old. If by some fluke a lot of ordinary, pissed off but fairly apolitical folk turn up, things could get interesting. Unlike the aforementioned 2017 People’s Assembly point A to point B, the political and social climate has changed a lot and things are definitely tenser and more volatile. We’ll only know on the day. For the record I (possibly turning to we) will be out and about as the march is assembling using it as an opportunity to shift as many Heckler papers as possible while sussing out the general mood. See you on the streets!