The EU Is Undemocratic

You don't need a majority to get in here

One common refrain of the people  on Twitter who oppose UK membership of the EU was that it is undemocratic.  It was a frustrating one because in a sense it is true.  The EU is not a state but a federation and so it is not and can never be truly democratic.  To become so it would have to alter quite a bit.  You'd need the European Parliament to become the actual sovereign body for the whole organisation.  That would make it a state.  But I have a feeling that pointing that out wouldn't have made the democratic purists want to stay in the EU and push for greater integration.

Global Britain - Will The Spin Work?

Theresa May has an incomparable advantage over just about every other UK politician with the possible exception of Jeremy Corbyn.   Nobody knows what she really thinks about the EU and she is free to define how she handles it without too much in the way of prior baggage.  (I know Corbyn's case is quite different, but that's not what this post is about.)

The Single Market According To Daniel Hannan

I'd apologise if I was anyone of consequence,  but I might have slightly misrepresented Daniel Hannan in a tweet.  There is a video going round of leave campaigners saying during the campaign that leaving the EU didn't mean leaving the single market.   Daniel Hannan is one of the stars.  Now I don't doubt that the others were simply saying stuff to sound good at the time while not believing for a moment that they'd ever have to make good on what they are saying.  But you normally expect Hannan to have put a bit more thought into it than that.  And indeed he did.  Having just read something he wrote during the campaign I think it is just about possible to clear him of rank hypocrisy.  Naive stupidity is the worst I can pin on him for this one.

Brexiters Have Won - I Hope They Are Happy

Brexiters Should Have The Champagne Out

Well I am not exactly surprised in the sense that it was always going to be virtually impossible to stay in the single market if we left the EU.  I was a bit surprised to hear Theresa May say it so clearly at this stage though. I was expecting that it would be something that would be allowed to emerge during the negotiations so that it was at least plausible to blame the EU.  Instead she has chosen to own it completely.  Well at least that is courageous.  

Making Bre-entry As Easy As Possible

Well it will all be getting very real very quickly.  Article 50 is due to be invoked in March.  The chance of a rabbit appearing out of a hat and changing the scenery is now virtually zero,   There is still an outside chance of a run on the pound but if it didn't happen after the vote it probably won't happen now.  The other possibility was an internal crisis in the Tory party.  Unlike Labour, the Tories can hide their internal battles to some extent, so we won't know if this was ever a danger until long after the event.  But if a pro-EU coup was coming it would have come by now.  So it looks like it is game on.

At Last, An Interesting Brexit By Election

I quite like Tristram Hunt, even though it is easy to see why a lot of people don't.  He really really looks and sounds a Tory.  So when he got on the telly you had automatic cognitive dissonance before he even opened his mouth.  And parachuting media friendly posh boys into working class seats was really the worst side of New Labour.  Likeable enough guy, but unfortunately symbolic of stuff at lot of us really don't like.

Corbyn Comes Out For Brexit

The surprise for me was that it took so long.  Corbyn has now explicitly said that the UK can prosper outside the EU and that immigration controls are necessary.  This is basically where Labour was always going to end up.  The Labour left have never liked the EU.  In fact in many ways they were the only people who had really thought the issue through and could point to real things they didn't like about it and what they were going to do differently.  They were never able to really win the rest of the Labour Party over to their viewpoint though.  I remember when Corbyn finally came around to campaign to remain in, despite a long track record of opposition to it, thinking that it would be ironic if the vote went for out.  He would have compromised on one of his long held beliefs at just the point when it might have been expedient to stick to it.

People Don't Want To Talk About Brexit

I live in a part of the country that was about 50:50 during the vote.  I'd give leave a very slight edge if I was forced to choose, but it was pretty close.  In the years before the referendum was even talked about as a possibility there was some rather conspicuous Ukippery going on.   One house had information about the inequities of the EU posted on a board outside, and UKIP attracted a lot of votes in local council elections.  And you heard people moaning about the EU quite often.

European Medicines Agency Lost Due To Brexit

The EMA might well be heading for Stockholm

Plenty of people are still angry enough to argue about Brexit on Twitter.  I came across an exchange between a UKIPer from Worthing and a remainer from Scotland.  The kipper was demanding a concrete example of the harm Brexit was doing to the economy.  The remainer was floundering a bit -she didn't seem to be as on top of the facts as the Brexiter was.

Brexit Is All About Job Losses

There is a lot of coverage in the media at the moment over the resignation of the UK's ambassador to the EU and what it all means.  I have been expecting job losses to be a big part of the Brexit story, but this particular one is happening sooner than I was thinking.  I have to confess I had no idea we even had an ambassador to the EU and I remain confused as to what exactly he would do.