Dilbert_X wrote:
uziq wrote:
except the brexit types put their faith in trade and denuded notions of 1980s free-market economics, whereas remain'ers entrust civic institutions to regulate and protect wherever possible. that's what this ultimately comes down to. it's not about 'unelected politicians' (this is continuously and always overplayed: most european politicians are elected, just in elections that seemingly hardly any national public gives a fuck about; senior bodies are elected then from that body of european MPs; it's about as indirect and unaccountable as a prime minister forming a cabinet).
There's a massive disconnect between the European parliament and local democracy.
It practically isn't democracy, and might as well not be.
There's simply no need for a Euro parliament, everything could be dealt with more efficiently by a council of foreign ministers at 1/1000th of the cost, and it would be more democratic.
That and Britain plays by the rules but pretty no other country does. Good luck getting free housing and dole if you turn up unemployed in Austria for example. If you're not put on the first train home you'll be chipping ice of the roads for your board if you're lucky.
Those are my two biggest gripes.
it always comes down to issues like housing and immigration, the tabloid-friendly stuff. no one thinks about how the EU has kept uk farming and industry economically viable. the problem is that we haven't been building enough new housing, period, not that europeans have been snatching them from under hardworking britons' noses.
now we're leaving that means a) wales are fucked. b) scotland is fucked. (expect referendums and the breakup of the united kingdom imminently) c) the great majority of britain's (non-corporate, small-medium scale landhold) farmers are fucked. a LOT of our society was propped up or kept feasible by subsidies and trade agreements. but people see a trickle of immigration and see europeans being given housing and think their society is going to shit.
there are essentially two UKs. there's the working-class who have lost their industrial base and traditional reason for existence. they all voted to leave – en masse. it's possibly the biggest act of political revolt they have made since 1725 or something. the other UK is the university-educated, tertiary-sector workers who rely on close international ties and mobility. the spread in the votes was literally something like 70% 'remain' having degrees and 30% of the 'leave' camp. it couldn't be more night and day.
it'll be interesting to see if all those working-class protestors are now going to go into the fields of suffolk, norfolk and kent to start picking fruit.
methinks not.
Last edited by uziq (2016-06-23 23:19:52)