Tag: brexit

This would be true in a world where Brexit weren’t a coalition between xenophobic nationalists and 51st-stater free marketeers. The UK will veer between US (51st stater), autarky (nationalists) and EU (anti-Brexiteers) for a decade or so. twitter.com/b_judah/status…

The realities of geography probably means it ends up closer to the EU, if not fully in the more integrated Union that @gideonrachman discusses. However, the 51st-staters will spend next few years trying to entrench things like US regulatory standards to hinder that.

Though even if there were an outbreak of grown-up politics, the UK wouldn’t be at the *centre* of a revived western alliance, it would be the third wheel of the bike, or in Boris Johnson terms, the Marcus Aemilius Lepidus of a western triumvirate.

Originally posted as a thread of 3 tweets on Twitter on 4 August 2020. View the original thread.

If there’s one good thing about Brexit, it’s that it puts an end to this “maybe we don’t have to have ever closer union, perhaps we can have special sovereignty rules” nonsense. The U.K. can’t live with free movement and ever closer union. Ok. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

If it really can’t, it can leave and stay as close as it wants to (taking the hit on trade, sovereignty etc). It’s not good for Europe or Britain but that’s how it is.

But if Britain rejoins, as I suspect it will in a decade or so, then there is no more half-pregnant rubbish. In the euro, in schengen, part of the process for good or ill (and I think it would not only be good for the U.K. but an engaged UK would be great for Europe)

The fact that all these are totally politically unachievable in the U.K. of 2019 is a shame but there we are. Things change. Politics change. I was 15 when section 28 came in and went to a same sex marriages when I was 42. You’ve just got to fight for the future you want. 🇪🇺

Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 18 October 2019. View the original thread.

If there’s one good thing about Brexit, it’s that it puts an end to this “maybe we don’t have to have ever closer union, perhaps we can have special sovereignty rules” nonsense. The U.K. can’t live with free movement and ever closer union. Ok. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

If it really can’t, it can leave and stay as close as it wants to (taking the hit on trade, sovereignty etc). It’s not good for Europe or Britain but that’s how it is.

But if Britain rejoins, as I suspect it will in a decade or so, then there is no more half-pregnant rubbish. In the euro, in schengen, part of the process for good or ill (and I think it would not only be good for the U.K. but an engaged UK would be great for Europe)

The fact that all these are totally politically unachievable in the U.K. of 2019 is a shame but there we are. Things change. Politics change. I was 15 when section 28 came in and went to a same sex marriages when I was 42. You’ve just got to fight for the future you want. 🇪🇺

Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 18 October 2019. View the original thread.