Now, at the same time what we also have is an advanced and very prevalent sense that the lower social classes in Britain have of loss of control over their environment, loss of sovereignty over their own country, and a decline in democracy. The two go together. And that's the biggest lesson of the referendum: sovereignty and democracy and command over the conditions of life--and, in a sense, the country--for poor people go together. There was a prevalent sense of loss in Britain.
Now, the upper class, the rich, the better-off, the upper middle class all came out in favor of remaining in the E.U. It was natural, natural that the poor would come out against and say no, no, we don't want that. And that's what happened. <snip>
What this means in the context of Britain--which would obviously be used elsewhere in Europe as well--is realistic proposals on what democracy would mean today. Democracy is very important. We must, as the left make proposals, have to actually mean things to people where they live, that they feel that they can command their own circumstances, they can command the conditions of life at the neighborhood and at the workplace. That's what democracy must mean. And we must propose that clearly.
This, I repeat, is impossible without some element of national sovereignty. The left has for too long been highly apprehensive of any idea of national sovereignty. This is impossible to do today. We must reestablish the meaning of national sovereignty from a left-wing perspective.
That must also go with a radical economic program that allows greater democracy, more sovereignty to have content. This means nationalizing banks. It means nationalizing steel industry, nationalizing the railways. Public services and so on must be boosted. All these progressive things that we want to see must be put coherently on the table, but together--I repeat--with a broader program of democracy and sovereignty for people and for nation.
