Theresa May's main intervention at the Tory party conference was to stress that Brexit was "on its way" and that she'd not "give up control of immigration again" nor "return to the jurisdiction of the European court of justice".
But she had nothing much new to say. Her plan to trigger the Brexit process next March was already known. As to her "Great Repeal Bill", due to come into force if and when Britain leaves the EU, it will merely incorporate existing EU legislation into British law, while stating the obvious - that Britain will no longer be tied by future EU laws.
In fact, all this hot air was just designed to pull the carpet from under the feet of her party's factions. Indeed, these factions have become even more unruly since the referendum, especially her most pro-Brexit ministers - Johnson, Davis and Fox - who've been furiously waving the Union Jack to try to push her faster and further than she wants to go down the road to Brexit.
Smoke and mirrors
Back in July, when she moved into Downing Street, May declared that her aim was to "make Britain better for everyone, not just the privileged few". It was an attempt to convince a wide audience that she had something new to offer - a real break from Cameron's and Osborne's policies.
At the Tory conference, she reiterated this pledge, but this time only as a footnote, leaving it to her ministers to give it some flesh.
The media's take on Hammond's speech was that he was "abandoning austerity". But, in fact, all he said was that he was giving up on Osborne's ridiculous aim of a budget surplus by 2020. He also talked about a programme of public investment, including £3bn for housing - although, as it turns out, 2/3 of this £3bn was already planned and none of it will go towards social housing!
In any case, there was no question of stopping Osborne's planned cuts in public budgets and welfare benefits, nor to stop those which are being phased in - like Universal Credit - let alone reverse those which have already been made.
Of course, May did refer to her plan to get companies to accept a "workers' representative" in their boardrooms. But while this idea was welcomed by the TUC leaders (no doubt, due to the many cushy jobs involved), the fact that a rogue boss like the CEO of Sports Direct, Mike Ashley, welcomed it as well, probably shows better than any argument what it's really worth!
In other words, under May the past austerity policies will carry on - with another name! But, in addition, there will be a price to pay for the Eurosceptics' politicking and their Brexit.
The working class party we need
Whoever is in office, we'll be presented with the Brexit bill and required to pay with our jobs and conditions. We need to prepare for this, if we do not want to bear such costs.
Some of us may put our hopes in the Labour Party because Jeremy Corbyn speaks out against the greed of the capitalist class. Of course, as an individual, Corbyn may be on our side. But his idea of fighting against the capitalists' greed does not go beyond making a stand in Parliament, joining the occasional march and... asking us to vote Labour.
But the Labour Party is a rotten body which has been serving the interests of the capitalist class for far too long to change. The disgusting way in which it treated Corbyn in the leadership election illustrates only too well the hatred of its officials for those who dare to criticise this class system.
This time, the coup against Corbyn failed. But this failure hasn't changed Labour MPs' determination to retain their seats - even if their constituents disapprove of their behaviour - nor their ambitions to enjoy the perks which come with the job of managing the affairs of the capitalists.
According to Corbyn's deputy, Tom Watson, speaking at this year's Labour party conference, "capitalism is not the enemy". Well, it may not be Tom Watson's enemy, nor that of the Labour Party - but it is definitely the enemy of every one of us workers, day in and day out.
And this is why the working class needs a party of its own - first of all against the capitalists, their parasitism and their system, but also against their politicians with their irresponsible politicking for the sake of preserving comfortable careers. We also need our own party in order to unite our ranks behind our common interests, against all those who are using the nationalist card to try to drive a wedge between one ("British") section of our class and another ("foreign", "EU", or whatever else) section. Because there is only one working class, and that is our class!