Concrete Achievements

Tag: brexit

  • Britain steps up doomsday planning for no-deal Brexit < this is a political choice, not a…

    Britain steps up doomsday planning for no-deal Brexit ft.com/content/9f494e… < this is a political choice, not a natural disaster. I hope people realise we don’t have to do it, and blame the right people for how we got here.

    I worry about a Weimar Britain, with unstable politics further destabilised by nationalists and fascists stirring up hatred against foreigners and fifth columnists. You already see the start of a stab-in-the-back myth.

    « Le nationalisme, mesdames et messieurs, c’est la guerre » youtube.com/watch?v=ILtIBV…

  • Links from the week of 9 July 2018

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • I’m not losing sight of this.

    I’m not losing sight of this. I run a multinational service business, without the budget to hire expensive lawyers, so Brexit is *still* a total disaster for my business – as well as for the future of Britain in a united Europe and the rights of me and my kids. twitter.com/henrynewman/st…

    But sure I’ll be able to expand in the US (which I don’t want to do because it’s bloody miles away) perhaps one day some day. All I need to do now is give up my existing freedoms. Hurrah! What a great deal!

    The U.K. cave-in on including services in their Great-British-EEA cannot come soon enough (and on free movement too).

  • A great example of what won’t work about parliamentary veto.

    A great example of what won’t work about parliamentary veto. Incremental divergence (🙄) while pinned tweet argues against one of the biggest EU rules. UK will take every rule because what’s the alternative? A chunk of SM gone and hard border in NI. And every rule = a UK crisis.

    Parliamentary veto in EEA works because the consequences are so severe only a lunatic would use it except as nuclear weapon. U.K. politics is filled with lunatics desperate to prove how independent we are.

    In a way it could risk the same rhetorical escalation that brought us Brexit, with the fundamentals of EU common rules never being explained to people, and every issue an Us v Them.

  • Links from the week of 25 June 2018

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 18 June 2018

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 4 June 2018

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 28 May 2018

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • I see soi-disant “Liberal Leavers” are going through another bout of pearl-clutching…

    I see soi-disant “Liberal Leavers” are going through another bout of pearl-clutching about how dreadful Brexit is and how we should stay in the EEA. To which I say “are you ashamed of winning a referendum by riding on the back of illiberal xenophobia yet?”

    The dogs in the street knew that free movement would be impossible after a referendum driven by a press and politicians with hard anti-immigration messages. Apparently not “liberal leavers”.

    I guess they hoped that their weird sovereignty obsession would be smuggled through by politicians mugging anti-immigration leave voters. Well, I hate the outcome but at least voters are getting what they wanted.

    It won’t be what voters want when they get it, of course, and that will be when people will start asking hard questions of Leave campaigners who promised them all the benefits and none of the costs.

    I wouldn’t want to be a liberal leaver. Even if they don’t feel burning personal shame at what they’ve done to the country, they are going to have some very unpleasant conversations in their future.

  • Did you notice how there were no anti-Europe Day protests in the U.K.

    Did you notice how there were no anti-Europe Day protests in the U.K. today? #Brexit is the most drear, joyless, bitter independence the world has ever seen. The wet November Tuesday of nations.

    Looking forward to the proud revolutionary artwork Brexit will give rise to. The Statue of Peevishness. Farage Crossing the Shopping Centre Water Feature. Liberty tweeting angrily at the People from her spare room.

    Fortunately the U.K. already has a dreadful dirge-like national anthem that dwells on the past while saying nothing about the country as it is today, so that’s a big timesaver.