After the Brexit vote, just who will clean up the mess?
Kevin Rafferty says whether Britons vote to stay in or leave the EU, the scaremongering campaigns on both sides have created such a toxic environment that damage control won’t come cheap
Most countries, including China and North Korea, profess that democracy is the best form of government. And what can be more democratic than a referendum, allowing consultation of all the people on the really important matters of state?
Unfortunately, the people of Britain are going to wake up on Friday to realise that their great referendum on whether to stay a member of the European Union or to leave has settled one issue, only to create a larger problem.
Latest opinion polls suggest the result is too close to call. The tragic murder last week of Member of Parliament Jo Cox, a supporter of Britain’s membership of the EU, seems to have stopped the momentum that the Leave campaign – or Brexit – was gathering. Whichever side wins, it will be a modern Pyrrhic victory, with expensive political and economic prices to pay.
Whichever side wins, it will be a modern Pyrrhic victory, with expensive political and economic prices to pay
Democracy does not always produce good or even just outcomes. Britain’s referendum campaign has degenerated into a farrago of scaremongering, myths, half-truths and outright lies, in which both sides have excelled, creating a poisonous atmosphere.
The Leave gang have been touring on a bus proclaiming that the UK pays £350 million (HK$4 billion) a week to the EU. The Guardian estimated that the weekly cost was £136 million, after taking into account the British rebate and EU funding for UK projects. “It’s like saying that a pint of beer costs £20 because you pay with a £20 note and don’t count the change,” the paper commented. The Remain camp claims that three million jobs are at risk if the country leaves. George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, claimed there would be a £30 billion “black hole” if Britain voted to leave, which he would have to fill with higher taxes and spending cuts. These assertions prove that the economics of membership runs into the dark forest of lies, damned lies and statistics.
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Nevertheless, almost every respected international organisation, including the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and Bank of England, as well as 90 per cent of more than 600 distinguished economists polled, concluded that the UK’s growth will fall, jobs will be lost and the country will face chill economic winds outside Europe. Foreign companies with big investments in the UK will consider whether to move to the mainstream EU.