Brexit

Rubbing further salt into the wounds of Europe's establishment, outspoken pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage exclaimed that he said he would "destroy the old EU", together with 5-Star leader Beppe Grillo. As Reuters reports,

The European Union will start disintegrating after Italians pick the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement candidate as mayor of Rome on June 19 and Britons vote to leave the EU four days later, the leader of the UK Independence Party was quoted as saying.

 

UKIP's Nigel Farage told Italy's Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Saturday that British Prime Minister David Cameron should resign even if the 'Remain' camp won by a narrow margin in a June 23 referendum on EU membership.

 

"We can't lose this referendum ... there will be a Big Bang of British politics: nothing will remain the same," Farage said.

 

"On June 19 the 5-Star movement elects the mayor of the capital and changes Italy. On June 23 Britain leaves the EU and changes Europe. We will trigger a domino effect. After us, other northern European countries will leave, starting with Denmark," he said. "The EU is about to collapse, disintegrating in several pieces."

The real question is why do the Europeans even want the British involved....

Brexit will bring a quick end to the European experiment, period, perhaps a deathblow to the forces of globalization and its elite oligarch backers...the Europeans per se don´t want this oligarchic system, totally nondemocratic bureaucratic system either...look around as country after country´s people are voting for the exit...and the left? Lost in the wilderness, their parties verging on extinction, and rightly so for their support of a fascist world order under unelected bureaucratic control, with of course the banksters and their global elites pulling the strings!

The real question is... why do we (Canadians) care whether the U.K. stays in the EU or not? I admit I'm no expert, but what am I missing?

Unionist: Thought I would bring up Brexit as there is more news than the US election, Russia, and Ukraine in "international news". The reason it is significant is that the whole EU could blow up if the UK goes. If a simple referendum can disentangle Britain from the EU, nationalist groups across Europe will respond in kind. I also think it is interesting as a study in Referenda.

NorthReport: Cameron and Osborne faced a split in their Conservative Party if they did not offer the Brexit referendum. If he did not agree to the referendum he would not have held his majority in the British House of Commons. If he loses Brexit, he is probably toast.

The remain camp are hoping they can corall enough moderate Tory, Lib-Dem and Labour votes to beat the right wing Tories and UKIPers who want to Leave.

Labour support for the EU is lukewarm, and they have lost a lot of votes directly to the UKIP similar to an NDP => Con shift sometimes seen in Canada. Labour need to get votes back from UKIP to seriously challenge the Tories.

Income inequality has become much worse under the EU-Tory leadership, and the referendum is a perfect opportunity to punish the Cameron Osborne government. Cameron will have to resign if Leave wins.

'Status Quo' and 'Change' referenda tend to work out for the Status Quo, as we have seen. I think Remain will win by a small margin, even if they have to steal the vote.

I think the fix is in. Remain will win by a slight margin.

One aspect of the campaign worth noting is the role of foaming Russophobia.

Now the Russian government has said nothing about the campaign - Kremlin watchers actually differ as to which side the Putin government would actually support - unlike the US President, German Chancellor Merkel, et al, who have practically threatened the UK with dire consequences/fallout should they vote to leave the EU. So despite the "(bogeyman) Putin is in favour of Brexit" etc., and other fabrications, (especially by PM Cameron) the truth is that the US President and German Chancellor are doing what they claim others - ie, the Russians - are doing, i.e., interfering in a domestic matter.

Accuse others of what you yourself do. It's a favorite right-wing pastime the world over.

The "Kremlin watchers" say, OT1H, that Putin wants chaos in Europe, while others, OTOH, say that a stable, status quo Europe that isn't infected with the American Russophobic virus is just fine. But where the Russians stand is actually irrelevant because they aren't playing a role in the campaign at all. Well, other than their "sneaky silence" etc. and other actions popular among "evil doers", etc.

The biggest single industry in the UK is the financial services industry. That industry lives mostly on the fact that the UK has it's own currency, but also has access to the EU. The blow to the financial services indusrty by the UK leaving the EU might not be a death blow, but it would be close.

Meanwhile, it's possible that Scotland votes to remain in the EU, and that would present a very serious problem to the UK. Ireland is not even voting on the question, and there's a reasonable chance the financial services industry would move there.

In that the UK was not part of the Euro, their leaving wouldn't have that much of an effect. However, given that the whole world's economy is on a knife edge, who knows what will nudge it over the edge? Interesting times.

I'd say that's a little alarmist....

...not so sure......the markets are in panic right now, what with the Sun coming out for BREXIT!

What it may do, is sink global confidence in the western markets, leading to a run on gold and the collapse of the currencies....remember the system is totally fragile right now, everyone oversaturated with debt, the only think still holding it together being lunatic confidence in the Central Banks, likewise overwhelmed with bad debt as they continue to buy junk (bankrupt) corporate bonds to stimulate their respective finances and markets......

of course no one in these threads take these warnings seriously, totally complacent buried in faith to the corporatocracy!

Lawmaker Critically Shot By "Britain First" Shouting Assailant by Tyler Durden - Jun 16, 2016 10:15 AM 

Update: Responding to unconfirmed allegations the shooter shouted "Britain First!" before the incident, the group Britain First has said:

A single eyewitness also claimed (unconfirmed) that the assailant “apparently” shouted “Britain First” during the attack, but this is pure hearsay at the moment.

 

There is LOTS of use of words such as “apparently” and “allegedly”.

 

That hasn’t stopped the media publishing multiple articles condemning Britain First for somehow being involved.

 

Britain First obviously is NOT involved and would never encourage behaviour of this sort.

 

As an MP and and a mother, we pray that Jo Cox makes a full recovery.

* * *

Update:  As BBG adds, campaigning was suspended in Britain’s European Union membership referendum after news of the attack, which happened just before 1 p.m., came out.....

For those who may not have read it yet, she did not.

wow on the article. graphic description on how he shot her.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jo-cox-uk-lawmaker-attacked-1.3638278

If anything, it would seal the deal for remain.