What I think we are seeing all over the developed world is a renascence of the desire for national sovereignty.
There seems to be a growing sense that transnational institutions, both political and financial, are acting purely in their own self interest and not in the interests of those who are called upon to support and maintain them.
The left can either find common cause with this trend based upon reducing the power of international banks and other financial manipulators, or it can simply dismiss all nationalist thought as simple bigotry and hope to shame it into extinction. I would not bet on the latter being a successful strategy.
I donât disagree that nationalism and distrust of globalism are contributing factors. Itâs just that what they were saying and doing had one central tenet: kick out the filthy immigrants destroying our country. Certainly there were things in play besides racism and xenophobia, but there was also a massive amount of racism and xenophobia, esp. from UKIP, but also from the Tories that you really should acknowledge as a key factor. âWe want our country back,â wasnât just about getting back some imagined lost control from the EU (which was merely confused stupidity), but also getting the country back back from the foreign invaders. The words of both leaders and supporters made plain what they were talking about, even if the Tories backing Brexit put a fig leaf over their racism and xenophobia.
Obviously the Remain peopleâs rhetoric and tactics didnât work, and those who supported Remain sometimes harping on the overt racism and xenophobia the Brexiters were running on clearly wasnât sufficient to persuade angry voters, made all the more angry by vast amounts of dishonest propaganda about immigrants, the EU, probable outcomes, fictional benefits, fictional costs, and the rest. But the Remain campaign wasnât primarily âyou guys are racist xenophobes,â but âthis is a shockingly bad idea,â and Iâm not sure why youâre mischaracterizing it. If anything their worst problem was that they were too wonky to succeed.
I donât know what tactics would work when youâre facing an organized and well funded movement of shockingly dishonest actors fanning the flames of anger, racism, xenophobia, and anti-intellectualism while flagrantly lying. Whatever that is, the Remain people didnât address it well enough. Trumpâs playing the same cards in the US, though there arenât enough âmissing white votersâ for it to ever succeed, he hasnât got the funding to run an election, isnât taking it very seriously, so the Dems. have a very different electoral race, ground game, and demographics to work with.
Cornwall is another place that is now crying out for a continuation to its subsidies after solidly supporting the Leave Campaign. It is almost as though people didnât realise what they were voting for
Iâm seriously considering running for parliament, possibly on the policies of
A referendum on independence from the UK. Any area that votes out is out, they canât be stopped because their city/county/country voted to stay in.
Another referendum on membership in the EU (only for those areas that vote for independence). The same rules as the UK independence referendum.
Also there is the possibility of introducing more direct democracy.
I personally want the whole of Britain to be a left leaning confederacy, but I donât want to force that on people and I donât think it is a good idea to have that as a policy at this point.
Itâs still early days, on Thursday afternoon I wasnât even considering the idea of running as any kind of candidate.
Yes. Real Twitter accounts for famous people get a little blue check mark next to the name to âproveâ theyâre real. Itâs pretty hard (but not impossible) to get it for a fake account. And I think that Her Majesty would more properly be known as Elizabeth II Regina anyway. (Any Royals followers correct me? Iâm not a Brit, though royalty fascinates me.)
Doesnât make it any less funny though. Thereâs some good stuff there!
They donât have to join the EU - they just have to not leave it. If the referendum question is phrased in such a way that it is a vote to stay in the EU and as a consequence that would mean leaning the UK then it could work. Not sure if there are any plans in the EU structure for that course of action. I see no reason why they would have to leave first and then re-join. The EU would have something to say about such a plan but it may well approve.
