06.23.2016 11:07 PM

Brexit: fasten your seatbelt, world


19 Comments

  1. PJH says:

    I would imagine that the London bankers, EU Oligarchs, and Heads of more than a few Transnationals regurgitated several gallons of finest speyside single malt when this news landed.

    Britain – you make my heart glow with pride…..a victory for ordinary folk……

    • JH says:

      PJH:
      pretty good slap in the face from reg folks to media, biz and political elites everywhere for sure.
      As for Quebec – may encourage some there in the PQ, but what about Western Canada? Feds and many provinces don’t want to give them access to world oil markets via pipelines, but seem willing to take their transfer payment money and have no problem with oil coming in from human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia and Nigeria etc.
      Note BTW – both Kenny & Sheer supported Brexit. Maybe they think the West wants out enough this time?

      • PJH says:

        Western separatism is dead and buried……the tenure of Mr. Harper put an end to that nonsense.
        I think what angered ordinary Brits the most were the Eurocrats with their large salaries, great pensions, benefits, and perks(including shops only they were allowed in), and a special tax rate….acting as a rubber stamp for legislation dictated by the leaders of the EU in Brussels, legislation
        that affected the UK, without any debate whatsoever. In a country with a parliamentary tradition as long as Britain’s, it was more than they could stomach.If the EU had remained as it was first envisioned, a customs union, and nothing more…..I don’t think there would ever have been a call for a referendum.

  2. Al in Cranbrook says:

    ??? Really???

    This isn’t a break up of a nation! Not even remotely close…albeit the European Parliament certainly considered itself the government of a confederation. And a thoroughly undemocratic one at that!

    At best Britain’s membership has always been tentative and guarded. That is the nature of the British, a nation with a long and strong tradition of democracy. A nation that spawned the Magna Carta, and then spent the next 800 years trying to live up to that ideal.

    Slice it anyway one wants, in the final analysis the EU became antithetical to those very ideals.

    And today the majority, slim though it was, of British took back the reigns of their own governance!

    What, in God’s name, is not to be celebrated about that???

    Britain, to one degree or another, is the longest and oldest surviving democracy on the planet, and needs lessons from nobody on the matter!

    No doubt other European leaders are taking a deep breath right now, bracing themselves for the likely shitstorm to come within their realms.

    And they damn well should be!!! The whole damn thing is an idea gone sour as hell, thanks to the ever increasing concentration of power within the hands of an unelected and unaccountable few, whose own bureaucratic, elitist existence became its singular raison d’etre.

    Frankly, it was doomed to as much from the very beginning, for that is the ultimate nature of socialism, is it not?

  3. Joseph says:

    What a shocka! I went to sleep thinking the remain side would prevail, now this?? Can’t wait to hear Adler’s and your take on this.

  4. Peter says:

    The EU has a history of losing referenda. The Swedish vote on the Euro, the French and Dutch rejections of Lisbon and now this. In every case, financial, political, bureaucratic, professional, cultural and other progressive forces lined up solidly in a pro-EU position and warned of horrific consequences if the people didn’t vote sensibly (The Swedish foreign minister warned the French and Dutch that the wrong result could mean war!). They dismissed anti forces with patronizing rhetoric as know-nothing nativists marching against the course of history and trying to undo the Enlightenment. They’re still at it, even though many of them now quietly give thanks they lost those earlier votes. It is astounding to me how in little more than a decade, the EU has gone in the popular mind from an unstoppable force that carried the hopes and dreams of several generations for a more peaceful, just and equal Europe to an anti-democratic tool of bankers and privileged bien-pensants who dismiss the electorate as stupid, self-destructive and xenophobic.

    I don’t know whether this will have any effect on the U.S. election–probably not much–but I do note that mainstream forces are starting to spend too much time being appalled at Trump (“Did you hear what he said today?”) and not enough trying to figure out who is attracted to him and why they seem willing to throw a nuclear bomb at established politicians and parties . Sorry folks, as much as you’d like to believe, there just aren’t that many OxyContin-addled trailer park racists in America.

