51–60 of 178 posts
What exactly are the EU red lines in the brexit negotiations?
The UK seems to be determined to end free movement of people, largely out of anti-slavic racism and systematic misinformation about how the system works by the press.
> The Electoral Commission has uncovered evidence of electoral spending irregularities in the Leave.UK and Vote Leave campaigns serious enough to justify criminal investigation and possible prosecution Somehow those kinds of probes only conveniently find "irregularities" from the sides that the political elites are against... UK is supposedly a democracy (and thus such matters are to be decided by popular vote), but…
I disagree; that's not true at all. The UK generally does not have such matters decided by popular vote. An actual referendum is a very unusual thing in the UK.
Just an outsider's opinion, but I think that they had a vote. They probably should not have voted "Leave", but they did. So now you have to get on with the business of implementing the will of the people. It might come out just as the author has outlined, or it might not be that bad, or it might be far worse than even the author has envisioned. The thing is, whatever the consequences and benefits are, they are conseq…
Second, the will of the people is a nebulous thing. Brexit won with slightly more than half the vote but that was in 2016. Since then many Brexit voters have died, many new people on the Remain side have come of age, and people have learned new things. It's very likely that if they had another referendum now people would vote to stay in the EU.
Just an outsider's opinion, but I think that they had a vote. They probably should not have voted "Leave", but they did. So now you have to get on with the business of implementing the will of the people. It might come out just as the author has outlined, or it might not be that bad, or it might be far worse than even the author has envisioned. The thing is, whatever the consequences and benefits are, they are conseq…
At the end of the day I don't think the public were qualified to answer the question as it was posed. There were too many unknowns and too much false information. We elect people to represent us because we believe they are qualified to do so.
There's a reason we'd never see this in a referendum:
What should the income tax rate be for UK citizens? [ ] 0% [ ] 10% [ ] 20% [ ] 40%
I've spoken to people who are cheering for these kinds of effects. An actual quote: "I hope Trump does as much damage as possible." The Trump and Brexit elections were for some people a kind of Luddite revolt -- not against technology per se but against globalization. This was a revolt by the working classes of the developed world against a globalization process that is substantially impoverishing them. I can't say I…
an upvote was not enough recognition for this comment. "I hope Trump does as much damage as possible." - I have heard almost this exact quote. Its difficult to empathize with the sentiment, but it is potent and its real.
Whether it's a far-right demagogue or a far-left demagogue probably depends on which side is able to find and bring to the field the most compelling populist firebrand. I really think the left/right divide is overstated here. A lot of these people would join the Bolshevik revolution or the Nazi brown shirts with equal gusto as long as the pitchforks are aimed at Washington, New York, and San Francisco.
I'm agnostic on the Russia thing -- I see evidence for it and also reasons to be skeptical -- but if it is true I honestly think Vladimir Putin underestimates his hand. At this point he could get on YouTube and make a speech and appeal directly to the American people to join with Russia in alliance against Washington. Millions might just take him up on it. All he has to do is promise to bring back good jobs with good wages.
Our ruling classes continue to vastly underestimate just how much rage out there is directed at them. They also continue to blame it on everything but economics: racism, social issues, etc. Of course that's not wholly wrong, but what they miss is that racism and xenophobia always increase during times of scarcity. Those are effects, not causes. I challenge you to find me a single example in all of history where increasing scarcity did not cause increasing feelings of xenophobia.
Any article which devolves to name calling within a few paragraphs (the Nazi stuff) lacks credibility and can safely be dismissed. It won't win anyone over and just looks like someone who is preaching to the choir.
> The Electoral Commission has uncovered evidence of electoral spending irregularities in the Leave.UK and Vote Leave campaigns serious enough to justify criminal investigation and possible prosecution Somehow those kinds of probes only conveniently find "irregularities" from the sides that the political elites are against... UK is supposedly a democracy (and thus such matters are to be decided by popular vote), but…
This is the other lesson of Greece. Arguably they had far more reason to "Grexit". But they didn't, because ultimately it was plain that being outside the EU not only wouldn't solve their problems but cut them off from participating in their solution.
I applaud the concrete predictions, but like all the sky-is-falling things I've read about Trump and the tariffs which haven't (yet?) come to pass, I think Stross's are over the top and business will continue as usual. We'll see, it's good he's stockpiling food and medicine since that's consistent with his worldview, but I wonder if we'll learn anything from the outcome since one of us will be very, very incorrect. T…
When the EU says it's preparing for NDB, it's referring to the fact that the Dutch government already hired around 1000 customs officials to deal with it. Business won't continue as usual.
Political aspects of Brexit aside, I had no idea Britain's food and fuel situation was so dire in the event of a Hard Brexit. I would have assumed they were more self-sufficient - the near-doomsday predictions coming from civil service is really sobering. It sucks that the US is contributing to this problem right now (in many ways, really). Can they disentangle themselves from this even if they manage to get the gove…
Yes, if the UK government was willing to be realistic about it. It would probably have to come with a few concessions, such as an agreement not to Article 50 again for a period of time.