- True hard-core Brexiteers really do care about sovereignty. They are nationalists.They want nobody but themselves to have any element of control. If that means the destruction of the economy, they are fine with that, like nationalists everywhere.
- The Conservative party has been interested in the idea of the UK as Singapore-upon-Thames. Partly this is about reducing the role of the state (and thus taxes, one might think) and partly about re-introducing a vibrant manufacturing economy. Many of the people who punted this idea are also Brexiteers. Being a member of the EU was a barrier to establishing a low-wage economy that can compete with the East. They view the EU as outdated because it's a rule-based organisation. There are rules on social standards, product safety, animal health and a huge array of other matters. These people will tolerate temporary economic setbacks (ten years?) in the pursuit of jam in the future.
- Opportunists. People who are motivated by power, and will be wherever there's the opportunity to be in control. They will sacrifice anybody else in its pursuit.
what does this mean?
And the idea is that an independent UK could be the same for the (slow, inflexible) EU. Which ignores that Singapore actually has high government investments in industries and does the hub role so well because it has good trade integration with its neighbors. Which the UK had in the EU, but could only expect to keep in a Brexit that strongly aligns it with EU policy (which would stop it from giving too much preferential treatment to its own industries etc)
Ironic given that Corbyn was also Eurosceptic - Brexit was a bipartisan issue with pro/con arguments on both sides of the aisle.
Even the idea that Brexit was driven by nationalism, while at least partially true, doesn't really dive into what nationalism means in this context - it's usually just used as a no-no word.
Because, when you get into the heart of the matter, it boils down to racist anti-immigration sentiment, and nobody really wants to talk about that.
Funnily enough, if you want to talk racist anti-immigration sentiment - in my parents' lifetime that was the stock-and-trade of the Labour working class, despite being staunchly socialist (which as an ideology is inherently international). Ideology often doesn't make much sense.
Based on my British Brexit friend, I suggest another school of thought: concern for sovereignty but not nationalist. The EU rules requiring free movement result in people from poorer countries willing to work for lower wages depress wages for British people. Also, the free movement is essentially unlimited immigration and the society can't absorb as many immigrants as have been coming.
These elites speak in abstract terms, typically of things they never actually experienced or seriously analysed. They largely dabble in ideology, mostly to cover the immediate interests of themselves and their cronies.
And the Singapore on Thames from a regulatory perspective is a non starter. If someone is looking to operate out of a Singapore like nation why would they choose the UK? The only reason would be proximity to the EU but the EU will almost certainly erect massive barriers if the UK did anything of the sort. And so would the US. The US would almost certainly not allow the UK to undercut its already low standards.
Any other major country would be better served by simply locating yourself in Singapore or Dubai or the myriad SEZ’s countries the world over are setting up.
That said, a lot of the reporting on how Brexit is so obviously a bad economic decision reminds me of what was written in the aftermath of the Swiss referendum not to join the EEC in 1992 (see e.g. this New York Times article from the day after the vote [0]). Similarly to Brexit, voters decided very narrowly (50.3%) against close integration with the EU, seemingly renouncing economic opportunities because of immigration fears and a desire for sovereignty.
Now, almost 30 years after that referendum, the data does not support the thesis that the Swiss choice harmed economic development -- quite the contrary. Switzerland has seen a higher absolute and relative GDP per capita growth than any of its neighboring (non-microstate) countries [1].
I do think that the Swiss government was more skillful in negotiating their future relationship with the EU than what we have seen from the British government so far. Still, my takeaway is not to blindly believe the economic "experts" who predict the long-term economic impact of such a decision.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/07/world/swiss-reject-tie-to...
[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?end=2019...
> Choosing the security of their traditional isolation and neutrality over the risks and opportunities offered by Europe
It mentions both risks and opportunities, which hardly sounds like a claim that there is an obvious economic cost.
Most of the article was about how it reflects a growing divide between the industrial/business and rural sides of Switzerland.
The closest statement claiming that there would be downsides refers not to joining the EEC specifically, but regional blocs in general.
> The country's political and economic establishment argued that the country would lose its competitive edge if it resisted the movement toward regional economic blocs. Some leading business executives and bankers even warned that investment would drop and unemployment would grow.
And while Switzerland has not joined the EU, it has definitely greatly integrated with the EU, even adopting EU laws in order to be access the single market.
The richest, most advanced union of countries in the entire world, consisting of 300-400mil people couldn't help Italy with an earthquake aftermath so it had to turn a blind eye when the Russians sent help. What a shambles. This very same union couldn't deal the migrant crisis and it can't deal with the corona virus now. What a complete disaster. This is where it shows that there's no union in European Union. It only exists on paper, it doesn't act like an union and never will.
New members only serve as a free market of cheap labour and infrastructure and its eastern members have started making their own political decisions lately, some of them clashing with the EU directives. What union, you must be having a laugh!
Surely that richness wasn't because of some geopolitical move, or exquisite global trade deals, or tax optimization, leveraged by their independence from the EU - it was because Norway was lucky enough to have plenty of Natural Resources (namely oil).
With that said, you're completely right: the EU doesn't act like an Union.
EU in it's current form is just a marketplace, when it could be way more. You're right about Italy earthquake, and even the whole response to Coronavirus - which resumed was "be careful with borders closing, let's avoid that, here's some money, and vaccines will come eventually we got a good deal!"
If there's no change in the EU, it will fade away and make less and less sense.
For example, I'm from Portugal, and we've been watching China buying strategic assets from us for years because we're in a tight spot, we even issued national dept in chinese currency - yikes. Now there's even prospect of China getting into the old Lages Base in the Atlantic, which used to be leased to the USA.
I blame a lot of this on corruption, but truth be told, there wasn't much interest in the Union in these assets.
>New members only serve as a free market of cheap labour and infrastructure and its eastern members have started making their own political decisions lately, some of them clashing with the EU directives. What union, you must be having a laugh!
EU needs to be more than money, there needs to be some vertical integration with results that must be shown, else this will be just a pit for corruption where people will be fucked over and over again with bail outs and high taxes, while they remain in poverty or a low waged middle class crushed by taxes. We don't like to be a source of high qualified cheap labor, with cheap real state for summer/spring vacations or for retired UK, German, French, Dutch citizens.
I'm pro EU, but I'm getting tired of this shit.