The Consequences of Brexit [part 4]

[I1L2T3]

This costs us a fiver a week per household.

 

What did the EEC/EU ever do for us? Not much, apart from: providing 57% of our trade; structural funding to areas hit by industrial decline; clean beaches and rivers; cleaner air; lead free petrol; restrictions on landfill dumping; a recycling culture; cheaper mobile charges; cheaper air travel; improved consumer protection and food labelling; a ban on growth hormones and other harmful food additives; better product safety; single market competition bringing quality improvements and better industrial performance; break up of monopolies; Europe-wide patent and copyright protection; no paperwork or customs for exports throughout the single market; price transparency and removal of commission on currency exchanges across the eurozone; freedom to travel, live and work across Europe; funded opportunities for young people to undertake study or work placements abroad; access to European health services; labour protection and enhanced social welfare; smoke-free workplaces; equal pay legislation; holiday entitlement; the right not to work more than a 48-hour week without overtime; strongest wildlife protection in the world; improved animal welfare in food production; EU-funded research and industrial collaboration; EU representation in international forums; bloc EEA negotiation at the WTO; EU diplomatic efforts to uphold the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; European arrest warrant; cross border policing to combat human trafficking, arms and drug smuggling; counter terrorism intelligence; European civil and military co-operation in post-conflict zones in Europe and Africa; support for democracy and human rights across Europe and beyond; investment across Europe contributing to better living standards and educational, social and cultural capital.

[cgksheff]

Would it not be polite to acknowledge, Simon Sweeney,the author of those words from 2013?

[Lockdoctor]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/11/whats-eu-ever-done-us

 

Simon Sweeney

[L00b]

OK, but it also vindicates one aspect of the Brexiteers' position, namely that sovereignty no longer lies with the British people/voters/establishment.

It never did. Not even in the days of the Empire. Precisely because-

They just got it wrong about where the sovereignty *does* lie. It's not with the EU, but with all these foreign (or indeed British) investors who are now frantically pulling their money out of the UK.

 

As your countryman Thomas Piketty says, Capital is where the power lies,

Which is exactly why this notion of "taking back control" (from the EU) in the Brexiteers' position was complete guff from the get-go.

 

The irony of it, is all the more compounded by the fact that what you relate below-

and Capital is where we should look if we want to take our sovereignty back. Capital taxes, capital controls. Far from requiring more nationalism/isolationism, this would require international co-operation, or at least an international consensus, but I think there's hope. Would perhaps just take one big economy to start things off. E.g. if Bernie Sanders had got in last year, that might have started the dominoes falling. You never know. [if even the US isn't big enough to stand up to globalised Capital, we really are stuffed.]

-is exactly where the EU intends on going. This might usefully provide some additional perspective about why has the UK been continually braking on all fours about EU financial legislation / regulatory initiatives

 

(IMO) international co-operation, in the form of Bretton Woods, was one of the key factors in shaping the "Trente Glorieuses" [the post-WWII decades of unrivalled prosperity, reduced inequality and general well-being for most people in the West], and its collapse one of the key factors in ushering in the neoliberal era. What we need is a Bretton Woods for the 21st century.

Not going to happen whilst (i) Trump is in the White House, (ii) Putin is in the Kremlin and (iii) they both have the ear and support of professional kleptocrats thriving on chaos economics (-who are in all likelihood the very same people/networks who have been pushing the hardline Brexiteers at the a55 all along).

 

Your best bet against the above, and answering your wish, was, and remains, collaborative unifying models like the EU: because it's a collection of too many national self-interests, structured by sufficiently-rigid equalitarian principles and due processes, for any one or two to gain control over the others. This is to be contrasted with all manners of non-unifying trade super-agreements like e.g. NAFTA, the stabilising limits of which are plain to see today.

Edited October 17, 2017 by L00b

[I1L2T3]

Would it not be polite to acknowledge, Simon Sweeney,the author of those words from 2013?

 

Yes no problem but I'm pretty certain he's not going to mind

[Car Boot]

If someone is poor and/or lives in a deprived area, then the chances are that the EU has done huge amounts for them.

But they'd rather believe the tabloids than actually take the time to find that out.

 

The EU has ensured that the 'politics of austerity' have been imposed throughout the continent during the last decade. The 'huge amounts' that the EU has done for the poor has seen an unprecedented attack on living standards (for those at the bottom), wages and public services. 'Social Europe' simply does not exist in any real sense.

 

The neo liberal agenda of the EU in countries such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus etc has led to the dismantling of the welfare state, huge cuts to the minimum wage and the privatisation of services in those countries. This deliberate strategy has been pursued aggressively by the EU against its poorest citizens.

 

What this has shown is that even the most modest of reforms that might marginally benefit the working class are being swept aside as the EU pursues privatisation and an agenda that benefits those who own capital the most.

 

The EU doesn't want investment, full employment and strong public services. It has forced through cuts, privatisation and economic liberalisation.

 

This strategy of austerity is deeply rooted in the neo liberal ideology that is at the very core of the EU project.

 

It's not enough to leave the EU.

 

We need to smash the EU - by any means necessary.

[Lockdoctor]

Yes no problem but I'm pretty certain he's not going to mind

You can only be certain, if you are Simon Sweeney.

[Hots on]

 

If someone is poor and/or lives in a deprived area, then the chances are that the EU has done huge amounts for them.

But they'd rather believe the tabloids than actually take the time to find that out.

 

Such as? from where I'm standing there are foreigners in houses that Sheffielder's are gasping for, and more and more foreign kids are filling up the schools etc.

[melthebell]

Such as? from where I'm standing there are foreigners in houses that Sheffielder's are gasping for, and more and more foreign kids are filling up the schools etc.

 

And all the while, those at the top get richer. Get off your one trick pony and look at the bigger picture, it's a class war not a race war

 

---------- Post added 17-10-2017 at 10:28 ----------

 

The EU has ensured that the 'politics of austerity' have been imposed throughout the continent during the last decade. The 'huge amounts' that the EU has done for the poor has seen an unprecedented attack on living standards (for those at the bottom), wages and public services. 'Social Europe' simply does not exist in any real sense.

 

The neo liberal agenda of the EU in countries such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus etc has led to the dismantling of the welfare state, huge cuts to the minimum wage and the privatisation of services in those countries. This deliberate strategy has been pursued aggressively by the EU against its poorest citizens.

 

What this has shown is that even the most modest of reforms that might marginally benefit the working class are being swept aside as the EU pursues privatisation and an agenda that benefits those who own capital the most.

 

The EU doesn't want investment, full employment and strong public services. It has forced through cuts, privatisation and economic liberalisation.

 

This strategy of austerity is deeply rooted in the neo liberal ideology that is at the very core of the EU project.

 

It's not enough to leave the EU.

 

We need to smash the EU - by any means necessary.

Was it the eu that caused the crash 10 years ago?

[I1L2T3]

Such as? from where I'm standing there are foreigners in houses that Sheffielder's are gasping for, and more and more foreign kids are filling up the schools etc.

 

That's not a failure of the EU is it. It's a UK government failure.