It must be a fun day to be a Russian intelligence officer, especially if you had anything to do with helping the British decide to exit the European Union. The Brexit vote is in heavy competition with the election of Donald Trump for the greatest Russian accomplishment in foreign policy since the successful conclusion of World War Two. It has absolutely paralyzed the United Kingdom and will probably shortly bring down the government of Theresa May after having already destroyed David Cameron’s coalition.
The foreign secretary Boris Johnson has resigned today. He follows Brexit Secretary David Davis, who announced his resignation yesterday, as well as his deputy Steve Baker. These men object that after two years of trying to figure out how to leave the European Union, the government is not making a strong enough separation. They fear that Britain will get the worst of both worlds, losing all the benefits of European integration without receiving the benefits of full autonomy. Parliament, in their minds, will be asked to sign away their right to set policy on some aspects of trade and immigration, while not becoming fully free of the obligations of the European court of justice.
It is likely that Prime Minister May will face a vote of no confidence which she may well not survive. So far, the Tories are acting like this crisis is survivable but the resignation of Johnson has not yet been fully digested. The revolt is coming from the so-called “Hard Brexiteers,” who seem to be having difficulty coming to terms with the troubles they have wrought. They have the legitimacy of the referendum for separation but little else to bolster their position.
And it’s easy to exaggerate the legitimacy of the Brexit vote in light of recent revelations:
Arron Banks, a British financier who bankrolled the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, has long bragged about his “boozy six-hour lunch” with the Russian ambassador eight months before the vote.
Some also wondered about Mr. Banks’s Russian-born wife and their custom license plate, X MI5 SPY, after the British intelligence agency, MI5. But Mr. Banks always laughed off questions about his ties to the Kremlin.
Now, a leaked record of some of Mr. Banks’s emails suggest that he and his closest adviser had a more engaged relationship with Russian diplomats than he has disclosed.
While Mr. Banks was spending more than eight million British pounds to promote a break with the European Union — an outcome the Russians eagerly hoped for — his contacts at the Russian Embassy in London were opening the door to at least three potentially lucrative investment opportunities in Russian-owned gold or diamond mines.
The United Kingdom so far feels obligated to honor the Brexit vote and leave the European Union by March 29, 2019. But the government evidently cannot figure out how to accomplish this goal without creating devastating consequences.
At some point, the commitment to Brexit should be scrapped. The Brits were trolled into voting for the destruction of their own country along with a weakening of European unity and power. It’s unseemly so see them writhing around trying to make lemonade out of these lemons.
And I say this as an American. We have been trolled, too, and in an even more complete and effective manner.
I was against Brexit when it happened, would have voted Remain, and was also against a “re-vote” to overturn the result because it would only further empower the far right. You can’t hold a vote on something and then get pissy when it doesn’t go your way. That’s democracy. However, this is no longer operational because “politics” has happened since then, and democracy is a “process”, not just a vote.
First, we have evidence that laws were broken and bribes were paid. Next we have foreign fascist governments interfering. There was an election since the referendum, and May’s Majority was weakened not strengthened — clear sign that “will of the people” is not being followed. Last we have several years of governments attempting to work out something with EU and coming back empty handed, or with a cliff of “no agreement” at all leaving the U.K. completely broken in more ways than one (Irish borders, Scotland ain’t gonna stay and be party to Brexit, planes can’t fly from U.K. to EU, etc).
To me, if I were in opposition and wanted to capitalize, I’d call for another referendum. Instead the opposition is straddling the same Tory fence of having constituencies that voted Brexit and rather than trying to forge a clear majority against it, tried to be in denial about a “good deal” that isn’t possible. How long can this go on? As Obama said, reality has a way of making itself known; you can’t pretend the harvest was good forever.
