Britain will continue to have access to the European Union's single market despite voting to leave, says Brexit campaigner and former London mayor Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson — who is a favourite to replace David Cameron as the country's next prime minister — wrote in a regular column for the Daily Telegraph newspaper that Britain could now forge a relationship with the EU based on free trade and partnership.

"There will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market," Mr Johnson said in the column, adding that Britain would also be able to do free trade deals with growth economies outside the EU...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-27/brexit-boris-johnson-says-britain-will-still-trade-with-eu/7546160

 

Free trade? My information is that Mr Johnson is deluded...

 

Brussels: I arrived in Brussels as the Daily Telegraph's correspondent in early June 2015. A fortnight later, Alexis Tsipras snubbed Brussels, and called a referendum on the third bailout that was designed to save the eurozone from collapse.

The terms he was later given - €50 billion ($74.2 billion) of assets  sold and a de facto control of economic policy surrendered - were so harsh they were later denounced as a "coup".

It taught me two things: that in the cause of its salvation the European Union can be profoundly flexible and exceptionally brutal, and that events can swiftly take a momentum that is hard to control.

Nothing of that experience gives me hope for the years that now await our country.

Britain is almost certainly out the European Union

As far as Brussels is concerned, Britain has left.

At home on Friday morning, Britons were dumbstruck, agog at the result, or chuffed at having taught Brussels a lesson.

We now see street protests to overturn the result, internet petitions, suggestions that the British or Scottish Parliament could revoke it or somehow make it go away. Westminster is occupied by Labour coups and Tory successions. Few seem to believe we are going.

In Brussels, they have been ready to say goodbye for a long time. Britain had been halfway out the door for 40 years. British Prime Minister David Cameron had announced this referendum in January 2013. He had won an election on the back of it, and many expected him to lose it. He, and they, repeated many times that it was final and binding. Patience is exhausted.

On Friday there was grave sadness, but no panic. The timetable for the talks was announced days before the vote. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, spoke at dawn; Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, delivered a statement at 7.40am London time. The founding members' foreign ministers met on Saturday; sherpas for the 27 remaining states will meet today to sketch out the months ahead.

Leaders have demanded Article 50 is activated immediately, to create certainty. Realistically, Mr Cameron has until Christmas.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/brexit-hardball-the-european-union-will-treat-britain-like-greece-20160627-gpsm67.html

 

 

Some people may have missed my previous blogs since 2005 and my comments since the 1990 about Britain in the European Community — wanting all benefits but none of the pain. As well, Britain was more aligned with Washington, always doing what the USA wanted including spy on the European Union. Britain got lucky that the EU did not throw her out way before this week. 

 

Read also: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/25/a-timeline-of-britains-eu-membership-in-guardian-reporting

Gibraltar is in talks with Scotland about a plan to keep parts of the UK in the EU, BBC Newsnight has learned.

Fabian Picardo, the territory's chief minister, told the BBC he was speaking to Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, about various options.

One possibility under discussion is for Gibraltar and Scotland, which both voted to remain in the EU, to maintain the UK's membership of the bloc.

Ms Sturgeon confirmed to the BBC that talks are under way with Gibraltar.

Northern Ireland could also potentially be included in the discussions.

"I can imagine a situation where some parts of what is today the member state United Kingdom are stripped out and others remain," Mr Picardo told Newsnight.

"That means that we don't have to apply again for access, we simply remain with the access we have today, and those parts that leave are then given a different sort of access, which is negotiated but not necessarily under Article 50," he said, referring to a provision in the Lisbon Treaty that sets out how a member state can voluntarily leave the Union.

Past precedents

There is a precedent for such a proposal. Denmark joined what was then the EEC in 1973, the same year as the UK and Ireland.

Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979 and seceded from the EU in 1985, following a referendum three years earlier.

Nicola Sturgeon has previously said that a second referendum on independence for Scotland is "highly likely", following last Thursday's Leave victory.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36639770

 

Fans and followers of England's football team ought to be used to crushing disappointment at major tournaments by now, but it seems every time it happens, the country loses its collective heads.

And so it has proved again, perhaps understandably, as a country best known for its volcanos and Vikings in Iceland has delivered the latest heartbreaking defeat.

As one English commentator put it at the end of the match, "anyone in the England camp tonight connected with that should hang his head in shame. That was a shambles. That was English".

England is now out of Euro 2016, managerless and, like the country on the whole, in a state of uncertainty and shock. And Twitter has delivered.

And while drinking in the schadenfreude of it all, even the 'Crazy Icelandic Commentator' has turned up for a brilliant sequel.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-28/the-internet-reacts-to-england-loss-to-iceland-euro-2016/7549152
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But they can console themselves with the help of an Aussie coach:

England have won nine matches in a row and leapt from eighth to second in the world rankings, leaving just New Zealand ahead of them.

