"The more elitist experts told voters to stay in Europe the more they encouraged the forces determined to leave it," Socialist Party of England and Wales activist and analyst Tom Barker said on Thursday.
Ordinary people, Barker explained, used the referendum as a stick with which to beat the establishment politicians, especially the unelected and unaccuntable officials in Brussels, and the international financial interests based in the city of London.
"The vote expressed the anger of British people at the lack of principles in politics. They are fed up with lies and they are fed up with the doublespeak of those elected to represent them," Barker said.
The referendum decision on June 23 was a condemnation of the EU’s failed economic policies, as well as a way of passing judgement on the austerity policies of successive British governments, Barker maintained.
"In this respect, the leaders of the British left, who wanted to stay in Europe, made a huge miscalculation. By sidling up to the forces of world capitalism… [they] joined and supported the enforcers of the oppressive status-quo," he said.
The Brexit vote had thrown British domestic politics into confusion, Barker observed.
A general election could offer a huge opportunity for the left and trade union movement to rally working class anger in a direction that could change society, Barker suggested.
"They have the chance to create a mass movement against austerity that could hold the super-rich accountable and defend the rights of workers and immigrants," he argued.
Any efforts by the British to hold a second referendum to reverse the Brexit decision were only "wishful thinking — certainly at this stage," Rosenberg predicted. "Junker will not allow it and it doesn't give the United Kingdom back the sovereignty that a fair number of Leave voters wanted."
Juncker has already said he would block any discussions between the United Kingdom and the European Commission before Article 50 of the EU Accession Treaty is formally invoked to start London’s withdrawal process from the European Union.
"That means the United Kingdom will have to begin the Article 50[withdrawal process] on a hope and a prayer. The United States of Europe commission won't budge. They would rather the United Kingdom got lost," Rosenberg said.
Other EU leaders would go along with Juncker’s hard line because they feared that otherwise the public in countries like France, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands and even Italy might be tempted to follow the United Kingdom’s example, and vote to leave the Union too, Rosenberg concluded.
