’Brexit’ Burns the Brits, Brussels and Co.

Darko Lazar

In what marks a truly rare exercise in democracy, over 46 million European citizens took part in a referendum opting for Great Britain's exit from the European Union.

Those who took part in the referendum, which saw one of the highest voter turnouts in British history, make up some 11% of the 350 million eligible voters in the EU.

Naturally, such a high voter turnout never bodes well for the establishment, which was keen on having the UK remain in the so-called ‘Brussels family'.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron was the first political casualty, announcing his resignation shortly after the final referendum results were released.

But the high turnout in this historic poll should not be oversimplified solely as a victory for the populist political parties in the UK and Europe. The fact that so many people have come out to make their voices heard does not denote populism; it is the basis of any democratic system - something Europe and indeed the whole of the west have long since conveniently chosen to forget.

It that respect, the vote for ‘Brexit' is a product of more than just the British public's disillusionment with Brussels, driven by what some have described as a far-right, Islamophobic movement. This has been a vote against the undemocratic and elitist nature of governance, corrupt and immoral western financial institutions, from London City to Brussels and Wall Street, as well as a rejection of a universal government envisioned by shady lobbies and secret societies.

"The old world is gone," says London-based political commentator, William Spring.

"I am very glad about this result as you might imagine. I have lived for the past forty years in the wilderness. I can remember the last pack of lies that Harold Wilson gave to us with his referendum in 1975. I have been lied to once, I do not want to be lied to again and I did everything in my power to support the Brexiters," Spring adds.

Bristol-based investigative journalist Tony Gosling believes the ‘Brexit' vote "is a natural reaction to the failures at the top. We've seen failures by our politicians, failures in our media to properly cover these subjects, many of the most important issues simply not getting an airing in our London media and mainstream press. No real proper critique of foreign policy and the wars that have been going on in the Middle East... and the failures of the financiers, the money people."

What comes next?

In the lead-up to the ‘Brexit' vote, the British public was subjected to daily bombardment with doomsday predictions from pro-EU politicians, financial experts, academics, celebrities, members of the clergy, and even US President Barack Obama.

"Ever since the referendum was announced, there has been a constant wave of threats against the British people. Threats from every conceivable group of non-entities, whether they be the football league or David Beckham or the Archbishop of Canterbury. These people, who know nothing about the conditions of the working class, who know nothing about living in what was until last night a semi-occupied state, are telling the British people what to do. And quite rightly, the British people have resisted this," says Spring.

There is, however, a price for resisting.

And those very same ‘non-entities' and powerful business interests that stood behind the campaign to keep the UK in the EU will be looking to punish the British voters.

The political and legal uncertainties surrounding Britain will cause a great deal of economic pain in the short-term, while the creation of new trade deals with Brussels will take a minimum of two years.

Meanwhile, politicians in Brussels and the EU's economic powerhouses like Germany and France will push for harsh settlements to hammer home the price of leaving the ‘family'.

The vote in favor of ‘Brexit' also brought down the value of the British pound to a 31-year low - its sharpest decline in history.

"These are deliberate movements, which were orchestrated by people like George Soros and the Goldman Sachs conspiracy against the working people of this country," Spring opines.

To make matters worse, ‘Brexit' could lead to the breakup of the UK, with Scotland eager to be the first to leave.

Political camps in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have used the opportunity to initiate discussions about the breakup of the United Kingdom. In 2014, Scotland had voted to reject independence from Great Britain in its own referendum.

But on Friday, Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed that "the option of a second independence referendum is on the table... if there is a significant and material change in the circumstance that prevailed in 2014, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will."

For Scots - the majority of whom were in favor of remaining in the EU - a new referendum is looking increasingly likely.

The Domino Effect

Despite Scottish calls for another independence vote, it is the European Union that will be threatened most by the ‘Brexit' vote.

A similar pressure and movement toward disintegration are being felt across the EU, and the numbers are already in.

According to the latest polls, 69% of Swedes, 66% of Danes and 57% of Norwegians believe that ‘Brexit' will be followed by other member states holding referendums to leave the EU.

Other polls have shown that up to 40% of people across Europe are now hostile to the European project.

Oddly enough, however, top EU leaders appeared dumbfounded in the face of the ‘Brexit' outcome.

The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, referred to his childhood days for comfort, making a rather senseless remark about how his father would always tell him that, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

"The European leaders are in a state of panic. They didn't really take the prospect of a ‘Brexit' very seriously and it's one of the many indications of their extreme mediocrity," says the director of studies at the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, John Laughland.

Eurosceptic parties, on the other hand, took a very different tone.

Inspired by the British ‘leave' vote, right-wing politicians across the continent, including those from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France, called for referendums on their countries' membership in the bloc.

"We now need to hold the same referendum in France and in [other] EU countries," France's right-wing National Front party leader Marine Le Pen wrote on her Twitter page.

"The situation in France is very febrile; it is febrile in Austria and in many other countries... I do not predict any other referendums in the short or medium term, but of course the pressure for that will now rise," said Laughland.

EU, NATO and the TTIP

The impact of "Brexit" on practical cooperation between the UK and the EU, the US and NATO will be limited.

But the collapse in confidence amongst Europe's political class and any additional EU ‘exit' referendums will be a major blow to NATO's eastern expansion, as EU membership always tends to entail countries being swallowed-up by NATO as well.

Eastern European states, especially non-EU members in the Balkan region, will increasingly be looking to Russia and the possibility of joining the Eurasian Economic Union.

But more importantly, eastern and central European governments will have an increasingly tough time selling the "Go West" mantra to an already disillusioned electorate.

Moreover, Washington's ability to exert its economic domination over Western Europe may also have taken a very serious hit with ‘Brexit'.

"The US is trying to conclude a transatlantic trade treaty with all of Europe, similar to its Trans-Pacific Treaty it just negotiated. And if Britain is not in the EU, then the US is going to have to negotiate separately with Britain and that's going to make it very hard to conclude what's known as the TTIP," said political and economic expert, Jack Rasmus.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated since 2013 by EU and US authorities, and whose contents remain entirely secret to the public.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange described this initiative as the integration of Western Europe with the US, "pulling it away from Eurasia as a whole and towards the Atlantic."

Critics say the trade agreement is designed to change the face of the global economy and society - making it possible for primarily large US corporations to bypass and overpower state institutions.

According to Rasmus, "the ‘Brexit' vote is really a proxy vote for discontent with customs unions, free zones and so forth. It's often not expressed that way in the media... it upsets this whole idea of free trade and more global integration, which Washington wants and leads."

Source: al-Ahed news