Thursday, July 07, 2016

Two Brexit views

First, I see from James Annan's blog that it had an immediate bad effect on academics in England, whose working life was, it seems, already uncertain enough.

But today in The Guardian, a bit of a surprising defence of Brexit from Simon Jenkins, although I do find his analogy here somewhat amusing:
Brexit is starting to deliver. British politics was constipated and has now overdosed on laxative. It is experiencing a great evacuation. It has got rid of a prime minister and is about to get rid of a leader of the opposition. It will soon be rid of a chancellor of the exchequer and a lord chancellor. It is also rid of two, if not four, Tory heirs apparent. Across the spectrum the left is on the brink of upheaval and perhaps historic realignment, if only the Liberal Democrats have the guts to engineer it. The Greens and Ukip have both lost their leaders. An entire political class is on the way out. As Oscar Wilde said of the death of Little Nell, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
It seems to me that Jenkins' welcoming attitude, even though he voted to stay, is from a Left wing perspective.   But he paints such a positive picture of its good effects, you have to question his voting judgement in the first place.

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