Saturday, June 25, 2016

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials On Brexit -- June 25, 2016



Al Jazeera/Inside Story: What's the future of the UK in the wake of Brexit?

A majority of British voters have opted to leave the European Union.

The United Kingdom has decided to become the first major economy to leave the 28-member state of the European Union.

It is the culmination of four months of bitter campaigning that has exposed deep rifts in British society.

But it is also the result of years of scepticism about the EU in the UK, where Brussels and EU officials are often perceived as unaccountable political elite, who have too much power over the lives of British people.

That is a statement disputed by those who campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU. But this vote was as much about emotion and disillusionment with the status quo, as it was about Britain's future in the EU.

Read more ....

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials On Brexit -- June 25, 2016

Is Britain ready for Brexit? -- Ross Hawkins, BBC
Post Brexit, Britain still torn between nationalism and global leadership -- Harold Evans, Reuters
Brexit: A Very British Revolution -- Fraser Evans, WSJ
Now that Britain wants out, EU must figure out how to do it -- AP
How Europe should respond to Brexit -- Rosa Balfour, CNN
Brexit: What is Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and how will it affect Britain? -- Evening Standard
After Brexit vote, what Britain must do next -- Peter Apps, Reuters
Brexit - the chaos that will be felt around the world -- John lloyd, Reuters
Nexit, Frexit or Italeave? British vote fires up EU's 'Outers' -- Dominic Evans and Marion Dunai, Reuters
Brexit: 'EU can no longer cope with its crises' -- Interview: Volker Wagener, DW
How David Cameron could have avoided an EU Leave vote -- Henry Mance and Jim Pickard, Financial Times
Humbled by his arrogance: A highly able leader who rescued the economy, Cameron was ultimately ruined by a lack of conviction, poor judgement and a weakness for Etonian cronies -- Max Hastings, Daily Mail
Complacency and premature celebrations in the Number 10 bunker turned to panic - then tears -- Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail
Get Ready for the Age of Boris -- Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
Brexit: Boris Johnson launches pitch to be the Prime Minister that leads Britain out of Europe -- Oliver Wright, The Independent
Britain’s Democratic Failure -- Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate
Fear and Loathing in Britain: Brexit Is an Act of Deliberate Self-Mutilation -- Christoph Scheuermann, Spiegel Online
EU rhetoric has been counter-productive -- Independent editorial
Britain and the EU: A tragic split -- The Economist
The Day the British People Defied Their Jailers -- Tim Stanley, Telegraph
The English have placed a bomb under the Irish peace process -- Fintan O'Toole, The Guardian
Arab perspectives on Brexit -- Al Jazeera
Brexit: These countries could be next now that Britain has left the EU -- Sydney Morning Herald
Brexit a 'Wake-up Call' and 'End of a World' for Global Leaders -- ABC News
News Analysis: Reforms urgently needed for EU post-Brexit -- Shuai Rong, Zhao Xiaona, Liang Linlin, New China
Anti-establishment tsunami sweeps Europe -- Ray Sanchez and Amanda Wills, CNN
Behind the support for Brexit and Trump: Economic resentment -- AP
Google search spike suggests people don't know why they Brexited -- Rich McCormick, Verge

6 comments:

RRH said...

This gets closer to the truth.



http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/brexit-vote-referendum-european-union-immigration-1.3650880

RRH said...

This is very interesting.


http://russia-insider.com/en/berlin-moscow-hello-rapallo/ri15211


If anyone is interested in Rapallo and early twentieth century German--Russian/Soviet relations, I recommend Michael Jabara Carley's "Silent Conflict". It is very relevant to what is happening between the Russians and the "western great powers" today.


https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Conflict-History-Soviet-Western-Relations/dp/1442225858

War News Updates Editor said...

RRH .... here is some contrarian thinking. Immigration and its cultural impact may have been a factor .... but not THE factor for the Leave side. Economics and declining wages and a lower standard of living being the big one in my book. As for the Remain side .... I would counter that immigration was for them THE major issue .... and that is where their focus in their attack ads were when they tried to label the other side as racists/xenophobes/etc. .... and now the rationalisation on why they lost. But this CBC analysis pales in what the CTV is now doing .... Criag Oliver (the CTV's senior Ottawa correspondent) on Friday essentially call the Leave voters racist. When the most senior correspondent in the press gallery in Ottawa has jumped the shark and decides to call millions of voters in a democratically run referendum racist .... it is time for him to retire.

