Brexit revisited

19 comments on “Brexit revisited ”

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1. Ad 1

   13 December 2020 at 8:43 am

   I'd like to point out that I remain consistently confused about Brexit.

   In June 2016 I posted "The Hills Are Alive" announcing Brexit as a clarion call to democratic reflexiveness and renewal. Snort.

   In August 2016 I predicted "The Great Slowdown" but actually we were all fine for another 3 years.

   In December 2016 I asked "What Would Happen If The EU Fell Apart", but it didn't.

   In March 2017 in "The 60th Anniversary of the European Union" I was sure that the whole of the EU was going to recognise their part in the failure of Brexit and demonstrate the benefits of their system better. Amazing.

   In October 2017 I wrote on "Austria and Europe" about anti-immigration shifts in governments and how Brexit was at one with them. But actually, now, the UK has bigger worries than that in its society.

   In January last year I asked: "Is Brexit a signal of decline?", I felt it was great for British democratic renewal and bad for much else.

   In August last year I asked "Can The Greens Rise Like The Liberal Democrats?", and in the UK the answer was: wrong on both counts.

   In September last year I said: "Forget Brexit: It's Asia", because China is the axis of the western Pacific in which we swim. Almost as if its disruption should be paid no mind.

   I just wanted to point out my impressive four year track record of predictive failure on Brexit.
   • RedLogix 1.1

     13 December 2020 at 10:11 am

     Predicting Brexit was always going to be a mugs game because it was always based on a steaming pile of intentionally confusing bs in the first place. It's my sense that the only reason why Brexit got the legs it did, was a bunch of shadowy creatures from the City of London, who we very keen that the EU's new banking regulations should not apply to them; who then concocted the entire toxic mess from behind closed doors. The actual reasons for Brexit never lined up with the ones being talked about in public.

     The idea that Britain will regain anything from the split is a total delusion … they had lost nothing to the EU in the first place.

     The EU however , and Germany in particular, now has it's own manifold problems, and Brussels will quite welcome the chance to ditch the Brits in order to simplify matters; there never was going to be a workable exit deal.

     Once the US has crushed the Brits will to live, a 'free trade deal' will be signed and the US will set about extracting a very cold revenge on their former colonial patrons.

     Around about then the UK will come grovelling to Canada, Australia and NZ and see if they'll agree to the proposed CANZUK alignment in order to salvage what shreds of their pride may be left.

     But given there is no logic or sense in this entire mess, like you I'm 100% prepared to be completely wrong.
     • Macro 1.1.1

       13 December 2020 at 2:29 pm

       +1

       It was always going to end in tears. The English have only themselves to blame. They have carried the whole of the UK into this mess without a thought to the needs of their fellow nations (in particular Northern Ireland and Scotland). It's them I feel most sympathy.
     • DS 1.1.2

       14 December 2020 at 11:45 pm

       The City of London voted overwhelmingly to Remain.
       • Phil 1.1.2.1

         15 December 2020 at 11:58 am

         Yes, there's still a knee-jerk reaction from many to blame the bankers or economists whenever anything goes wrong. But on this topic the financial sector, both those within London and around the globe, spoke with almost complete unison that remaining in the EU was the far better financial outcome for the UK.
   • mickysavage 1.2

     13 December 2020 at 2:51 pm

     Heh I think the problem was the left was prepared to analyse it at an intellectual level and we did not appreciate how base and essentially racist the tory analysis of the situation was. Or how incompetent they would be in the execution.
     • Phillip ure 1.2.1

       13 December 2020 at 5:42 pm

       I think..that like in america..

       it was a scream of rage from the long ignored/dispossessed…
       • mickysavage 1.2.1.1

         13 December 2020 at 7:46 pm

         You are right, in part it was a scream of rage from the dispossessed, And it was also a Fcukyop from the English upper class to the idea of international cooperation. The latter co-opted the former and managed to get a majority.

         The latter do not have the interests of the former in their calculations. The guys in the middle do, but not as much as they should do.
         • Phillip ure 1.2.1.1.1

           13 December 2020 at 8:04 pm

           I haven't seen analysis of that brexit vote by class..

