Kamikaze Brexit

The kind of UK that will result from May‘s diamond-hard Brexit will not be kind to poor British people and British people perceived to be masquerading as British while really being something else. British Jews will not be immune from this. And the level of unkindness will ramp up as the economic shit hits the fan because it’s the actual or perceived non-British who will be blamed. And the EU will continue to be blamed too, for not conceding to Britain all the benefits of membership with none of the costs. And it looks like Sinn Féin’s decision to withdraw from the Northern Ireland Executive was predicated on this. What would have been the point of their struggling on with the DUP in the context of the UK going full nativist? And all for what?  #kamikazebrexit

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The Future of Brexit Britain

1. A considerable part of the UK press is attacking the judiciary in the vilest terms possible. The first edition of one of those attacks contained an anti-gay slur
2. The leader of a party that got millions of votes at the last election is organizing a mass protest designed to intimidate the Supreme Court and  warning (i.e., threatening) violence if the Court hands down a decision he disagrees with.
3. The government has only made the most tepid noises to defend the judiciary and has been flying anti-foreigner policy kites. Some of the PM’s comments at the last Conservative conference wouldn’t have looked out of place in a BNP manifesto a few years ago
4. Blaming the presence of immigrants for the supposed ills of the country has long been popular of the right; now some parts of the Labour party have decided that it would be best to  more openly pander to voters’ prejudices in this regard. Some clever leftist writers have started writing columns which, their exquisitely careful wording notwithstanding, carry essentially the same message as the Daily Mail; there are too many foreigners among us and they lack essential moral qualities present in abundance among the native population.
5. There is currently no effective opposition to the government in parliament. The leadership of the Labour party thinks liberal democracy is largely a sham.
6. No one in government seems interested in the possible effects on the peace and government of NI of Brexit.
7. The government seems determined to sharply reduce  the number of foreign students in UK universities
8. So you’re not a judge, not gay, have a UK passport and don’t look foreign. Well don’t think that will  necessarily protect you. Do you perhaps have a non-British name? Be prepared for more careful checks on your identity. Are you Jewish? Well, the hard left has long had it in for you and the nativist right may soon feel able to start letting you know what it thinks your real identity is and just how much it values your “Leave” vote? Are you a first generation Brit? At this rate how long do you think you think you’ll continue to be regarded as “truly British”?
9. When subsidies to keep multinationals in the country post-Brexit mean there’s even less money than now for social spending and the NHS, who do you think those affected are probably going to blame? When those at the bottom end of the labour market are even more lumpenised and atomised than they are now, who do you think they’ll vote for?
10. It looks like generations of social liberalisation and economic progress is in danger. There’s currently no one on the left-liberal side of politics to defend it

Brexit, Antisemitism and Progressive Xenophobia

Contemporary antisemites are quick to produce their Jewish friends and may even be Jewish themselves. Progressive Brexit xenophobes welcome foreigners of their own class but are concerned about (what they see as) the negative effects on the “indigenous” working class of poor EU immigrants. The former see the ills of the world as being produced by runaway Jewish power, the latter (with regret) see the problems of the “indigenous” working class as caused by the presence of poor immigrants. Both have forgotten a lot of basic things we used to know and react with outrage to any suggestion their views might have racist effects.