    Despite his self-appointed mission to spread “Canadian values” around the globe, I do hope our PM has learned from this to shut up about how folks in other countries should vote.

  5. Brian says:

    Congratulations Great Britain! The people have triumphed. I thought for certain that the vote would have been fixed or corrupted. So nice to see a democracy work in favour of the people. So nice to a vote actually mean something. The ride might be rough for a little while but it’ll even itself out. It always does. The doomsday types are just the multi-nationals. Britain will be fine. The world will be fine. Hopefully, this will be the kick in the pants the world needs to get people and governments to leave this free trade, global economy BS in the dust.

    Congrats to England again!

  6. Cory says:

    In all 3 cases, if that is what the people want then why should they not be allowed?

    Sure there will be a period of political and economic uncertainty but eventually things will settle down and people will react logically (the EU and the rest of the world would negotiate trade agreements with the UK for example).

  7. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Anything is theoretically possible. However, do people really want to become small cogs? Have to agree with Al. The UK remains a large one and will do just fine.

    The Scots won’t risk being out of both Great Britain and the EU. As for Ireland, the troubles will be back if the status quo is ever threatened.

  8. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    What this also does in international and Canadian law is thoroughly fuck the anti 50 + 1 crowd.

    • Merrill Smith says:

      If that is so, it also fucks the complicated question crowd that devised Quebec referendum questions designed to produce the desired result. Never would they have considered asking: “do you want Quebec to remain in Canada or leave?”

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Merrill,

        Correct. Absolutely. The PQ has finally moved on and adopted the long held view of Jacques Parizeau — a straight up and down vote, in favour of Yes or No to independence. Nothing quite like reducing the odds in favour of a Yes. (But that’s their problem, not mine.)

    • Vancouverois says:

      Congratulations – you have it completely wrong!

      This only confirms that the premise behind the Clarity Act is correct – an ephemeral simply majority of 50%+1 is far too slight a margin on which to base such monumental change without inviting chaos and destructive turmoil.

      Also, you can’t try to carry off such a change against opposition concentrated in specific areas without provoking secession movements within your own polity.

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      lol, well two days on, and you have been proven 100% wrong. 50% + 1 has left Scotland and Northern Ireland with a mandate to lend effect to their regions vote to STAY, whilst the UK leaves. In other words, there is now legal and political ambiguity IN SPADES over the future of the United Kingdom, a question never explicitly on the ballot. I guess that fucks the 50% + 1 crowd after all? Or is that an acceptable outcome for a referendum?

  9. dean sherratt says:

    One’s first impression is that Scotland will want to stay in the EU and head for a referendum to accomplish that. Issues will be if the EU wants Scotland? Also, does Scotland need the UK and England more than the EU? Counting internal trade who does Scotland trade more with…England or the remainder of the EU?

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      on trade it comes down to who buys the oil. And it does not matter what trade block you are in when it comes to selling your oil. EU has to want Scotland. Scotland is the poster child for the small EU hangabouts now, the EU will want to prove small players are protected by the EU. I think. SOme of them anyway, lol

  10. Joe says:

    When Harper stopped interfering in provincial matters separatism died down. IF separatism raises its hoary head again it will be the consequence of Trudeau or his successors interfering in provincial matters once again.

  11. bluegreenblogger says:

    Two days on, and Northern Ireland is looking downright scary. Scotland, well that wasn’t in doubt was it? Someone above mentioned it’s a good time to read a history book. I am afraid, because I have read so damned many History books, and I have been going to Ireland and meeting and talking to people for 20 years… Nobody wants a return to the troubles. But nobody doubts the North is coming home one day. If Westminster denies the Border Referendum, playing fast and loose with the Good Friday agreement….., and Theresa Villiers, Northern Ireland Secretary is now unshackled by Cameron’s resignation announcement, and bluntly said piss off (I paraphrase) to Sinn Fein. How can they let Scotland vote, then in the next breath curse the Irish and kick their teeth? It will not end well at all, at all. To be sure.

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