We have left/Nous sommes partis
It finally happened. At 11:00pm on 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union.
Why did it happen?
1. The drip-drip propoganda of the conservative press. By "conservative press" I am referring to: The Sun, The Times, and Sunday Times (News International, owned by Rupert Murdoch), the Daily Mail (Rothermere Trust, via the 4th Viscount Rothermere), the Daily Express (Reach plc, controlled by Richard Desmond), and the Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group Ltd, controlled by the Barclay Brothers). For many years they had repeatedly and consistently published anti-EU stories based on the distortion of facts and/or outright lies. Despite this they still cumulatively maintained dominance over the declining newspaper readership market. When the European Union membership referendum was finally called in 2016, the drip-drip propoganda's effects struck hard.
2. The failure of the metropolitan intelligentsia to connect with those who felt left behind. Disconnection from what was seen as an out of touch metropolitan elite, not just in Europe but also in Britain, motivated many people to vote Leave in 2016 as a means of effecting change when they otherwise could not. Leave voters tended to be poorer, have lower-paid jobs, lower levels of education, and tended to live outside major cities. Even though it was austerity, combined with neoliberalism, that was to blame for their woes and the growing gap between rich and poor (which is also harming the middle class significantly) The Remain campaign consistently failed to connect with them, whereas the Leave campaign made some effort to tap into swing voters in medium sized towns such as Bedford and Watford, which almost exactly reflected the national referendum result in the end. Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to learn from this, though, as shown not only by Labour's heavy losses but the Liberal Democrats' failure to capture key seats with demographics favourable to them, such as Cheltenham and Winchester. The last election widened the gap between city and country, highly qualified and poorly qualified etc. even further politically.
3. General British political intransigence. Although the Conservatives are clearly more responsible than other British political parties for Britain's exit from the European Union (David Cameron initiated the referendum, after all, and Boris Johnson ensured the finishing of the actual Brexit process following Theresa May's failed attempts), Labour bears a significant responsibility as well. Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour became reflective of the "regressive left" in practice, not only regarding electoral reform but also Britain's relationship with Europe, for Mr Corbyn was and is a long-time Eurosceptic, and also very divisive. Much of it stems from delusions of the British powers that be that Britain is still a world power in or out of the EU, when in reality this is not the case, especially with 3/4 of Britain's workforce working in the tertiary or quartermary sectors (the service and knowledge sectors). Throughout its membership of the EU, Britain never truly acknowledged and accepted that it needed to be part of the EU bloc to have international influence, despite obtaining opt-outs not available to other nations (e.g. regarding the Schengen area).
4. The European Union's perceived distance from the British public. The European Union's image felt too distant and bureaucratic to so many British people, which partly accounts for the poor turnouts at European election time (although they are worse in other European countries), and this was particularly true of the appointed European Commission. Increasingly, many British people saw the European Union as a cold, distant, unaccountable bureaucracy that was overriding British sovereignty when in fact Parliament maintained sovereignty all along, and the European Union did not do enough to address this image problem, as shown by sharply rising Euroscepticism in the last 10 years across Europe, even in the six founder member states. The stance taken by the European Union in trade negotiations during the 2 1/2 years from the triggering of Article 50 to actual Brexit yesterday also felt like the European Union was "punishing" Britain for leaving the bloc.
5. Lies, more lies, and phony statistics. The claim of £350 million per year saved by EU membership was the lie most often repeated by the Leave campaign before and after the referendum-not only was that membership cost exaggerated but in fact at least 20 times this amount (likely far more) will be lost by Britain every year as a result of having to renegotiate trade deals. Another key lie told by the Leave campaign was that Turkey was about to join the European Union, when no such plans were in place. The promises made by the Leave campaign were promptly broken once the result had been confirmed, and furthermore thousands of jobs have been lost as a direct result of EU uncertainty. And predicted trade deals show that far from "regaining sovereignty" Britain will end up becoming a vassal state economically because of all these fudged statistics and empty promises.
6. Strategic errors by progressive political parties. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats should not overall have agreed to an election so early but rather waited for further fragmentation of the Conservative Party (Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP, voted against such an early election consistently) to the point where a vote of no confidence would have brought it down (an attempt at a VONC by Jeremy Corbyn against Theresa May in January 2019 failed by just 19 votes), although in all fairness the general public on both sides of the divide were getting tired of the uncertainty and chaos about resolving Brexit in Parliament, so in the circumstances calling an early election to break the deadlock was understandable even though the same parties had effectively vetoed earlier attempts at calling an election by Boris Johnson three times (the Fixed Term Parliaments Act requires an absolute two-thirds majority of MPs to call an early election without a vote of no confidence). If both Labour and the Liberal Democrats had waited just a few more months, then it is likely that this year, instead of leaving the European Union straight away,a second referendum vote would have happened. Furthermore, during the early election, Labour's incoherent Brexit stance and the Liberal Democrats' "Revoke" stance (ignoring the wishes of soft Remainers and soft Brexiteers who may have considered to vote Liberal Democrat, especially in South West England).
