That’s certainly an interesting take on it

We don’t use the Euro, and no vision of remain means us switching to the Euro (the ‘control of our currency’s reason for leaving was always odd). Whether we stay or leave, the Euro’s weakness as a currency has the same impact given we trade in sterling. The change in tariffs as we leave the european free trade zone would have an impact.

I agree that the rise of populism is a serious issue, and is connected to the state of the economy. The divergence between economies in the euro zone will have contributed to the economic disparities between EU countries, but given the rise of populism across the world (Trump, Putin etc) its hardly an exclusively EU phenomenon. I’d say it’s more to do with the policies that countries adopted to counter the economic crash of the late noughties and certainly the EU followed that trend of adopting free market/new liberal economic policies on countries in the euro zone. Nothing like as slavishly as our own Government and George ‘we’re all in this together’ Osborne - and being outside the Euro zone meant we didn’t have to do that.

The vision of Brexit being peddled by its elite supporters would actually make things worse as it is even more focussed on those kind of policies. It’s no coincidence that many of its wealthy backers head off to tax havens and support other right wing causes that look to erode workers rights and environmental protections. One of the weirdest things about Brexit is that it’s being portrayed as two fingers up to the elite, despite the campaign being led by the really wealthy elite.

PS - how’s the knee doing?

Posted By: Tressells Broadbrush on March 23rd 2019 at 10:07:12

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