Sunday 26 June 2016

My view on why Brexit



OK, here goes.
Brexit was a Tory attempt to shore up the movement to the far right of that party. The far right had been there forever and one bane of many for that bunch of nutters was the EEC and then the EU. These guys were kept on the simmer all this time by Murdock's newspapers (him of Fox fame) to be brought out whenever that person thought the Tories were drifting out of orthodoxy. This is the general background that saw the PM Cameron state before the last election that if elected he would have a referendum on membership of the EU.Of course, the English not really using referenda unless they really have too, 3 in 50 years, had no idea what they were releasing. And what was thought would be an easy tool to gain more out of Brussels became the very mechanism for their exit. They thought they had control of it you see. and the tiny rump of Euro Sceptics that festered within the Tories would be stymied.
Of course what actually occurred was ALL the disaffected piled in and Voted Out. Not alone those that were inside the Tory party and the tory followers. It was as if Obama called a referendum on setting Roe -v- Wade within the US constitution thinking that the Pro Lifers inside the Democrats would be sidelined forgetting the Republicans entirely. Or at least underestimating the swing so much as to be criminal.
But why the split between rich and poor. For the most part that is so simple it's laughable. The poor don't go on holidays to foreign climes. And over the last 10 years the percentage that would call themselves poor increased hugely for the financial crisis obliterated whatever stability they had and whatever surplus that allowed them to holiday in Spain. Inside or outside just didn't matter.
Other aspects were entirely self inflicted. For 40 years the UK population was told every single petty little impingement was the fault of the EU. But the most egregious was what was occurring in counties that about 20 years ago started hi-labour fruit and veg farming. The touchstone on this was Boston in Lincolnshire.
There, large numbers of Poles and Lithuanians arrived to work in the glasshouses and the fields. Strawberry tomatoes and hand cut salad. This began as migrant labour, but soon became fixed. And here's the issue. Young people from the former east moved in together married had kids got sick and drove cars. In other words the population went up by 60% without an ounce of infrastructure being put in place by central government.
In fact, if they had decided to generate every factor that saw the rise of Hitler they couldn't have been more effective.This of course then entered all the other areas and cities where hospitals and schools were being rationalised (shut down).
But the funniest was the shock that the old people wouldn't give the government a kicking over changes to their pensions.
In the end, the 'liberals' simply didn't see it. They didn't get that their version of society had fallen short for 65% of the population. The Labour party is this very day trying to get rid of a leader elected by the membership with the largest majority ever. Why, well he didn't enter the fray with gusto, or at least the gusto expected by some of the Labour MP's in the Commons.   

8 comments:

  1. An interesting take on it and how it got out of hand... Thanks for sharing. Personnally I am not sure where I would be on it if I was a Brit, but probably for remaining cause they really weren't in it with passport control and with their own currency

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, they weren't in Schengen, but that's been put on hold because of the migrants for the hell in Syria and North Africa. Lots of the Schengen members re-erected border controls.
      And on the currency, they aren't the only members of the EU that stayed out. And at the time I was delighted they remained out of the €uro.
      But on the whole I think neither the UK or Ireland should be inside the EU. We play the game of the privateer, like you frankly, and the Europeans aren't so intent on speculation from risky borrowing. But mostly it's a question of how the banks play with the housing market in the anglo centric economies, and mostly without any legal protections for the tenant.

      Delete
  2. It's hard to respond only reading about it and not living it, not really understanding all the nuts and bolts of it. The things I've read and watched have made it seem that, once again, the poor and the immigrants are being blamed for financial crises rather than the decisions and/or policies that got them there...for example your mention of ignoring infrastructure issues. There have been a lot of hateful things said about certain groups of people (the videos!?!?! yuck), and that is bothersome to me, like a smokescreen for a much larger issue. There's a great quote in "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" by Michael Lewis (also in the movie)...
    “Banks took the money the American people gave them, and they used it to pay themselves huge bonuses and lobby the congress to kill big reform. And then they blamed immigrants and poor people, and this time even teachers. And after all was said and done only one single banker went to jail.”
    But, I could be completely off base, as I don't feel like I've got a good handle on all the ins and outs of what went down in the UK this past week. Does the support for/against also seem generational too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I'd say you are pretty spot on with most of what you say.
      And yes, 75% of under 25s voted for in. Of course they didn't vote in sufficient numbers to really matter.

      Delete
    2. Seems to be a common problem everywhere.

      Delete
  3. Like Kimberly says... it's hard to truly understand or relate, not actually living there and experiencing it. It seems to me, not having adopted the currency in the first place, indicated the UK wasn't 100% invested in the EU.

    It does seem that now folks are starting to realize what a major decision it was - after the fact. All the more reason folks should be very, very informed before casting a vote! And of course it's had worldwide ramifications.

    It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohh the establishment was invested alright. The issue was they sold the EU as something that was causing all the bad things imposed on people. Like with the state government blaming the federal in DC for all the bad stuff while claming all the nice stuff for themselves.

      Delete
  4. Very interesting to get your perspective. I didn't even know about this until after the vote - but at least I wasn't eligible to participate. I've heard "What is the EU?" has been one of the most common Google searches by the British SINCE the vote!

    ReplyDelete