Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that he will step down after the historic vote yesterday for the UK voted to leave the European Union. It is a blow for President Barack Obama who put everything on the line to push the British to stay in the EU, including seriously overplaying his hand (and role) in issuing dire warnings to the British people as did other world leaders. The warnings backfired and only reaffirmed the feeling that there is now a world order that will not tolerate traditional democratic controls over national policies and practices.
Boris Johnson is likely to be the next prime minister and heralded the ability of of Britain to now pass its own laws, set its own taxes and control its own borders.
I could see both sides of this argument. I have long been uncomfortable with the shifting of governance powers to international organizations like the EU which are not subject to the same democratic pressures as a national government. The proponents scored huge points by pointing out that few people could even name the top officials in the EU.
I thought that President Obama was overbearing in his intervention in the debate, warnings that seemed to only harden the resolve of the independence movement. I can see the economic benefits of being part of the EU, though it would seem clear that close trade would necessarily have to continue. The Brits wanted control over their own laws and I am highly sympathetic to that desire. EU countries are subject to edicts that seem to come from no where on everything from cheese preparation to taxes. People felt that they no longer had a direct say on who was writing their laws and who was really leading their country. Neither Cameron nor Obama seemed to get the movement. They also continued to miss (as do the Democrats in this country) the strong sentiments over immigration.
What do you think?
oldpoet, A smart team of Presidential aids would have told Obama that. He is surrounded by sycophants.
Excellent News!! Israeli whore Cameron is to resign!!
Paul, Good comment. And if the DNC wasn’t in the tank for Hillary the matchup would be Trump v Sanders.
I honestly believe that President Obama going to England and doing what he did actually helped convince many people to vote against staying in the EU.
Good rule of thumb; if pathological liars, war criminals Obama and Hillary Clinton are for it reject it like the plague.
I think it’s about the real global economy. The American stock market has morphed into a beast whereby when it falls, the real economy crumbles.
It was the market that cratered in ’29 and ’08 and the real economy that was destroyed. And since the recovery after ’08 was premised on throwing money at the problem without addressing the foundational problems, the financial market and therefore the entire real global economy can crumble without warning.
Obama just doesn’t want to see his economic recovery unravel around him, or the suffering that that would unleash on Main Street. Neither do I, I just wish he would’ve had the backbone to actually fix the problem.
Canada now needs to put on their big boy pants and vote to leave the U.S.
Obama should have stayed out of the Brexit debate. Imagine telling the UK thst the US won’t deal with it as an indivudal state when we deal with Saudi Arabia on a minute to minute basis and funnel money into their wide open pockets.
The Brexit vote was not a racist one. It was a rejection of the trend to demonize any real concerns any average people living in a country have by calling them bigots and racists especially when those shutting down debate are always calling for “tolerance”. The elite politicians have turned their backs on average non incorporated people and the people are tired of it. They don’t have much left but the vote so….they used it!
Darren, Obama not thinking something thru?
If anything I think he thinks too much.
I think this time he showed his insulation through his membership in the Nanny “Republic” Stability class.
On another note, wonder if Cameron’s old man being involved in the Panama papers reinforced any of that elites are screwing us meme.
The immigrants and the Greeks in particular were the scapegoats.
Here it’s the Muslims and the Mexicans.
Apple don’t fall too far from the Anglo Saxon tree.
Or as my mom would say “The nuts, dear, the nuts don’t fall too far from the tree.”
Imagine that. Now let’s see if the American people finally wake up and decide it’s time to exit the progressive, weaponized administrative state.
“Progrexit” Now!
Nick S. – “We are witnessing a revolution. Hopefully it remains bloodless.” Yep, and as you point out the news media has been unable to predict our primary election process for a year now. This past winter it seemed every day the talking heads were predicting the death of Donald due to something he said. Anybody that does not think Donald winning the Repo and the strength of Bernie with young people is not a sign of significant discontent has their head in the sand.
World Federalism is inevitable, but elitist, heavy-handed attempts in that direction should be rejected. Good for the Brits!
Though I am a citizen of the EU, I believe Brexit was the better choice. Several other nations, in my view, would be better returning to their own sovereignty such as The Netherlands and Austria.
One of my chief complaints of the EU is precisely what our host mentions; that unelected and detached bureaucrats and politicians dictate edicts with little input from the local individuals who are the ones most affected. Arguments for EU state that underdeveloped nations receive benefits that sovereignty could not provide yet the price sometimes exacted led to austerity and regulations which met with considerable resentment by the recipients.
