
The United Kingdom Has Gone Mad - YeGoblynQueenne
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/opinion/brexit-news.html
======
okket
FYI, this from before May resigned and even before the EU granted the 2nd
extension to the article 50 deadline. It's from "April 2, 2019", May wrote the
letter requesting the 2nd extension on April 5.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Yes, I should probably have added the month in the title.

I think it's still quite relevant though. Especially so after May's
resignation - which seems to have left Boris Johnson at the head of the race
to replace her.

------
fxj
Brexit already costs the UK massively. The pound dropped from $1.50 per pound
in 2015 to $1.25 per pound in 2018. That is almost 20% destruction of wealth.

[https://qz.com/1626291/the-british-pound-is-on-a-record-
losi...](https://qz.com/1626291/the-british-pound-is-on-a-record-losing-
streak-against-the-euro/)

~~~
soVeryTired
I don't think currency movements create or destroy wealth: at most, they just
shift it around. I could just as easily argue that the drop in the pound
_created_ wealth among the UK's trading partners.

What a drop in FX rate _does_ result in is a (possibly minor, possibly major)
uptick in inflation as imports become more expensive. It also makes the
country's exports more competitive since they're cheaper in relative terms.

Some countries actually see a low FX rate as desirable: reduction in the
exchange rate is arguably one of the channels that made QE an effective
policy.

~~~
fxj
Of course it always depends on the perspective: For a fisher man who wants to
export seafood to the EU this is good news. For the average family which has
to pay 20% more for everyday goods like vegetables from the Netherlands, not
so much. However, Britain has a large trade deficit in goods and services, so
in total it is bad news.

~~~
ProxCoques
Also note that UK exporters have tended to bank the price difference rather
than increase sales. Not good for increased employment.
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/15/uk-
exporter...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/15/uk-exporters-
have-hoarded-gains-from-fall-in-sterling-says-ons)

------
de_Selby
From April 2nd.

Not that things are looking any better now, "no deal" is probably more likely
now than it was then.

~~~
tim333
On the plus side some of the debate seems better than it was. Or am I
imagining it? I was thinking of Farage vs Cable the other day - 5 min
highlights:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0KV2cNZVXM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0KV2cNZVXM)

------
imtringued
Brexit is boring. UK politicians are stupid. Why do they spend so much energy
on something that won't help them? I'm sure the UK has bigger problems than
highly educated french people coming to London or supporting their
neighbouring countries with some minor EU fees.

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avip
For the record, only England and Wales "have gone mad". Scotland and Northern
Ireland voted solid _stay_.

~~~
Nursie
Even Scotland voted around 1/3rd to leave. Without that Scottish leave vote
the UK would have been majority remain. NI was closer.

------
rollthehard6
Correction, England (Outside London) and Wales has gone mad.

~~~
Nursie
Without the Scottish or London leave voters, we wouldn't be leaving. The
proportions varied across the UK, but it's the UK people that voted this way.

~~~
smacktoward
By a tiny margin, after a concerted misinformation campaign.

~~~
Nursie
Correct, can't argue that. I just dislike this meme that gets bandied around
that England voted one way and Scotland another - neither did so with a single
voice, and this was not a vote at a member-country scale, but one in which
every individual vote counted.

------
Nursie
Our politics has been stale and unrepresentative for some time, ticking along
with party divisions that don't represent the political divisions of the
populace any more.

The brexit fiasco has exposed this very well, and the main parties are tearing
themselves to pieces over it.

I'm not especially keen to leave the EU, but I did consider voting that way
precisely to provoke this. I still hope for meaningful political change in the
uk to come from this time.

------
karmakaze
This identification of knowledge stocks and flows is key:

> business has “been organized around stocks of knowledge as the basis for
> value creation. The key to creating economic value has been to acquire some
> proprietary knowledge stocks, aggressively protect those knowledge stocks
> and then efficiently extract the economic value from those knowledge stocks
> and deliver them to the market. The challenge in a more rapidly changing
> world is that knowledge stocks depreciate at an accelerating rate. In this
> kind of world, the key source of economic value shifts from stocks to flows.

> “The companies that will create the most economic value in the future,”
> Hagel says, “will be the ones that find ways to participate more effectively
> in a broader range of more diverse knowledge flows that can refresh
> knowledge stocks at an accelerating rate.”

------
mimixco
The colonies were entirely dependent upon Britain until the Declaration of
Independence was signed, a bold and surely terrifying act that seems to have
worked out ok for the US.

The author dismisses the 'remote control' of the UK by Brussels and the fact
that UK citizens can't even vote for their own laws or rulers, saying he "gets
all that." I don't think so. If he did, he would understand why self
determination is, to many people, more important than self protection. IMHO,
this is the issue at the heart of Brexit.

~~~
pgsandstrom
Then again, the american revolutionary war did not start to gain independence,
but to fight taxation without representation.

~~~
mimixco
Yes, and Britain has the exact same problem with the EU.

------
boomskats
This article gives the whole effort too much credit, even naively so. Brexit
is nothing more than an ambitious attempt by british money to avoid the
expensive tax, aml and human rights legislation imposed by Brussels. Calling
it out for what it is is the only possible way forward in my opinion -
accusing disgruntled, starved, easily manipulated parts of the nation of being
mad or stupid is just divisive and counterproductive.

~~~
tim333
I'm a remainer but there's more to it than that.

------
lorriman
The wonderfully mad thing about UK politics is that the socialists are very
much against the EU and for leaving, but their nominally socialist party, the
Labour Party, is Remainer while their leader is a capitulating Brexiter, and
grassroots conservatives are Brexiters while the Conservative Party is
significantly Remainer with a (now ex) Remainer primeminister and remainer
Chancellor of the Exchequor.

What makes a lot more sense it that while the ideological Economist Magazine
and academic economists are Remainer (of the same 125 who jointly wrote to
Thatcher telling her how wrong she was in 1982; that didn't turn out so well,
haha!), Money Week (which is only interested in making money) and the
capitalist pundits at the Daily Telegraph are essentially Brexiters.

------
retrac98
I wish these newspaper paywalls would take into account whether you actually
read any of the articles you previously clicked into as part of your “free
limit”.

~~~
tjoff
Isn't that what the "read more" button that loads the rest of the article
does? Thought nytimes had those previously.

They have a pretty disgraceful cookie policy though, I don't think highly of
an entity that produces this:

 _By clicking "I Accept" or "X" on this banner, or using our site, you consent
to the use of cookies unless you have disabled them._

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DNied
Voters have _already_ voted, so what's the point of an article urging people
to not believe the Brexiters?

------
bubblewrap
The usual fearmongering that the UK won't be able to trade with anybody
anymore if it leaves the EU.

Actually countries that are not part of the EU have been trading for thousands
of years. And Non-EU countries are even trading with EU countries.

It's quite the miracle.

~~~
yholio
Sure they trade. But when China slaps you with a tariff, as it has done for a
thousand years, you no longer have a 400 million consumer gorilla on your
side. Apparently, this is a good thing and testament to a country's
sovereignty.

~~~
bubblewrap
On the other hand, maybe the have few reasons to impose tariffs on "small"
countries, because small countries never produce enough to threaten the local
Chinese economy.

Also, again, many small countries seem to do fine without the EU. Presumably
they still trade with China.

