Britain is looking to leave the EU.....

[johnnya24]

It takes a special kind of ignoramus to vote to destroy the financial stability, at a minimum, of one's own country under the guise of "immigrants want to destroy our country". Again, this is literally the Donald Trump campaign in the United States.

We also need to have a closer look at the half-hearted nature of the Remain campaign, and the "former" euro-sceptics who were advocating for the Remain vote ... including both party leaders, both of whom are historically anti-EU. Jeremy Corbyn had to be dragged out kicking and screaming to campaign for the Remain vote.

Also the now complete refusal on the part of the leaders of the Remain camp to acknowledge that a revote would be the sensible choice given the fact that:

a: If Scotland calls a new referendum it will lead to the break up the UK ... people were not voting on the break up of the UK.
b: The fact that the SNP were insincerely using the Remain vote to angle for a new Scottish Referendum. Nicola Sturgeon's speech almost immediately after the decision was announced was so well planned and rehearsed. Great political maneuvering, but Machiavellian in the extreme.
c: The danger to the Northern Irish peace process. EU membership is critical for stability.
d: The admission of lying from the Leave campaign ... they have even been joking about it.
e: The closeness of the election (such radical changes by such fine margins is absurd)
f: The lack of forethought (either complacency of deliberate) in the referendum format (all or nothing simple majority ... ugh)
g: Declarations from many people that they didn't realize what they were voting for, or were merely making a protest vote (stupid ... yeah, but that's what you get giving stupid people so much power).
h: We do not historically do referenda. It's not part of our political process. It's clear people were only partially aware of the gravity of their vote, and they sure as hell didn't realize the consequences.

Despite all these things, the Remain leaders are categorical that there can be no revote. Why? If there is a revote next week Remain wins. That is clear. 99.9% Remain wins a revote. How is this democracy if the leaders of the Remain camp are not even advocating for a revote?

I think we've just been had. Do you have that expression ... "you've been had" ... well ... we've just been had.

This is the neo-liberal way ... occupy both sides of the debate, and then get people to make a choice.

[johnnya24]

I dont know what the economic or sociological impact is in the UK to the Polish. That said, the example of given regarding the Polish seem to undermine the idea that its just all about the brown people. While I agree racism exists - Nationalism is not necessarily racism (though I am sure that there are those that disagree).

It's as much to do with Muslims as with eastern European immigrants. Turkey is set to become a full member of the EU, and with free movement of workers within the EU, the UK would be inundated with millions of Turkish immigrants (literally millions). Completely uncontrolled, unrecorded immigration BTW. This is a fact, not scaremongering. The UK has no clue how many Eastern Europeans are currently in the UK.

So while Muslims living the UK come from former colonial countries, the renewed suspicion of Muslims and Islamism among over the last 15 years has increased the tension between "natives" and perceived outsiders ... uncontrolled EU immigration from Eastern-Europe exacerbated this problem, and the prospect of Turkish migration in the wake of this ... meant that immigration was always going to be the only issue in play here.

... and the problem ... the big problem for the Remain camp ... they are not wrong regarding uncontrolled immigration. It's completely absurd. Everyone knows that.

This has lead to the -- AGAIN NOT WRONG -- view that the EU has become completely undemocratic and unaccountable. It is both. Everyone knows that.

No-one is happy with the EU.

The Remain camp had no way to argue against these points. They are both correct. The EU is a monstrous aberration of what it once was, and what it was intended to be. The banks are running the EU, and they are only interested in continual expansion and growth, because that's all that matters to them. The banks don't give a crap about what people want.

Like I said before, we had a choice between bad and worse, and the Remain campaign could appeal to nothing apart from people's pockets, and the immigration issue was too overwhelming.

[PaleoMan]

It's only a matter of time. The die has been cast decades ago.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-27/death-all-zombies

When things fall apart in stressed complex systems, they tend to fall apart fast. It’s called phase change. Too many things in 21st century life have depended on sheer trust that the people-in-charge know what they are doing. That trust has subsisted on the doling out of money-from-nothing: debt, reckless bond issuance. TARP, QEs, bailouts, bail-ins, Operation Twists, Ponzi schemes… the whole sad-ass armamentarium of banking necromancy. The politicians let it get out of hand. Things that can’t go on don’t, and now they won’t.

The politics of Great Britain are now falling apart landslide-style. Since just about everybody in or near power can be blamed for the national predicament, there’s nobody to turn to, at least not yet. The Labour party just acted out The Caine Mutiny, starring Jeremy Corbyn as Captain Queeg. The Tory Cameron gave three months notice without any plausible replacement in view. Now Cameron’s people are hinting in the media that they can just drag their feet on Brexit, that is, not do anything to enable it from actually happening for a while. Of course, that’s what the monkeyshines of banking and finance have done: postponed the inevitable reckoning with the realities of our time: growing resource scarcity, population overshoot, climate change, ecological holocaust, and the diminishing returns of technology.

