As always, The Daily Mash provides the best analysis:
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I think the opposite is true. Johnson is lazy and has no principles beyond doing whatever it takes to get himself into power. His much-vaunted “deal” earlier this year was obtained by simply conceding where May wouldn’t.
I suspect he will give the EU whatever they want in order to say he “got Brexit done”.
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Nope. Just like Trump, this result is about racism pure and simple. The ‘red wall’ is where I live, and lots of it is racist as fuck, which is what won the brexit vote.
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Probably no one. The mess that the Brexit process has been, so far, has mostly increased the support of the EU elsewhere in Europe; and once we have the economic and political train wreck of Brexit to watch live, everyone except the terminally stupid and dishonest are going to say “No thanks!” to further “Leave” ideas.
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You would think. But for example in my country (Hungary), with a populist, increasingly overtly fascist government and a PM who not only created essentially a one-party authoritarian system but has blatant dictatorial aspirations, support of the EU has actually decreased - spurred in a huge part by an overwhelming presence of government propaganda. (And it is an overwhelming presence: almost all print news and tabloid media is published by an organization that has direct ties to the government, and in most places of the country that is the only source of news available.)
Our government has been pushing an anti-EU propaganda for years now, pretending to protect the country’s interests against the leftist, liberal, Soros-funded tyranny of Brussels… and as much as it is for show, it is also a fact that Orbán has been actively trying to find non-EU sources of income (as his party has been stealing EU money, that is in fact what still makes the economy work). I actually think that the only reason he hasn’t raised the “maybe we should leave the EU” flag yet is because he hasn’t found a replacement income for EU money yet. The moment he strikes a working deal with Russia or China he’ll definitely start using the Brexit card to blackmail the EU as he jockeys for more and more power… and if the EU digs its heels, and there’s ever a referendum here, I have no illusions how all the misinformed, ignorant people in this country would vote.
Populist politicians keep their power by maintaining a constant “war”, always having an enemy to protect the country against. In Europe the EU is a very common target, especially with all the Russian misinformation campaigns fueling a barrage of fake news, or Russian support of politicians and even far-right organizations. Brexit is a very powerful card in their hands, it shows that leaving the EU is something that can be done, and that you can convince your country to vote for.
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Yes, it could be done, but the aftermath of this is to be seen. Why former Eastern Bloc states were so eager to enter in the UE? Norway and Switzerland never entered in the UE and nobody complained.
An entirely understandable attempt to make sure they’ll never be Russia’s vassals again. (The same reason why most of the Eastern Europe ran for NATO at the earlier possible opportunity.)
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What LurksNoMore said above. The Soviet system was terrible in so many ways, we were poor and woefully behind everything. Joining the EU was like joining the civilized world and having a shot at becoming a first-world country.*
Except, as it turns out, the mindsets fostered under the Soviet system didn’t change. Eastern European nations spent way too long in an infinitely corrupt, difficult, repressive system. I can’t speak for other countries, but over here people had “if you’re not crafty and don’t try to go around rules and find loopholes to game the system you can’t make it” and a kind of nonchalant/defeatist attitude to corruption and political dishonesty ingrained in their mind. We never learned democracy, never learned how to make an economy work, meanwhile the EU never expected having to deal with nations having this sort of a collective mindset.
*Just to give an idea of what it was like: in 1991 my family moved from the capital to a town very near the capital. We didn’t have a phone for at least a year or maybe even longer, because even in 1991 you had to file a request to have a phone line, and it took that long for the request to be processed.
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Yes. My ex-partner lived/lives in Warsaw, and I encountered this a lot.
Caveats: my direct knowledge is about a decade out-of-date, and I’d obviously defer to Polish people - I was only an occasional visitor!
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Not in Northern Ireland it wasn’t. Worked quite well.
Fuck the DUP. Next up the reports on how they disbursed the English bribery cash to their clients and on how they covered up child abuse.
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Those who were hoping for the return of the British Rail sandwich are going to have a long wait.
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I think the EU would accept Hungary leaving (if it’s on this trajectory) with a good deal more sangfroid than the UK. Hungary is a problem for Europe as it is now.
I think the European project will be stronger without England.
ETA: I’m not saying that’s good or bad - I genuinely don’t have a fixed view.
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“if you’re not crafty and don’t try to go around rules and find loopholes to game the system you can’t make it”
This mindset is not limited to Eastern European nations. Southern nations are very similar.
We didn’t have a phone for at least a year
We had the exact same experience, and in the same year, but in Italy.
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Shh. The people have spoken. Silly, stupid, bigoted, racist people. Enjoy paying to see the doctor, people. And getting your pension at 70. And having your holidays at home. I hate you all. You embarass me.
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That exactly is what I’m afraid of.
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By definition, in a democracy you can’t vote “wrong”, as long as your vote is a valid one. But you can totally vote stupid, and that’s exactly what just happened in the UK.
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I’ve read articles saying that, for people in central and eastern Europe, joining the EU meant acceptance as fully European, no longer (they hoped) perceived as different because of Communism, the legacy of the Ottoman Empire or anything else that could be invoked to characterise them as having different values or a different culture from Catholic/Protestant/secular democratic western Europe (which, of course, includes Norway and Switzerland).
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I am sure Classic Dom game-planned this all along. Rename the backstop and make it look like something else; get enough Commons votes to pass it; call election knowing the DUP will become irrelevant (and if not, nothing lost); and once DUP is irrelevant, do whatever the hell deal he feels like and can get away with in EU negotiations. That Irish Sea border is here now, either forever or until Ireland re-unites (in which case it just extends further down the Irish Sea).
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And Turkey and Hungary and Poland and Brazil and … This recipe has already been repeated elsewhere and proven to work. It may be more of a ‘method’ than a precise ‘recipe’ but it is well understood and well prosecuted by those who do understand it. Nothing new this morning that wasn’t true yesterday.
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