Articles and Particles and Parties
Reassuring words from David Allen Green about Article 50 and the real 'ejector handle' of a British Exit:
Why the Article 50 notification is important
The short version is: we haven't done it yet, and we probably won't next week.
We probably will, eventually, but events are overtaking us.
The economic effect of Brexit is already underway: uncertainty is as damaging as the catastrophe itself, and it goes on for longer.
The chaos in the markets yesterday foreshadows a long decline as everybody disinvests - 'UK' companies especially - and redeploys resources into the European Union.
The political effect in Brussels, without an Article 50 notification, is predictable: there is no longer anything to be gained from engaging with with Britain in the day-to-day politics of negotiation around subsidies and regulations and regional development aid, so we are effectively expelled from Strasbourg and Brussels anyway.
Picture, if you will, the awkward figure standing on his own at cheese and wine receptions while the conversations and the in-jokes carry on around him, ignored and cold-shouldered by the convivial and collegiate members of the Council of Ministers.
Tomorrow he will speak in Council, or not: he has nothing constructive to say and the conversations of his betters, when they touch on his existence, are about the need to work around the possibility that he might deploy his veto.
Our influence is nonexistent: zero, or less, and as far as everyone can see, we might as well not be there. And that is a matter of choice, as Farage's fellow members of the Fisheries Commission can tell you, if there is any conceivable reason why they would waste their time talking to you.
The legal barrier of Article 50 is real, and we have yet to cross it: but it may end up as a mere recognition of the way we live a year from now.
This is a copy of my post here, on Dreamwidth, which has
comments. OpenID will allow you to comment there from your LiveJournal session: contact me if you have problems.
Why the Article 50 notification is important
The short version is: we haven't done it yet, and we probably won't next week.
We probably will, eventually, but events are overtaking us.
The economic effect of Brexit is already underway: uncertainty is as damaging as the catastrophe itself, and it goes on for longer.
The chaos in the markets yesterday foreshadows a long decline as everybody disinvests - 'UK' companies especially - and redeploys resources into the European Union.
The political effect in Brussels, without an Article 50 notification, is predictable: there is no longer anything to be gained from engaging with with Britain in the day-to-day politics of negotiation around subsidies and regulations and regional development aid, so we are effectively expelled from Strasbourg and Brussels anyway.
Picture, if you will, the awkward figure standing on his own at cheese and wine receptions while the conversations and the in-jokes carry on around him, ignored and cold-shouldered by the convivial and collegiate members of the Council of Ministers.
Tomorrow he will speak in Council, or not: he has nothing constructive to say and the conversations of his betters, when they touch on his existence, are about the need to work around the possibility that he might deploy his veto.
Our influence is nonexistent: zero, or less, and as far as everyone can see, we might as well not be there. And that is a matter of choice, as Farage's fellow members of the Fisheries Commission can tell you, if there is any conceivable reason why they would waste their time talking to you.
The legal barrier of Article 50 is real, and we have yet to cross it: but it may end up as a mere recognition of the way we live a year from now.
This is a copy of my post here, on Dreamwidth, which has
comments. OpenID will allow you to comment there from your LiveJournal session: contact me if you have problems.