Beyond this in the case of the UK, much of what I read indicates a significant detachment of the ruling class over ordinary middle and lower class individuals. Those in the latter camp strongly voted for Brexit often due to their belief that they were marginalized by EU policies and the political class. The referendum was not only to answer the question of whether to remain in the EU, but it also was one on the legitimacy of the ruling class domestically.
One issue I have not seen discussed yet in the media is that occasionally a shake-up is necessary to retool a government and to boot it into new ways of approach and thinking. As long as the resulting government is benevolent, capable and legitimate better outcomes tend to generate, whereas continuing with the status quo often prolongs the languishing with little motivation for change.
As for President Obama, he should have just wished to Brits the best and let them decide their own destiny. But like so many of his decisions he jumped into something without thinking it through and it lead to a poor consequence for him.
The British people just did the world a favor. Thank you, Great Britain!
The slowly tightening NOOSE of international banking and major corporations UNELECTED control over NATIONAL governments just experienced a serious setback. Of course there will be IMMEDIATE consequences. I trust none is the arrow going through the heart of Britain depicted on the 2016 Economist cover. The Economist, of course, is the flagship of globalism, the mouthpiece of all UNELECTED powers who rule this planet.
The German economy is now likely to collapse (it’s already started), with the economic dominoes coming home to roost in America in Sept, just like 2008. This time the TBTFs will extract money DIRECTLY from Americans – via bail-ins.
It’s setting up to be a most interesting next few months. The timing of the Hillary Clinton indictment will be a HUGE indicator of who’s winning. If it occurs before the DNC convention, then Bernie Sanders stands a real chance. If after the DNC, Clinton gets the nomination, the FBI releases their indictment in late Sept/October, elections are thrown into turmoil, riots out when banks fail to load those EBT cards, Obama declares martial law and cancels elections. It will be interesting to see who the FBI serves – the American people or the Globalist machine operating out of the Executive branch.
Here and there – it’s about GOOD jobs! We need “Fair Trade” not a Wild West trade policy without any standards.
It’s really that simple, workers wages have remained stagnant (or DEFLATED) for almost two decades while the cost of healthcare, education and everything else has INFLATED greatly. Immigrants and minorities have always been the scapegoats for bad trade policies predating the Bible.
We need a “Trickle-Up” economy, the “Trickle Down” theory has even been discredited by Reagan’s economic advisor David Stockman.
Brits don’t like being lectured to by an adjunct law professor any more than we here in the US do. Brits KNOW the Obama incompetence in the Middle East is the reason people voted to leave. Now, I think it was a noble idea, the EU. But, there are savages @ the gate and Merkel is letting them all into Germany, which then gives them access to all of Europe. Merkel is the other reason Brexit won.
All the experts were wrong in calling this. All the experts in the US have been wrong in calling most of our elections here. The elitists who control govt. and the media better hold on tight, the ride is just starting to get rough. We are witnessing a revolution. Hopefully it remains bloodless.
> The Brits wanted control over their own laws and I am highly sympathetic to that desire
What a provincial attitude!
Nobody, even in smaller countries, think individual people have any influence over the laws that are being made in the capital. On the other hand it is crucial to the interaction – both economical and cultural – between nations and regions that rules are coherently unified. You wouldn’t go back to the era that every zone even within countries had their own measures. Napoleon started standarisation and Portugal, not affected at the time, only in the 1970’s abandoned different measures – sometimes with the same name – in different provinces. EU drew that line further, in e.g. ruling tat a goat cheese is a goet cheese everywhere as long as it meets certain standards. Of course, always somebody will be against….
It is a stupid decision, brought about mostly by the elderly who will not be living with the consequences.
This has been going on for centuries. Napoleon tried to create an economic union barring GB, didn’t work, the businesses found a way to do business. de Gaulle tried to keep British economy out after WW2, didn’t work, Britain created economic relationships directly with Germany and the other countries until France changed Presidents and attitudes.
The European Union needs to be retooled, as do all unions. In the end Britain will be working economically with the EU much as before. The sideshows of subsidies and laws mean next to nothing. For every lost subsidy there is a lost obligation. The laws are virtually the same all over Europe. The migrants can’t read English, French, German, etc so they will continue to slip in.
This is mostly hype on which those who trade in the stock markets will use to make tons of money. Right now if you shorted the market you are making a bundle. Then you start buying long over the next year as the corporations rebound. Same old, same old.
The real damage may yet to be done if this gets Trump into the White House. Now there is a disaster in the making, something a hundred times worse than 9/11, Brexit, and a few hurricanes thrown in combined.
So the question is to short or not to short come November.