Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If I were a UK citizen I would have voted to remain in Europe. If I had held a political position in the UK my priority would have been to oppose the right wing, xenophobic, racist, jingoistic, empire yearning leave campaign. That would have been my position, and I am a socialist. I acknowledge that there are many varying positions within different parties and organisations but that is my position.

Those on the left who supported the leave option have, in my view, made a serious mistake. I agree with their criticisms of the EU and the direction it has taken. I am not saying they are xenophobes or racists but it is disillusionment in the extreme to believe that working people in the UK, particularly England and Wales, voted for a campaign led by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage in the belief that leaving the EU would result in a more democratic, progressive and worker-friendly Britain. Unfortunately, they allowed their fears and anger about unemployment, low wages, uncertain hours, precarious work, housing and the problems of the NHS to be manipulated and their anger to be diverted from the real causes of these problems towards migrant workers. That is exactly how it was presented. I believe this result does not represent a working class revolt, rather it is a setback for working people and a victory for the forces of the ultra-right in the UK and Europe as a whole.

The people who bear responsibility for the decline in class consciousness and working class solidarity and for trying to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this catastrophe are the very people responsible for it. Those who supported the Blairite-Brown project are the parliamentary Labour Party today. This applies across the board throughout Europe in relation to social democracy. Mr. Blair's new Labour was a conscious policy to ditch the traditions of the British Labour movement and turn the Labour Party into a tame, pro-capitalist version of the US Democrats, the party of Wall Street. Jeremy Corbyn did not destroy the Labour Party in Scotland or enormously weaken its support in the north of England: this was done by Messrs Blair and Brown.

On the statement that the EU is a monstrous, undemocratic edifice run by unelected faceless bureaucrats completely out of touch with the aims of aspirations of the average EU citizen, of course the EU is undemocratic and it is removed from the people it is supposed to represent but it is not run by unelected, faceless bureaucrats rather it is run by politicians such as Merkel, Hollande, Valls, Cameron, Osborne and, in their own small way, Messers. Kenny and Noonan. It is these politicians who have designed the EU to be the undemocratic institution that it is, beyond the accountability of the EU citizens. It is these politicians who give the orders which the bureaucrats follow. These politicians appoint the commissioners and the board of the ECB. Anybody who believes that the ECB is independent of political control does not live in the real world.

When Trichet rang the late Brian Lenihan to threaten him on the bondholders issue, Brian Lenihan knew that Trichet spoke for the real power in Europe. When the ECB closed the Greek banks, it knew it was playing its part in the plot to strangle the Syriza Government and to send a message to the Greek people that any attempt to follow the alternative to austerity would be strangled at birth. The Greek people knew who was responsible for this, as did Irish people.

In regard to Hollande and Valls, it is not faceless bureaucrats but these two leaders of the so-called French Socialist Party that introduced the Loi de Travail, the aim of which is to weaken employment legislation and make it easier to sack workers. In response, French workers have come out in their thousands in opposition to these cuts to their employment rights and conditions. The real power behind this are not faceless bureaucrats but the 1%, namely, European big business interests.

What happens now is anyone's guess. Boris Johnson, who is no more or no less racist and right wing than Cameron, Osborne or any of his other Tory friends, is making conciliatory statements about a new relationship between the UK and the EU. It is clear he used this issue to advance his attempt to become Tory leader, just as David Cameron's gamble was to save his leadership. There will undoubtedly be a recession in the UK, which will probably coincide with a new world recession. The fall in the value of Sterling has wiped out one of the biggest advantages to Ireland and a key factor in the recent growth in our economy. The reintroduction of Border controls and tariffs will no doubt adversely affect the Irish economy.

I cannot support the call for a Border poll. In current circumstances this would be nothing but a divisive sectarian headcount. It would restate the current status of Northern Ireland within the UK. It will be interesting to see how the constitutional issue raised by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish leader, plays out. In my view it does not stand up. It is ironic that the British establishment that fought tooth and nail against Scottish independence has now landed itself in this mess, and it is a mess. To my mind, the solution for working people is not in the EU as currently constituted - a neoliberal policy zone. Nor, is it to be found within a return to so-called national sovereignty. The task is to change not only the Europe in which we live but the world as a whole, particularly for the large swathes of continents that have suffered from a beggar thy neighbour economic attitude on the part of many European states in terms of the imposition of huge taxes and the poverty therein resulting from such policies. The world must change from a world based on greed and profit of the 1% to one based on the struggle of organised workers and organised communities in the fight for equality, solidarity and political accountability. Transnational organisations must be representative of all people rather than one country or one aspect of the world. This is a difficult task, which has been attempted many times throughout history. However, it is the only way we change society for the better and from the capitalist control of the world in which we now live.

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