Britain illustrates the problem nicely: how to produce “wealth” without producing wealth. It’s called “the City,” their name for the little district of London that is their Wall Street. In the absence of producing real things, the City became the driver of the UK’s economy, a ghastly parasitical organism that functioned as the central transfer station for the world’s swindles and frauds, churning the West’s dwindling residual capital into a slurry of fees, commissions, arbitrages, rigged casino bets, and rip-offs. In the process, it enabled the European Central Bank (ECB) to run the con-job that the European Union (EU) became, with the fatal distortions of credit that have put its members into a ditch and sent the private European banks off a cliff, Thelma and Louise style.

The next stage of this protean global melodrama is what happens when currencies and interest rates become completely unglued from their assigned roles as patsies in financial racketeering. Sooner or later we’ll know what’s going on in the vast shadowy gloaming of “derivatives,” especially the “innovative” arrangements that affect to be “insurance” against losses in currency and interest rate “positions” — bets made on the movements of these things. When currencies rise or fall quickly, these so-called “swaps” are “triggered,” and then some hapless institution is left holding a big bag of dog-shit. A zombie is a terrible thing to behold, but a zombie holding a bag of dog-shit is like unto the end of the world.

[johnnya24]

Britain illustrates the problem nicely: how to produce “wealth” without producing wealth. It’s called “the City,” their name for the little district of London that is their Wall Street. In the absence of producing real things, the City became the driver of the UK’s economy, a ghastly parasitical organism that functioned as the central transfer station for the world’s swindles and frauds, churning the West’s dwindling residual capital into a slurry of fees, commissions, arbitrages, rigged casino bets, and rip-offs. In the process, it enabled the European Central Bank (ECB) to run the con-job that the European Union (EU) became, with the fatal distortions of credit that have put its members into a ditch and sent the private European banks off a cliff, Thelma and Louise style.

Yup ... we produce nothing, and all of our valuable assets are owned by foreign capital. There has been a "For Sale" sign over the UK for 30 years, and we're almost sold out. You know what wouldn't be a good idea after selling everything you have (and depositing the proceeds offshore)? ... trying to go it alone and alienating yourself from the largest consumer market in the world ... DOH!

[onejayhawk]

Yup ... we produce nothing, and all of our valuable assets are owned by foreign capital. There has been a "For Sale" sign over the UK for 30 years, and we're almost sold out. You know what wouldn't be a good idea after selling everything you have (and depositing the proceeds offshore)? ... trying to go it alone and alienating yourself from the largest consumer market in the world

What has India to do with this? Or is it China?

J

[johnnya24]

What has India to do with this? Or is it China?

J

Europe is the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods and services, and is itself the biggest export market for around 80 countries.

Together, the European Union's 28 members account for 16% of world imports and exports.

The EU is the largest economy in the world. Although growth is projected to be slow, the EU remains the largest economy in the world with a GDP per head of €25 000 for its 500 million consumers.

The EU is the world's largest trading block. The EU is the world’s largest trader of manufactured goods and services.

The EU ranks first in both inbound and outbound international investments

The EU is the top trading partner for 80 countries. By comparison the US is the top trading partner for a little over 20 countries.

The EU is the most open to developing countries. Fuels excluded, the EU imports more from developing countries than the USA, Canada, Japan and China put together.

4 individual EU countries exceed India in the rankings of consumer economies (Ger, UK, FR and IT), and Germany and the UK combined exceed China.

So yeah, utter insanity to isolate yourself from the biggest integrated economy in the world (750m population) when you are already in the heart of it.

[PaleoMan]

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Farage returns to the EU Parliament to gloat.

[johnnya24]

Well that was embarrassing ... we thought we had this moron restricted to the shires with the other inbred fuckwits.

[johnnya24]

This sums it up nicely

Brexit https://imgur.com/gallery/EF4UWro

[Hornsby]

Looks like the ass-clowns who lied to the people to get them to vote leave, are starting to leave themselves. Farage decided to bail out before any real work needs to be done, probably better for the British people.

[johnnya24]

Our new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson

[TranaGreg]

this is brilliant - the Deputy spokesperson at the US state department learns of Boris Johnson becoming Foreign Secretary ... check out the facial expression - two seconds of honest reaction, then back to business.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c46107...ns-appointment

[The Feral Slasher]

Johnny, any thoughts on the recent UK elections ?

[johnnya24]

Johnny, any thoughts on the recent UK elections ?

Blunder by the PM to call an early election. She was fooled by the polls, and hoping for a big majority in order to barrel through their Brexit policies over the next 5 years. They blundered the campaign in the face of a resurgent positive anti-austerity Labour Party, and ended up losing their small majority. They now have a minority government propped up by a small Northern Ireland party, the DUP. The DUP want 'soft Brexit', whereas the more extreme members of the Conservative Party want 'hard Brexit'. So whether that means 'hard Brexit' is dead, I don't know.

It was a fascinating election. The SNP lost many seats in Scotland, including their former leader ... a rebuke to their trolling for a second Scottish referendum just 1 year after the previous.

[Fresno Bob]

I'll be on the scene in Gibraltar in 3 days