           ..did the middle-class also swing in behind the idea..?

           and I wonder what incoherence drove them to vote for it..

           (the deep xenophobia so prevalent in so many from those isles..?..)
         • Incognito 1.2.1.1.2

           13 December 2020 at 8:11 pm

           The people were worn down and confused by years of uncertainty, misleading news, disinformation, propaganda, et cetera, and in the end they wanted it be over and done with, but it wasn’t, not yet.

           This has repeated itself, or continued rather, with the so-called deal/no-deal. Thanks to Covid, people are still or again dropping like flies in the UK and they have other things on their minds than Boris and his bastardy Brexiteers.
2. The Al1en 2

   13 December 2020 at 8:29 pm

   The tories were divided, with each faction seeing the ability to make more money, but not both at the same time. The outs won it, and the no deal brigade will get what they wanted all along.

   Labour were just as divided, with the more enlightened voters in London knowing the benefits of remaining. The midland and north, not so much, buying into the base ukip nonsense the EU being the cause of all their ills. Corbyn trying to have his cake and eat it, mixing metaphors, splintered his own arse with all his fence sitting and paid the ultimate electoral price.

   As it was, the result was still pretty much a 50/50 split, and Cameron was and is ultimately to blame for having the referendum in the first place, and then not making it 2/3 majority needed to brexit.

   As an Englisher, I would have voted stay in, but now the vote has been done and dusted to death, they should just get on with it now and fuck off. Beneficial as it was, it certainly wasn't the common market people voted to join, so flick the jocks and paddies so they can join their new German/Franco dominated union and little Englanders can learn how to repent at leisure.
3. Richard Olykan 3

   14 December 2020 at 7:16 am

   All self inflicted.
   • Anne 3.1

     14 December 2020 at 9:43 am

     
4. Stuart Munro 4

   14 December 2020 at 9:34 am

   Despite all the rituals and conventions of parliamentary "democracy", most at present are hostage to the childish whims of pathetic clowns like Boris and Trump – neither pursuing the welfare of their constituents, nor achieving even a modicum of success in the economic charlatanry in which they profess expertise.

   We do no better, with lazy MPs abdicating their responsibility to govern in favour of the self-serving or erratic vagaries of "The Market" – a golden calf long overdue to lose its idolatrous status.
5. WeTheBleeple 5

   14 December 2020 at 3:56 pm

   Warning: strong language and hilarious jokes about Britain's debt.
6. DS 6

   14 December 2020 at 11:42 pm

   Lexiteers (Left-wing Brexiters) are a thing, you know. It's not as if the EU is anything other than enforced corporate neoliberalism, which (in contrast to Westminster) no-one can actually vote out.

   Has the UK Government completely messed things up? Yes. There was no plan in advance of the referendum, which is the root of the problem. But that's rather different from the question of whether Brexit (as in, the UK being outside the EU) is desirable. It is perfectly possible to hate Brussels AND Boris Johnson.
   • Ad 6.1

     15 December 2020 at 7:17 am

     If only UK Labour under Corbyn could have generated an attractive position for voters late last year, the UK would not find itself in this position. The UK left put him in there and the UK left lost.

     The UK left may well have hated Brussels AND Boris Johnson, they just failed to figure out which one was worse.
   • Pierre 6.2

     15 December 2020 at 10:00 pm

     To reclaim the terrible ultra-leftist slogan:

     Neither the Troika nor the Tories but international socialism!

     And you're correct, there's always been a democratic left position critical of the EU as a neoliberal trading bloc and an instrument of the corporate monopolies. Also, Labour's brexit position last year was born out of a necessary internal debate, but I believe that if the party had really leaned into that Bennite position, there wouldn't have been such a harmful defeat last year.
7. SPC 7

   16 December 2020 at 1:34 pm

   The NHS can hardly wait for the failure of the FTA talks – so the post EU boost can kick in as soon as.

   The Tories can count themselves lucky they are not dealing with Trump – he was set on destroying the WTO and leveraging that to realise a UK satellite colony via a one sided FTA.

   It leaves the Labour Party with a lot of thinking to do about future policy – a socialist island or renewed ties to Europe (back into the customs union with restored freedom of movement).

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