Someone asked me this morning what I think of the disaster that has befallen the British Labour Party with the defection of more MPs. I don't think about it much, British politics is something I don't follow closely enough to have anything important to say. I will say that as much as I might agree with some of his policies, someone who has been as dismal a party leader as Jeremy Corbyn has should be replaced. He seems to be a lot better at alienating people and dismissing them from his shadow cabinet than he does getting anything done. I find his stand on a second referendum that could prevent the disaster that Brexit is going to be totally incomprehensible - apparently some think he believes he can survive to pick up the smoldering pieces after it explodes. And then there is his incredible handling of petty antisemitism among his ranks. And I'm not talking about the bullshit accusations made about Ilhan Omar here, it was the real thing. If he were the head of the Democratic Party I belong to, I'd say dump him. I, for the life of me, don't understand the enduring affection that American lefties have for him. If he'd managed to do something other than split the Labour Party, that would be different.
When the disaster of Brexit comes, I wonder if anyone has ever thought of Scotland and Northern Ireland breaking away to form their own democratic confederation, maybe along with the Republic of Ireland. One that could remain in the EU. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that might not eventually develop, after Scotland realizes England is a hopeless pit of class ridden awfulness and they vote to leave the Uk. Wouldn't that outcome of Brexit be ironic. Though I haven't noticed anyone thinking of it before.
Though I haven't noticed anyone thinking of it before.
ReplyDeleteScotland is not at all supportive of Brexit, and there was rumination in the press just after the Brexit referendum, that Scotland might leave the Union over the issue. Scotland publicly and pointedly declined to be so dramatic, but I don't think that means it could never happen, and a "hard" Brexit, by all accounts, will be a major disaster for GB. Scotland may well decide to remove itself from the Union over that, for it's own sake.
The border issue in Ireland is just as serious, though I don't think NI would try to establish itself as a sovereign nation in order to get into (it couldn't remain, I don't think) the EU. It is pretty clear the Brexit referendum should never have happened (referenda are, by and large, a terrible poll of the vox populi), and having accepted it as law (it wasn't), the Parliament is screwed over what to do. I've heard British MP's on BBC World Service seriously argue the EU will give Britain what it wants in the end (what they want Britain to want) because....reasons. Serious inability to consider there are other points of view in the world, IOW. That's part of the problem May has; no matter how skilled a negotiator she might have been (and she isn't, apparently, that skilled), the positions of the parties (politicians in GB, representative in the EU) are irreconcilable.
GB is in for a very, very hard time if Brexit continues as it is now going (and why wouldn't it?). Scotland voting to leave the Union so as to stay in the EU (or be let back in) might well be the least of it.