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Comment by thomasfoster96 | Hacker News Reader

Britain has always had 'pure sovereignty'. With or without the EU, their parliament can do pretty much anything it wants (the US or Australian legislatures are quite limited), including leaving the EU.

Re: Austerity/neoliberalism, that's got very little to do with the EU and a lot to with Thatcher being elected in 1979, with the only non-Conservative government since then being Tony Blair - who wasn't exactly economically left wing.

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They didn't. The EU Parliament and the Commission could make laws directly binding on British citizens even if the British government opposed them. That's not sovereignty.

The EU Parliament only has the powers that have been given to it by the House of Common. The House of Commons is the sovereign. [1]

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USTypBKEd8Y

And the U.S. federal government has only the powers devolved to it by the sovereign states. But its hard to say U.S. states retain any meaningful sovereignty today.

But US States can't leave the union (although they can change the constitution).

Re: austerity, my point was more to do with what it was blamed on, not so much the actual root cause. Either way, I'm personally against austerity in down markets, but personal proclivities aside, I can see recent austerity being associated with EU membership - especially while watching Greece suffer, despite the enormous differences in economics.

When you're looking to blame someone for recent suffering, it doesn't so much matter the actual cause, so much as the perceived...

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