1. The drip-drip propoganda of the conservative press. By "conservative press" I am referring to: The Sun, The Times, and Sunday Times (News International, owned by Rupert Murdoch), the Daily Mail (Rothermere Trust, via the 4th Viscount Rothermere), the Daily Express (Reach plc, controlled by Richard Desmond), and the Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group Ltd, controlled by the Barclay Brothers). For many years they had repeatedly and consistently published anti-EU stories based on the distortion of facts and/or outright lies. Despite this they still cumulatively maintained dominance over the declining newspaper readership market. When the European Union membership referendum was finally called in 2016, the drip-drip propoganda's effects struck hard.
2. The failure of the metropolitan intelligentsia to connect with those who felt left behind. Disconnection from what was seen as an out of touch metropolitan elite, not just in Europe but also in Britain, motivated many people to vote Leave in 2016 as a means of effecting change when they otherwise could not. Leave voters tended to be poorer, have lower-paid jobs, lower levels of education, and tended to live outside major cities. Even though it was austerity, combined with neoliberalism, that was to blame for their woes and the growing gap between rich and poor (which is also harming the middle class significantly) The Remain campaign consistently failed to connect with them, whereas the Leave campaign made some effort to tap into swing voters in medium sized towns such as Bedford and Watford, which almost exactly reflected the national referendum result in the end. Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to learn from this, though, as shown not only by Labour's heavy losses but the Liberal Democrats' failure to capture key seats with demographics favourable to them, such as Cheltenham and Winchester. The last election widened the gap between city and country, highly qualified and poorly qualified etc. even further politically.
3. General British political intransigence. Although the Conservatives are clearly more responsible than other British political parties for Britain's exit from the European Union (David Cameron initiated the referendum, after all, and Boris Johnson ensured the finishing of the actual Brexit process following Theresa May's failed attempts), Labour bears a significant responsibility as well. Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour became reflective of the "regressive left" in practice, not only regarding electoral reform but also Britain's relationship with Europe, for Mr Corbyn was and is a long-time Eurosceptic, and also very divisive. Much of it stems from delusions of the British powers that be that Britain is still a world power in or out of the EU, when in reality this is not the case, especially with 3/4 of Britain's workforce working in the tertiary or quartermary sectors (the service and knowledge sectors). Throughout its membership of the EU, Britain never truly acknowledged and accepted that it needed to be part of the EU bloc to have international influence, despite obtaining opt-outs not available to other nations (e.g. regarding the Schengen area).
4. The European Union's perceived distance from the British public. The European Union's image felt too distant and bureaucratic to so many British people, which partly accounts for the poor turnouts at European election time (although they are worse in other European countries), and this was particularly true of the appointed European Commission. Increasingly, many British people saw the European Union as a cold, distant, unaccountable bureaucracy that was overriding British sovereignty when in fact Parliament maintained sovereignty all along, and the European Union did not do enough to address this image problem, as shown by sharply rising Euroscepticism in the last 10 years across Europe, even in the six founder member states. The stance taken by the European Union in trade negotiations during the 2 1/2 years from the triggering of Article 50 to actual Brexit yesterday also felt like the European Union was "punishing" Britain for leaving the bloc.
5. Lies, more lies, and phony statistics. The claim of £350 million per year saved by EU membership was the lie most often repeated by the Leave campaign before and after the referendum-not only was that membership cost exaggerated but in fact at least 20 times this amount (likely far more) will be lost by Britain every year as a result of having to renegotiate trade deals. Another key lie told by the Leave campaign was that Turkey was about to join the European Union, when no such plans were in place. The promises made by the Leave campaign were promptly broken once the result had been confirmed, and furthermore thousands of jobs have been lost as a direct result of EU uncertainty. And predicted trade deals show that far from "regaining sovereignty" Britain will end up becoming a vassal state economically because of all these fudged statistics and empty promises.
6. Strategic errors by progressive political parties. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats should not overall have agreed to an election so early but rather waited for further fragmentation of the Conservative Party (Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP, voted against such an early election consistently) to the point where a vote of no confidence would have brought it down (an attempt at a VONC by Jeremy Corbyn against Theresa May in January 2019 failed by just 19 votes), although in all fairness the general public on both sides of the divide were getting tired of the uncertainty and chaos about resolving Brexit in Parliament, so in the circumstances calling an early election to break the deadlock was understandable even though the same parties had effectively vetoed earlier attempts at calling an election by Boris Johnson three times (the Fixed Term Parliaments Act requires an absolute two-thirds majority of MPs to call an early election without a vote of no confidence). If both Labour and the Liberal Democrats had waited just a few more months, then it is likely that this year, instead of leaving the European Union straight away,a second referendum vote would have happened. Furthermore, during the early election, Labour's incoherent Brexit stance and the Liberal Democrats' "Revoke" stance (ignoring the wishes of soft Remainers and soft Brexiteers who may have considered to vote Liberal Democrat, especially in South West England).
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