Support for remaining in the EU is above 80% in most EU countries. Asked how they would vote in an in-out referendum, 94% of people in Luxembourg said “in”, as did 92% of people in Portugal, and 91% in Ireland and the Netherlands. In the UK, the poll found that 55% want to remain, making it the most Eurosceptic country; followed by the Czech Republic on 66%, and Italy (72%). ( reported by Kantar/The Independent, the Observer and The Week, 24 May 2019)
I was reading an article in The Spectator (right-wing) about Brexit, written by a former Australian Prime Minister. He couldn’t understand what the fuss was about a “no agreement “ exit from the EU -Australia trades with the EU successfully, he wrote, without being a member. What’s the problem?
Well, the fuss isn’t just about trade, business and money, money, money (which obsess conservatives) It’s also about European security and peace ( justification in itself) at a time when Russia is trying to dissolve it and America is unreliable, to say the least. It’s about trying to ensure such civilised things as safety at work, fair employment, the development of poor regions of the EU, fair business competition, and the many things that constitute a decent, modern set of rules of behaviour. Big money hates constraints and discipline.
I am sorry to say that it is all the unfairly ridiculed EU regulations that the Conservative party want to scrap (in some unpopular cases the regulations are attributed to the EU but actually devised by Tories, who will miss the EU when they haven’t got it. Who else then to blame but themselves?)
.The right- wing idea is to return the country to the dog-eat-dog days of the 19th Century (preferably the early 19th Century before the Corn Laws). This would make Britain more “competitive”, fill the pockets of the “deserving”, and make the desperate man in the street get on his bike and stand on his own feet, thus reducing unfair taxes on the well off (read Conservatives). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Britain dragged into yet another Continental war in the longer term. but a week ahead is as far as these characters can see.
. The country is likely to get, as new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Britain’s Trump, who at least has a fancy degree from Oxford, so he can read. But he cannot seem to understand the concept of national interest or actually comprehend. technical briefs from experienced people. He is a readable as a journalist but a superficial writer who shares with Trump a popularity as an “entertainer” among the mainly middle-aged, old, bored and grumpy. Meanwhile, the country is subjected to a stream of lies, allegedly part paid for by Russia.
In despair, I suggested to my wife that we take the first available spaceship to a distant planet, but she said no, it would be too cold.