Brexit - Blog Posts

They failed, because as the blogger Epicurean Dealmaker pointed out on Twitter, “Markets distill the biases, opinions, & convictions of elites,” which makes them “Structurally less able to predict populist movements.” The inability of those elites to grapple with the rich world’s populist moment was in full display on social media last night. Journalists and academics seemed to feel that they had not made it sufficiently clear that people who oppose open borders are a bunch of racist rubes who couldn’t count to 20 with their shoes on, and hence will believe any daft thing they’re told. A lot of my professional colleagues seemed to, and the dominant tone framed this as a blow against the enlightened “us” and the beautiful world we are building, struck by a plague of morlocks who had crawled out of their hellish subterranean world to attack our impending utopia. Surrendering traditional powers and liberties to a distant state is a lot easier if you think of that state as run by “people like me,” not “strangers from another place,” and particularly if that surrender is done in the name of empowering “people who are like me” in our collective dealings with other, farther “strangers who aren’t.” These sorts of tribal affiliations cause problems, obviously, which is why elites were so eager to tamp them down. Unfortunately, they are also what glues polities together, and makes people willing to sacrifice for them.  Elites missed this because they're the exception -- the one group that has a transnational identity.

Megan McArdle “'Citizens of the World'? Nice Thought, But ...”

This. This is the true cost of Brexit.

Brexit Charade.

At last the absurd Brexit negotiations are over. It's taken 4 1/2 years of posturing from the British government but now the European Union has called it's bluff and We will be leaving in December.

I think we are now viewing the last hurrah for Gladstone's gunboat diplomacy. No longer can Britain negotiate trade access with its financial might backed up by the RN. The vague hope that individual European nations would have broken ranks and agreed to Britain's demands were just that. Faced with an existential crisis the EU27 collectively agreed a fair treaty with the UK .

So why does a bunch of trust-fund benefiting toffs refuse to sign? Because their idea of fair is different to ours. They have turned Britain into a conduit for the world's wealth. Through The City of London into offshore tax-havens like Bermuda and Jersey. They see this as fair, so when the EU called for taxation on financial transactions and more disclosure of assets for its citizens, David Cameron and Co. decided that wasn't fair. And so one referendum and two elections latter they still think it is unfair. And they are fully justified. The British public have consistently voted for these people so they must be right? I think the British media, run by like minded individuals, is mostly to blame. Along with many people's lack of curiosity. The British media has avoided any discussion regarding fairness in taxation that other countries regard as normal. We cleave to fudal laws when it comes to property and inheritance tax that these people see as fair because they have learnt how to avoid them. The media have portrayed the EU as inflexible and are the bad guys , whereas it's the UK government that are willing to break international law, first through Diago Garcia and now through the Internal Markets Bill. We are saddled with a ruling class that's sense of moral rightness is shown to be entitled hubris by the EU.

I just want to see how the BBC plays this one out for Prole consumption.

Brexit 'will enhance' UK wildlife laws - Gove - BBC News

Any Brexit changes to the UK's wildlife laws will increase - not reduce - environmental protection, Michael Gove has pledged.

The only good thing I can see coming out of Brexit (if they actually deliver beyond a speech)

without title There's something brutal and special, beautiful and brittle about such a restorative rebuttal. it's not subtle, and it's not supple but it is super suitable to that of the more malleable millennial. and i guess it's just the perennial and the parental the supplemental instead of the fundamental and the more cruelly critical if deemed considerable well that's just atypical, anatomically analytical of the abominable and the abysmal why be miserable in the denial of any sort of miracle when the possible and the palatable are positively powerful and it's not tyrannical to demand change, be vocal champion local, detest bigotry and the unhelpful be hopeful, I dread to think of the dreadfully incapable You can't argue with a fanatical the odds of changing their minds is astronomical and I've never been all that mathematical but we shouldn't need a funeral to become spiritual, communal It's sad that such a grim ritual has become so habitual maybe these things will change in steps that are gradual and be wary of awful views that can border on the cusp of the casual Be mindful of plights around you that could be invisible. Signs in protests don't need to be grammatical or practical they can hang with questions rhetorical they can talk about topics regrettable With truth don't take a morsel Consume the mouthful believe me the respect will be mutual they can also blaze with power irrevocable and words wilfully wise could be deemed unpractical or whimsical Be the well read and readily available rascal Goodness should be commonplace not something special.and it should be placed alongside the cerebral and the celestial. I suspect anyone who boasts about being a radical gentle condescension lacking in truer comprehension a gent in a monocle lecturing the man in a shackle. Ideas of course are critical but hey let's just spitball and make sure we are never cynical, I want to look back from death inevitable and know from the break of the umbilical I was moral and I was ethical and that vicious things when all is final do die out and virtue is the thing that is cyclical 

My 3 AM thoughts were me thinking about how my country fucked itself by leaving the EU (guess).

And I realised that they are doing Brexit way more extreme than they said they would. Just like

Leave: Oh yeah, we'll stay in the European Economic Area, and I guarantee food and other standards will remain at a reasonable quality.

brexit is so old that it started when i was in primary school and i’m still not quite over that 

This is what happens when you give in to the dark side of 80ties politics, Thatcherism, and subsequently turn your entire economy into a rentier system for "outside investors" (read: russian oligarchs) and some geezer who owns 25 dilapidated rowhouses in the outskirts of London with no central heating or indoor plumbing.

I would gloat but the one thing saving my country from the same fate, a constant instream of migrants, is also driving small business tyrants insane enough that they're trying to carry a new fascist party into government.

In summation, Climate Stalin now, please.

Nightmare country

BBC Newsnight just delivered a colossal 'f*ck you' to bonkers Brexiteers [VIDEO] | The Canary

This has to be seen to be believed.

little britain

My painting for the current project ‘Then and Now’. Oil on canvas (85cm x 140cm)

I have been exploring Slovak folklore and folk art and the political topic of Brexit which is a very current affair. Throughout the project I have been merging these two different ideas together as I am aim to tell the ‘folk story’ of how Brexit touches people’s lives in different ways. The girl (Britain) is wearing a blouse with an eastern European embroidery design to convey the message of, diversity, tolerance and multiculturalism, all apparent in one country, but she is brushing the EU stars out of her hair reflecting, the weakening of some of these important principles.

My technique was inspired by Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro and a painting by the Slovakian artist Julius Bukovinsky.