As for my final take on Brexit .... if the economy was booming and wages were increasing .... the Remain side would have won big. But that was not (and is not) the case ... and what made it worse was the perception .... and in my book an accurate one .... an unwillingness of London or Brussels to even pay attention to the growing and legitimate worries of many Britain on what is their economic future.

RRH .... the Russian insider article on German - Russian economic cooperation .... in theory it sounds great and there has been some degree of cooperation since the fall of the Soviet Union .... but in practice it has been a disaster for German companies who have tried to do business in Russia. I can spend the entire night writing down all the German companies that I personally know who have tried to do business just in Moscow .... and close up 5 years later. The only way German companies can succeed in Russia is via through joint-ventures .... but here is the rub .... many of them are not interested in developing these relationships.

RRH said...

Editor, as always, your thoughts are appreciated.

Here is the track I take. The jist of it is under another post in these forums.

As mentioned, the declining wages, economic insecurity, austerity etc. were occuring in the UK (and "the west" in general) well before EU membership.


While the chief protagonists of the "leave" side, Boris, the UKIP etc. did bring up the economy, the real issue was immigration. Of course, if times are good, it's easier to put up with "foreigners" but times have not been good for a long time now. Meanwhile, said foreigners have been amply labelled as terrorist, rapist, usurpers on the dole brought to "us" by the EU-- not neo-liberal capitalism, imperialist wars, or any of the rest of that complicated stuff.

But I digress. If things were "booming" and not in crisis, there would not have been the need for a vote to distract and deflect attention from systemic issues in the first place!

Further to that, if the "democratically run" referendum had been on fundamental issues such as the ones mentioned above, it would not have happened. I, obviously, do not share your faith in the process or the interests that guided it. Brexit is a Hammelsgässe for the majority just as much or more than the EU.

Did you watch Farange's little speech about the victory for "decent people"? I immediately thought "oh do tell". Is this the same leader of a party that wants to repeal the Human Rights Act while maintaining the Monarchy? The leadership of the leave side is also of the same neo-liberal economic bent of those of remain. The main difference is the irredentism which has great traction with the dispossessed, dislocated, disillusioned and soon to be disappointed (again) white, middle aged, male working class. Just because
Oliver painted all those who voted "leave" with the same racist brush doesn't mean he is all wrong. This being said, of course he's going to beat the race drum as opposed to presenting a real analysis of what is happening in the UK, Europe etc. and why (I don't think he, or most of the so-called "journalists" in Canada, could). He's PAID to make sure such a discussion doesn't happen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Independence_Party

Huuuuuuuh!

Additionally, have you seen a road map or plan outlining just how this Great March to Freedom will be done aside from the very presumptuous declarations of "we do" and "they will do" such and such of the leave side protagonists? How exactly the Brexit will improve the lot of most UK citizens? What, more free trade agreements? WTO? Privatizations? A real look will give proof to the pudding of the above mentioned economic predilections of "Leave".

I am not saying that the masses of the leave side all had the same thoughts on immigrants, race etc. There were many, many people surely concerned with and tired of the moribund state of things within the EU. What I am saying is that, much like the Americans, they are stuck between an engineered rock and a hard place made up of crooked politicos on one hand and proto-fascists on the other. To me these so called "choices" --Leave/Remain, Hillary/Trump-- are just the real unelected rulers, who fund and manage BOTH "sides" and the terrain of public debate (media) hedging their bets and making sure the exploitation continues and intensifies.

Leave. Remain. It's all the same jail.

RRH said...

As for Germany/Russia.

I found, as I always find, an illumination of the contradiction within ruling circles interesting. Especially those with historical continuity of a sort.

Even this Brexit shit puts the divisions of the political class (the sales/bagmen of the bosses) on display. Just look at how Cameron showed his ass!!! Now watch how Boris juggles the turd.

RRH said...

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/23/12005814/brexit-eu-referendum-immigrants


This is what Boris and Farange et al tapped into. Anything to get ahead. Just like at work when supervision gut each other for position highlighting "safety culture" or "increased efficiencies" blah blah blah and enlist employees - who they don't give a shit about by the way- in their coups and plots to climb the ladder. All the while the Boss stays the same and favours or abandons them as a matter of expediency, neigh, fiat.