10-09-2016, 12:03 PM
Among the multiple absurdities uttered by those who demanded Britain’s departure from the European Union is the claim that, since the sky has not yet fallen in, all those gloomy warnings from the remain crowd have been proved wrong. Absurd because – and it’s odd that they haven’t spotted this – we have not yet left. We remainers believed that it was the actual leaving, not a mere vote to leave, that would bring economic havoc. That the first few post-referendum months seemed steady enough can be attributed to the hope nurtured by some of our trading partners, along with the markets, that we might not go ahead with this planned act of national self-harm, that we might step back from the brink. Which is why our currency takes a plunge every time Theresa May or her ministers indicate that, no, Brexit really will happen. The harder Brexit threatens to be, the deeper the pound tumbles.
More than half the money donated to groups campaigning in Britain's EU membership referendum was given by 10 individuals or companies, according to research published on Friday, raising questions over the outsize influence of the wealthy on politics. Anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International UK also said 95 percent of donations to the 'Leave' and 'Remain' campaigns in the run-up to the June 23 Brexit vote were made by only 100 donors. "The debate around the biggest question we have faced in a generation was financed by an astonishingly small group of exceptionally wealthy donors. That's a dangerous place for any democracy," said Duncan Hames, Transparency International UK's director of policy.
Wealthy donors dominated Brexit campaign funding - Business Insider
The most important thing to understand is that once Article 50 is triggered, the EU can filibuster the talks, running out the two-year clock, until Britain is ejected in a "hard Brexit" without any of its demands or requests being met. The EU is heavily incentivised to give the UK the worst deal possible. Its leadership wants to keep the rest of the EU together. Therefore the EU needs to teach all its other members a lesson in what would happen to any other country wanting to leave. That is why it will be happy to see Britain drop out without access to the single market.
Article 50 stacks the decks against Theresa May - Business Insider