24 Comments

The question remains: keep Scotland, or jettison it to founder on the reefs of the EU?

Seems to be something in the air.

Is the answer “Blowing in the Wind”?

Or perhaps “The times they are a changin'”

The elites on both sides of the Atlantic are going to do their best to make Britain suffer even at their own cost. If Britain drifts away with little consequence, then the EU will rapidly fragment.

The plebs must be shown their place.

Scotland doesn’t have a viable economy to justify independence and hasn’t had one in several hundred years. It would founder…

I’m not convinced that the leadership crisis is more acute for the Tories. The grass roots party has been heavily Eurosceptic for a while now and most of the big guns in the Leave campaign were Tory ministers. I don’t know if we’ll get Prime Minister Johnson, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we do and that he’ll reunite most of the party behind him.

The Labour party on the other hand have a real problem because (admittedly with gritted teeth in some cases) all their senior MPs and most of their activists were Remainers, but most of the votes for Leave came from the working class districts that have been traditional Labour strongholds. This could actually end up killing the party as a national force. It will not surprise me at all if we see a lot of defections to UKIP amongst traditional Labour voters – in fact we’ve already seen this to some extent in Wales in the regional elections last month.

“Should the British political leadership want the negotiations to lead nowhere …” they can hand the country over to UKIP. On the available evidence, yes, they are that stupid. And we should all be glad of it.

@Roy, the songs you suggest work on both sides of the Atlantic, as does this-

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Cameron said he will delay until his successor is chosen in October and then what I think of as the Fort Sumter clause of the EU constitution, Article 50, will be invoked. Meanwhile there is much talk of getting right down to new trade agreements with places like Canada and Australia which have been frustrated by EU regulations stopping them selling their goods to the mother country. So i think the EU might try to delay and punish the UK, but the City of London still knows how to run a financial empire and I think they will make good on the intention to get serious about transforming it into an Anglosphere. They are already talking about India where the Tea Wallahs have become billionaires – and well they should. I think the UK will do just fine.

Francis Turner, the tweets from Labor MPs last night were saying that Leave, and in particular in the traditional blue collar heartland of the party, passed due to immigration. There was clear recognition that the party had not been listening to those voters and instead had been following the Guardian (think New York Times) wing only.

In the next few months, we shall see if politicians in both parties, as well as the German and French governments, take this seriously once the shock has passed.

As a reaction in my Remain social media stream, I’m hearing only a little “Let’s hear out their discontent and work harder to deserve their trust” and much more “They’re old, who let them vote on our future?” But a rejected establishment needs to consider why it was rejected, I think. On the Leave side, at least among those I follow, there is little triumphalism and even less wish for Britain to turn inward rather than continue engaging with the world and its economy. That seems right to me.

This evergreen tweet from Adrian Bott, getting a lot of play on the Remain side, did make me laugh: “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”

A lot of the credit/blame (depending on your views) goes to Nigel Farage. He’s worked an awfully long time for this.

Congratulations, Nigel. “Leave” was a stunning win you well and truly earned.

A smart US government would be already extending a bilateral trade agreement similar to, or just plain inviting the UK to join NAFTA. But I’m pretty sure there is no extant smart US government. Get the customs union with a large trading bloc without all of the political interference in domestic affairs.

The Ulstermen are actually talking about (re)joining the Republic of Ireland so they can stay in the EU.

Ian Paisley is rolling in his grave.

Much of the EU’s unpopularity came from courts that fostered jihadists and other sociopaths. The Tories should have had Parliament assert a sovereign right to overrule the courts in certain cases, notably the deportation of spies and traitors. Admittedly, that would have been a violation of EU treaties, grounds to kick Britain out of the EU. Nevertheless, I suspect Britain would have had enough sympathizers on the continent to get away with it. By then, domestic opposition to EU membership would have been manageable. (As most of you know, Britain does not have a written constitution requiring Parliament to defer to courts.)

Many years ago, Noel Coward wrote (and sang)

Verse 1

They’re out of sorts in Sunderland
And terribly cross in Kent,
They’re dull in Hull
And the Isle of Mull
Is seething with discontent,
They’re nervous in Northumberland
And Devon is down the drain,
They’re filled with wrath
On the firth of Forth
And sullen on Salisbury Plain,
In Dublin they’re depressed, lads,
Maybe because they’re Celts
For Drake is going West, lads,
And so is everyone else.
Hurray-hurray-hurray!
Misery’s here to stay.

Refrain 1

There are bad times just around the corner,
There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky
And it’s no good whining
About a silver lining
For we know from experience that they won’t roll by,
With a scowl and a frown
We’ll keep our peckers down
And prepare for depression and doom and dread,
We’re going to unpack our troubles from our old kit bag
And wait until we drop down dead.

Verse 2

From Portland Bill to Scarborough
They’re querulous and subdued
And Shropshire lads
Have behaved like cads
From Berwick-on-Tweed to Bude,
They’re mad at Market Harborough
And livid at Leigh-on-Sea,
In Tunbridge Wells
You can hear the yells
Of woe-begone bourgeoisie.
We all get bitched about, lads,
Whoever our vote elects,
We know we’re up the spout, lads.
And that’s what England expects.
Hurray-hurray-hurray!
Trouble is on the way.

Refrain 2

There are bad times just around the corner,
The horizon’s gloomy as can be,
There are black birds over
The grayish cliffs of Dover
And the rats are preparing to leave the B.B.C.
We’re an unhappy breed
And very bored indeed
When reminded of something that Nelson said.
While the press and the politicians nag nag nag
We’ll wait until we drop down dead.

Verse 3

From Colwyn Bay to Kettering
They’re sobbing themselves to sleep,
The shrieks and wails
In the Yorkshire dales
Have even depressed the sheep.
In rather vulgar lettering
A very disgruntled group
Have posted bills
On the Cotswold Hills
To prove that we’re in the soup.
While begging Kipling’s pardon
There’s one thing we know for sure
If England is a garden
We ought to have more manure.
Hurray-hurray-hurray!
Suffering and dismay.

Refrain 3

There are bad times just around the corner
And the outlook’s absolutely vile,
There are Home Fires smoking
From Windermere to Woking
And we’re not going to tighten our belts and smile, smile, smile,
At the sound of a shot
We’d just as soon as not
Take a hot water bottle and go to bed,
We’re going to untense our muscles till they sag sag sag
And wait until we drop down dead.

Refrain 4

There are bad times just around the corner,
We can all look forward to despair,
It’s as clear as crystal
From Bridlington to Bristol
That we can’t save democracy and we don’t much care
If the Reds and the Pinks
Believe that England stinks
And that world revolution is bound to spread,
We’d better all learn the lyrics of the old ‘Red Flag’
And wait until we drop down dead.
A likely story
Land of Hope and Glory,
Wait until we drop down dead.

Bob

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