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Some of the great moments of history sneak up on businesspeople. Two years ago, Britain looked to be Europe's most economically rational country; now its companies seem to be rolling from one economic earthquake to another, with Brexit looking increasingly likely to be followed by the election of a near-Marxist prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn.
Looking back, two things stand out. First, there were some deep underlying "irrational" causes that business ignored, such as the pent-up anger against immigration and globalization. Second, there was a string of short-term political decisions that proved to be miscalculations. For decades, for example, attacking the European Union was a "free hit" for British politicians. If David Cameron had it to do over again, would he really have made the referendum on whether to stay in it a simple majority vote (or indeed called a vote at all)? Does Angela Merkel now regret giving Cameron so few concessions before the Brexit vote? Would the moderate Labour members of Parliament who helped Corbyn get on their party's leadership ballot in the name of political diversity really do that again?
Now, another rupture may be sneaking up on Europe, driven by a similar mixture of pent-up anger and short-term political maneuvering. This one is between the old West European democratic core of the EU, led by Merkel and increasingly by Emmanuel Macron, who are keen to integrate the euro zone, and the populist authoritarians of Eastern Europe, who dislike Brussels. This time the arguments are ones about political freedom and national sovereignty.
Eastern Europe's gripes are nothing a little anschluss couldn't cure.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bolek_b on Friday October 06 2017, @09:37AM (1 child)
I wonder why the parent was modded "Troll" when all it does is state the facts. Phrase "democratic deficit" is being mentioned even in official circles. In recent years we could witness a lot of examples where rules and laws were violated (or their violation had been overlooked) by EU. To name one, during the migration crisis, the Dublin Regulation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Regulation [wikipedia.org]) was simply ignored.
I live in Czech Republic and we as a nation are quite sensitive to control from bigger powers. Hundreds of years as a part of Austrian-Hungary Empire, then "democratically" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement [wikipedia.org]) conceded to Hitler, and almost immediately after the end of WWII we fell into Soviet-led bloc called "Warsaw Pact". These lessons are the reason why ordinary Czechs view many geopolitical events with a lot of scepticism. And I must say that the EU does gradually show more and more signs of non-democratic entity. For example, a stock answer for many questions is "More of Europe, more integration". Or a vote regarding firearms directive earlier this year: I was watching live broadcast and I almost threw up; no discussion allowed, no proposals of amendment allowed, just "raise your hands, ok, pass", done in 5 minutes.
Bringing a palestinian terrorist as a VIP speaker into European Parliament just couple of days ago is another insult, resulting in even Czech proponents of EU starting to question what is going on.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @04:42PM
they are NWO scum. that is what is going on. only the stupidest of fucks would believe a bunch of un-elected leeches could save them.