A nuanced Brexit view… January 25, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
bjg had a link on this thread to a fascinating pro-Brexit site run by Richard North, a long time pro-leave activist. North appears to have felt that an EEA/EFTA position would suffice, at least in the medium term and if you click on the blog menu for Flexcit you will find the PDF of a book outlining the mechanisms and approaches that could be used. bjg describes it as rational, and I think that’s accurate. North is not what I’d call left-wing, but at least he and those he works with took the time to work through in great detail what Brexit would and could mean and attempt to blunt the most negative aspects of same.
The thinking on the border on this island is interesting though perhaps tellingly there is no mention of the GFA/BA or any aspect other than those pertaining to customs. For example the issue of a somewhat diluted sovereignty on foot of the GFA/BA isn’t addressed at all. And I think perhaps some of the analysis in relation to technological fixes is a bit optimistic, though if correct in relation to other aspects of movement of goods it is faintly possible that fixes are possible.
Anyhow, well worth a read for anyone interested in the challenges of this – one aspect of it just flicking through it yesterday was the sense that the scale of the challenges is much much greater than is generally recognised, and North is an excoriating critic of the way the Tories are handling it so far. How excoriating? Well read this on customs issues coming to the fore with the rest of Europe. Thanks bjg.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Richard North has been producing great research for years, including excellent analysis if the process of the militarisation of the EU and its drive to create a European Army. An EFTA position would mean a soft exit and provide an opportunity to the UK not to be involved the militarisation of the EU via its EU Battle Groups and its European Defence Agency. Brexit could also provide an opportunity for those in Ireland opposed to the drive towards a European Army to accelerate our demands for withdrawal from the EU Battle Groups and the EDA.
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The notion that Brexit has anything to do with the promotion of peace anywhere or the weakening of NATO is a complete crock.
Consider the following questions:
– Will a post Brexit Little Britain cease to be an enthusiastic participant in NATO? Not a chance.
– Will said Little Britain not play mini-me in the US in it’s next efforts to kill, impoverish and displace people in various parts of the globe? No it won’t.
– Will Brexit threaten the GFA and the peace in Ireland by recreating a hard border between two parts of the Ireland. Very probably.
– Will Little Britain post-Brexit cease to snoop on the 80%+ of Irish electronic communications that go via optic fibre through their territory. Not a chance.
But do carry on – the disintegration of the EU will bring peace in our time. Of course it will.
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“Will a post Brexit Little Britain cease to be an enthusiastic participant in NATO? Not a chance.”
There’s always been a faction of the SNP that wanted to withdraw from NATO, which may be why that party never got the soft-soap treatment that UKIP did from the British media.
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There are sensible and rationale post Brexit scenarios. Though in the Trump era, I wonder. But there are always momentums. The unknown unknowns. My own opinion is that we should be very scared here. I can see Kildare without Intel and Cork without Apple, and indeed who knows with financial services. A hard Brexi leaves us an an isolated outpost of the EU, a bigger version of the UK’s Gibraltar.
And our alternatives. Leave the EU and strike great trade deals (pull the other one). Leave the Euro and see massive devaluation. Join the BRICs (delusional nonsense).
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I have been following Richard North’s blog for a while now and were it not for the pond life that swirl around comments I would be over there braying like a donkey. Yes, his position – as you note, EEA/Efta – is perfectly sensible. But he made common cause with said pond life and is now shocked, shocked! to find he can’t control the forces he helped unleash (see also: Trump, Donald). He can take any one of his tedious monographs and ram it.
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100% agree!. The comments section is abysmal. And there is a sense if him running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. I’d certainly disagree with North in almost all areas but given Brexit is a reality it is fascinating to see how it could/should have been done.
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I was about to give this a quick read, when I thought: “Richard North – that name rings a bell.”
Can that be ‘climate-sceptic’ Richard North, ‘good mate of Christopher Booker’ North, conductor of a smear campaign against a prominent climate scientistNorth.
And indeed, it is him. The blog promptly went in my waste basket along with the collected works of Boris Johnson.
Besides, it’s not a ‘Flexit’ that’s being considered, it’s a hard and sudden Brexit, quite possibly no agreement. Thus the blog entry is not only from a highly dubious source but also irrelevant after May’s speech of last week.
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Ah stupid me. I missed the Booker link.
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