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posted by mrpg on Friday October 06 2017, @02:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the nation-state-is-over dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @12:25PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @12:25PM (#577970)

    There are many severely disabled people also being denied benefits due to unrealistic assessments of their ability to do useful work.

    Unfortunately the opposite is also true. The DWP "disability assessments" are like something out of a dystopian fiction, these assessments should only be performed by a qualified GP.

    In the case of the main line British trains, just about anything would be an improvement on the current system! And I remember British Rail.

    Pipe down citizen; Our wonderful privatised yet subsidised mass transit system is being run this way in order to provide you with a higher quality of service. The worst of both worlds is the best of all worlds -- buy our inflation-linked day saver ticket today!

    Yeah, the NHS is woefully ineffiicent, but successive governments have been intentionally fucking it up to justify privatisation. I don't know about you, but I think it's a service worth having.

    I think the standards and service are excellent but the waiting times are not. Why cosmetic breast enlargement is available on a public service that keeps working, tax paying adults waiting 6 months for things such as hip surgery or hernia repair is beyond me.

    Each to their own. The current alternatives aren't looking too rosy though. More like steaming piles of horse shit.

    I don't entirely disagree but can you imagine the capital flight that would have followed Corbyn successfully seizing properties from foreign investors to rehouse Grenfell survivors? A stupidity that could have only been matched had the Tories proposed offsetting the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance by setting impoverished pensioners on fire! Not that it would surprise me if that idea made their next manifesto.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @05:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @05:28PM (#578151)

    This is not something for a doctor to do.

    Some cases can be handled by anybody with a checklist. Missing limbs and eyes would count.

    Most cases need investigators to watch the person. If they go rock climbing, they are not disabled.