Was Brexit Just Populism

[RBeer]

Is that what is was? Take away the mantras and slogans.

Was the UK caught up in this Populism wave and just by mere coincidence did it happen to cross the Ref.

It could have crossed paths with any other arc.

The US Populism crossed with Trump and insofar that is very damaging, it's not fatal.

Brexit , however, is for ever.

The annoying thing is that those who are complaining about 'populism', or whatever you want to call it, in the papers are those who've done a lot to foster it. The amount of respect politicians have for the people whom they are driving to the wall is simply sickening. It's said you get the government you deserve - what about government getting the people they deserve, since the power balance is overwhelmingly in their hands.

If you are trying to hijack to word populism and make it a derogatory term then that's your choice. If populism is simply a reflection of a popular view then Brexit was a popular view by the majority.

But like all Remainers you will (and have done) descended into name calling, misconception and labelling millions of decent people who respect multiculturalism, welcome workers from all over the world and accept a level of interconnected globalisation, as xenophobic racists.....

Guess what? It's so bloody boring and predictable. Maybe you should just accept that not everyone wants to pay excessive amounts into the EU moneypit and to have controls over our borders which allow any rapist, criminal or murderer into this country? I know these numbers are tiny in comparison to the genuine workers and eu citizens, but tell that to victims. Maybe accept we can make our own laws on employment?

Comparing the EU referendum result and the loathesome Donald Trump is an insult to every U.K. voter and ranks up there with the endless name calling.

"But like all Remainers you will (and have done) descended into name calling, misconception and labelling millions of decent people who respect multiculturalism, welcome workers from all over the world and accept a level of interconnected globalisation, as xenophobic racists..... "

Excuse me? All Remainers?? You know every one of us, do you? And we've all name-called, labelled etc.?

Nothing is forever Mother, not even the EU, and Greece could blow the whole thing up, as could Italy, or the Visegrad group. If the Dutch or French elections go the wrong way for the EU, then thigs will get even more interesting.

Leaving i not for ever - any party could have a manifesto commitment to re-join, win a general election and, hey presto, we are back in.
Not sure why all the remainers are not supporting this idea because it will be so obvious by 2020, even to the peasants what a disaster leaving is, so people will fall over themselves to vote for this party.

The OP stated that Brexit is forever; I was picking up on that and your comment Mother. I think Trump is the result of populism, but also the 'out-of-touch closed elite that acts on behalf of its own interests' and who chose to ignore the groundswell against Washington DC and its politics.

I know the same elites exist in Brussels, in that Brussels bubble I have referenced before. I fail to see how the Commission can ignore the havoc wreaked in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain et al by the policies it chose to pursue via the Eurogroup, and expect people not to react and vote as they have.

'Élite' is a meaningless word however. I'm not comfortable with the narrative of the poor worker trying to resist an internationalist money-loving power-hungry group of people. It's been done before!
In reality people have had the opportunity to vote for their circumstances at every step of the way and they have wanted globalisation because it suited them. They sponsor globalisation every day when they go shopping.
People have got what they have voted for.
And I also half-think, like a poster said on another thread, that it's more the case that people have voted for Brexit (and Trump) because they are bored.

Not sure why all the remainers are not supporting this idea because it will be so obvious by 2020, even to the peasants what a disaster leaving is, so people will fall over themselves to vote for this party.
Because It's already obvious, and if people can't see it now they won't see it any better in 2020 as everything collapses. It will be xxxxx's (insert circular narrative that does the round on the Internet) fault.

Fawful So people consciously voted for globalism by shopping, yet absent-mindedly went into a voting booth for Brexit because there was nothing on the telly?
I have read some bollocks in my time, but this takes the biscuit.

No, people chose globalism when they go shopping, probably absent-mindedly, and they obviously found the idea of Brexit very exciting. I don't know why leaving an imperfect trading block suddenly captivated people, all this money and brain power spent trying to exit the EU when there are so many other things that could do with fixing instead.

Mother You cannot say 'the people' as a whole do not care. Part of my leave vote was precisely because of Greece. Whilst some want to draw parallels with the start of WWII, I think they need to be looking further back at 1789. I think there is a 'let them eat cake attitude' at times here in Brussels, especially at some non UK embassy parties I've attended here.

We will see next month in the NL, then in France in April and later in Germany if it really is a backlash against the ancien regime.

Interesting you see my comment as altruism; I see it as making sure it doesn't happen to us.

Mother Many people have links with Cyprus, and look what happened there. It is the small accumulation of things that begins to add up, and make people look more closely at what is going on, and become uneasy.

France will be interesting. I seem to recall that the pundits were saying Brexit was unlikely, and Trump as POTUS was impossible, yet here we are with both.

Mother I suspect remainers had a variety of reasons across the spectrum for staying in; by the same token, so did leavers. You can't just ascribe views about immigration and sovereignty to all of them, as that won't be the case. As I said on another thread, the definition of insanity according to Einstein is 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results' Perhaps those in dire circumstances realised that nothing was going to change for their benefit, felt the fear and did it anyway.

I think remain spun a load of lies as well, so probably the campaigns are about equal on being economical with the actualité; if one bothered to delve into the doom and gloom emanating from the Treasury as some did, and look at the actual figures, they were hardly any different from the predictions on the economy anyway. It was all very fudged and hedged around with conditionality.

Although I am in a Flemish gemeente, I am still following the French GE, and talking to my Dutch friends about what they expect to happen in the NL. One expects Wilders to do well, thinks Rutte might be on the way out, but that there will be a coalition as normal given that there are 31 parties in Dutch politics. Hopefully, they won't take a year to sort it as Belgium did at one point. Funny how life managed to go on here without a government. Makes you wonder what the purpose is of so many layers of extraneous bureaucracy?

I am not sure how well Macron will do. This is interesting www.politico.eu/article/france-emmanuel-macron-faces-challenges-on-left-and-right-president-election-2017 Do the French really want another énarque and investment banker? I am not so sure. The only one with any fire out of the last lot was Sarkozy; I think the timing of the accusation against DSK was very suspect, but took both him and Lagarde out of the running with taking over the IMF job.

The question is, how will Brexit solve any of those problems, baby barrister?

What do you think will be better once we leave?