At least a third of the UK care only that the wogs once more start at Calais, and the sooner the better. To reach that blessed state they’ll pay any price. They believe that Britain now is broken because they don’t. That third isn’t all Tory
The referendum was designed to neuter UKIP, save the Tories, and it worked. The problem is, UKIP wasn’t pulling voters just from Tories. Both parties needed to stanch that hemorrhage.
The nominal opposition isn’t any less riven than the government over Brexit.
Oh yes I understand this, but there’s a huge political opening for a realignment if they’re willing to take it, same as here. It’s the only choice there is on offer, too. Well, that or the death of a nation. I’m not suicidal, but I guess large constituencies are.
The political right of both England and the United States spend decades getting had their respective countries to step out on the ledge in order to win elections, undo democratic government, and further enrich the already wealthy.
So for Russia, it was the greatest foreign policy nudge in world history (and dirt cheap too).
Hunh?
I want to point out that UK, Great Britain and England are THREE DIFFERENT ENTITIES.
UK is England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland (remember them???? blew up a lot of working class pubs for the nobility of England??).
Great Britain is essentially UK without Northern Ireland (which Theresa May tried to give to the Southern Irish [look it up yourself]).
Scotland is essentially everything above the Cheviot Hills.
The point of all of this is that Northern Ireland and Scotland could very easily seccede from UK over leaving the EU. I came back from the Hebriedes last week and SHIT!!!!!:
The grandfathers and grandmothers are mad about the North Sea Oil going South. The Fathers are mad about the loss of free trade wool and mutton. The children (probably the most important group) are mad about the loss of subsidised travel to Amsterdam.
If Brexit comes up for a vote in Scotland … Scotland joins the EU.
Which brings me to my CENTRAL POINT: THe English Brexiteers DON’T CARE. Stick it to the libtards is all they understand.
I managed to write 1300 word diary on this topic without mentioning the Russian interference at all, because whether or not that interference was significant enough to swing the result, it really isn’t the key issue any more.
The key issue is that large parts of the leadership of the two main parties are pro-Brexit and the only argument is over exactly what shape that separation should take. Both are in complete denial that the EU won’t grant either of their wish lists without extracting a considerable price – one they aren’t willing to pay.
So the default outcome is a hard “no-deal” Brexit with disastrous results for the UK and possibly Ireland, and only a minor inconvenience for most of the rest of the EU.
It will take many years for that rupture to be healed and huge damage will be done to the UK in the meantime. Some things are irreversible no matter how dubious their origins and focusing on the Russian angle now helps almost no one.
The damage is done.
`Both parties’ are not the only ones in denial.
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52% voted Brexit. Democracy doesn’t guarantee anything is fair. Their grandchildren may not like the end result. But fuck them, we got what we wanted says Boris -even if it was with a little Russian help.
“even if it was with a little Russian help”
No need to mention that, what’s done is done!
¯_(ツ)_/¯
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It was an advisory vote and not binding. The decision to jump off the cliff was May’s. The responsible approach would have been to do the Brexit analyses, which even done half-assedly by a pro-Brexit government show comes somewhere between a huge mess and a total catastrophe, and then have Parliament vote on whether to Brexit. Presumably it would have voted “no”.
There you go again, being all rational and shit.
It is weird how the vote went from “advisory” to “we must Brexit even though we know the Brexiteers collaborated with a hostile foreign power.”
I mean, I respect Frank and all, but this “it doesn’t help to bring up the fact that the Brexiteers collaborated with a hostile foreign power” is also weird.
Now, if the leaders of the major Parties in Parliament are all down with some form of Brexit, well, that’s a much more major barrier to overcome for the pro-EU crowd.
I guess the ultimate worth of the no deal hard brexit will come after the Kremlin and Kremlin lackeys (see trump) murder the EU. Isn’t that the plan.
The whole world has pretty much lost its mind.
We’re pushing 40 years on from the nascent nihilism of Reagan-Thatcher to full blown democracy destroyers in Brexit-Trump.
To the global elites I say, `well done, you ignorant assholes!’