Sunday, June 26, 2016

Brexit, final -- for now: "We will leave the EU but remain within the neoliberal system."


A brief breakdown of the referendum, from City Lab.

The divide is more than geographical, however. As this exit poll makes clear, younger people voted Remain while older people voted Leave, thus swinging the vote away from the people who will experience Brexit most keenly and for the longest. This statistic itself is fueling anger among the young, but there’s no denying a basic truth: this was a referendum with a high turnout, in which the Leave camp won.

Two days later, the question has become this: Who will dare to pull the trigger on article 50?

The EU seems united at this early juncture:

They spoke with one voice, in essence: "There’s the door. Please don’t let it slam on your way out."

Gary Younge captured the Friday morning mood.

After this vote the UK is diminished, our politics poisoned, by Gary Younge (The Guardian)

... Britain is no more sovereign today than it was yesterday. We will leave the EU but remain within the neoliberal system. Left to the mercy of the markets we are arguably now less capable of directing our affairs than we were. We are not independent. We are simply isolated.

We are also diminished. Our politics are poisoned, our discourse is fragile, our leaders are discredited. Facts ceased to matter, knowledge ceased to be valued, compassion appeared to evaporate. As large majorities for one side or the other racked up in various parts of the country it became clear that for many of us, beyond our families, we didn’t just disagree with the other side. We literally didn’t know them. Britain is not greater for this decision and this campaign but smaller, weaker and more vulnerable.

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