
Boris Johnson breaks silence to set out leadership platform - merraksh
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/boris-johnson-breaks-silence-to-set-out-leadership-platform
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dbcooper
Johnson's statement in full:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/i-cannot-
stress-t...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/i-cannot-stress-too-
much-that-britain-is-part-of-europe--and-alw/)

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iMark
I truly wonder whether the population of London will ever forgive Johnson for
his part in the referendum.

It may will prove significant in elections and referendums to come.

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xorgar831
Britain has never really considered itself part of Europe, they've
historically taken amusement in the irony of how they refer to "Europe" and
"the continent" to refer to not the UK, as though they're not part of it. They
don't learn the languages of Europe more than what's needed for a vacation, at
best. They didn't join the EEC, which certainly looked a lot like they wanted
to use their pound sterling more than to help the community. And now of course
Brexit, which makes no sense at all from a rational perspective.

The argument of doing what's best for everyone is just not something that
resonates in their politics, much in the same way that's it's not a mainstream
value in the USA either. Rather it's about "what's in it for me". Those are
not the values of the majority in continental Europe thankfully, asking the
question of what's best for everyone resonates stronger.

~~~
acjohnson55
I don't think it's quite true that there's a big divide between the social
democracy of the continent versus the individualism of the UK. Both regions
are significantly more committed to social democracy than the US, where
universal healthcare is still massively controversial. And a very similar
strain of nationalistic tribalism is gaining currency on both sides of the
Channel. The British don't have any sort of monopoly on Euroskepticism and
traditional ethnocentrism.

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acjohnson55
In other words "you'll be able to have your cake and eat it, too". A whole
bunch of bold promises this man can't possibly have a credible plan for being
able to keep. The EU is going to be less than interested in accommodating all
these lofty promises.

We're in a volatile time in the developed world. Economic liberalization has
brought about a great deal of progress in the past 30 years. Yet, for a bunch
of reasons -- globalization, automation, immigration, reduction of
discrimination -- the social contract with the majority middle class has
broken down. Where once there was a time that if you were born certain shades
of skin color in certain countries, some level of economic superiority was
your birthright, it's pretty clear that those days are numbered.

I personally think all of these forces of change are ultimately good things.
The old system was immoral in a number of ways. However, I can also empathize
with the very real loss of societal standing, even though the plight of the
majority middle class is _still_ better today than those they feel are gaining
prestige at their expense. It's no surprise that this is manifesting as a
rogue wave of discontent against the elites and the power structures they
control.

The saddest part is that, both in Britain and America, sleazy opportunists are
successfully selling the notion that the genie can be put back in the bottle,
that the way forwards is by moving backward. This would require re-oppressing
the groups of people that rather invisibly propped up the prosperity of the
majority in the past, and the opportunists and their supporters are becoming
more bold in acknowledging this intention.

The other insurgent movement, embodied by Corbyn and Sanders, respectively, is
calling for an explicitly egalitarian social contract, largely embracing
multiculturalism (although less so pan-nationalism). It's interesting that
there seems to be a very deep young-old divide between this approach and the
reactionary approach. Even more so given that the youth hasn't even had the
chance to experience the broad-based prosperity in their adult lives that the
previous generation seems to have squandered.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the status quo neoliberal politicians have
clearly been inept at addressing the concerns of the future, even as they've
been largely effective at producing apparent macroeconomic progress. But the
disconnect couldn't be more apparent for the average citizens outside the
economic and political capitols. Up till now, the traditional elites been able
to stay at the helm, bickering about the same old shit that used to motivate
voters, but we're beginning to see the stranglehold of the duopoly falter. I
think what lies beyond is basically a tri-partite battle for the future
between nationalist protectionism, democratic socialism, and neoliberalism.

What's frightening is that it's far from clear that we'll end up with forward-
looking governance. It seems like the interim will be chaotic at the very
least, even if we avoid the slide into some kind of new fascism.

