John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
'Absolutely devastating': British lamb farmers fear impact of no-deal Brexit
Britain in recent years has offered the most vivid example of genuinely disastrous government.
First, David Cameron, likely the most incompetent Prime Minister in British history, offers a vote to the public about remaining in the EU.
It was something he didn't need to do at all, and it came after forty years of being part of EU. And, in such a huge and complex matter, not well-understood by the general public, it makes little sense to hold a vote, especially coming at a time of considerable public agitation over refugees and migration, a highly emotional topic where cool-headed facts did not at all feature. If for some reason you insisted on a vote, it should only have been held after, say, a one-year period of public education and discussion and debate. It is a hugely consequential decision.
Leading up to the vote, he ran around flapping his arms and pretending to play statesman, telling people he'd sure stay in the EU with the adjustments in terms he had obtained from Brussels.
Then we have Theresa May spend a few years trying to sort out terms with the EU, making quite a spectacle of herself on several occasions, as having cabinet ministers quit and having votes against the government's position, as well as forming an alliance from hell to stay in power.
Yet, the bottom line, as they say, remains clear: Britain will suffer in leaving the EU, no matter under what set of terms.
And the EU itself, one of the world’s largest economies, has been given a serious wound at a time of other menacing economic and social problems, and that in a world with many signs of weakness and instability.
May insists, bull-headedly, on going ahead with Brexit, yet so easily she could just declare that she, as Prime Minister, now sees how much damage this is doing and will not proceed, in the national interest. She could easily also hold a second vote, something polls suggest would go the other way from the original vote.
But no, damn the torpedoes, we're going full-steam ahead.
Rational government? I think not. And it is just one portion of what we see in a number of Western countries and around a number of important issues.
Oh well, maybe people can console themselves with, "At least it's not quite the vicious lunatic government we see in the United States, rampaging through every country where it finds anything it dislikes, threatening everyone with sanctions or sabotage or war, and, of course, threatening the world’s very stability."
Does anyone believe the world is going to survive this period and maintain its economic and political and social health? I certainly don’t.