So what next for Jones and his side as they try and hunt down the world champions?

Head coach Eddie Jones captured the mood of an excited nation after England completed an historic 3-0 whitewash in Australia, just months after sealing a first Grand Slam in 13 years.

"I'm sure that everyone at home who watched the three Tests can't wait to see us play in November," the Australian said. "They must be lining up at Twickenham now trying to get seats."

Next up for England are the autumn Tests against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/36643341

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So horrible a fact can hardly pleaded for favour:
Therefore go you, Equity, examine more diligently
The manner of this outrageous robbery:
And as the same by examination shall appear,
Due justice may be done in presence here.

The Brexit event has shaken a lot of cobwebs, including the profiteers of the stock market — but not for long there. People know how to rob each others for profit. It's the major industry of capitalism.
But Brexit has attracted a lot of commentary. From religious preaching to political grand standing and nut-case opportunism, many commentators see the result from their little castle of biased views, including Gus. 
Gus thinks that the Brexit event is somewhat separate from the fact that Britain should have been kicked out of the EU long ago, for various reasons. It never played ball with the European community. It spied on the EU members and their leaders. It kept its own currency, instead of joining the Eurozone, as if the Euro was dirty. It thus created a bad deed in regard to the financing of Europe. The UK was given favourable exclusion clauses in the EU regulations. Many countries in the EU tolerated the Brits with a degree of resentment. Sure, the British citizens had no idea what was going on at MI6 and had no idea that their masters from Blair to Cameron have been telling porkies the size of Texas, though they should have known most of time...
So Brexit happened. A bit like a shot in the foot for Cameron. There were a variety of reasons: 

• Some people saw their lifestyle and their "Britishness" being eroded  — and felt invaded by "belonging" to the EU. 
• Racism played a small part in this view and the extreme right played this card very well.
• Some people may have been sick of having to rescue countries like Greece. For them, spending a couple of days in Athens and being "robbed" blind by the locals was enough rescuing.

Starting low key, a religious preacher, tell us:

When the world is out of control, the absurd can begin to feel like common sense to those who have the absurd notion that the world should be controlled for their benefit alone.

Trump and Brexit are the result. They are responses to the sense of precariousness and disorder we experience now.

This sense of disorder is no illusion. We are in a moment when we are beset by foundational and basic questions about what human flourishing consists of, in every area of life. Among the many questions being asked in our present moment some are these:

When we can manipulate the basic structures of life at a genetic and planetary level, we are forced to ask what does it mean to be human? What is our relationship to the land, the sea and the air? And what are our responsibilities to the planet as a whole?
As we become more ethnically and morally diverse as societies and some states collapse - even while historic wounds fester and erupt in others - we are confronting questions about how to remember the past and whether a common life is even possible?
Amid economic crises and the dominance of the plutocratic 1%, we are asking whether there are limits to the market or is the market the only reality we all share?

Gus:so far, one sees politics and capitalism in action. One may agree or not. I would say, we have always been ethnically different and morally diverse — but not necessarily in the same domain. the point is we have often failed to notice it because we failed to look beyond the privet hedges of our villages. As well, in the past, most of the colonial activities were to enslave the ethnically different for personal or corporate benefit, with the exploration of missionaries as scouts and the benediction of the church. 

Now the writer's sorry whiff of religious bigotry comes in as if it was a sermon about sins creating earthquakes:

Through debates about gender and sexuality, we are asking what does it mean to be a man or woman? What the nature, form and role of the family should be? And how are we going to raise our kids?
Amid changing patterns of work and the incursion of information technology into every area of life, we are asking what is work? What is social life? And what should be the relationship between humans and machines?
With changes in medical technology, we ask what is health? And how are we going to care for the elderly?
In a globalized world made up of networks and flows of people, information, goods and services, we are debating what the role and form of the state should be? And is democracy fit for purpose?

An analogous moment occurred in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century through the processes of urbanization, industrialization, bureaucratization, imperialism and so on. Fundamental questions about the social, economic and political basis of human life together were asked. This was a trans-Atlantic conversation and, within the context of European empires, a global one.

 

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2016/06/25/4488887.htm

 

All this is crap-twap. People don't think that much to vote NO to Europe. The last paragraph is too convoluted to make sense anyway.

And urbanization, industrialization, bureaucratization, imperialism has given some clear benefits for some people. It has always been a question of proportion.

 

Meanwhile, historical reasons for voting NO to Europe can come from football fever and remembering Napoleon. No to the pissy French and especially No to the Germans who gave us WWII.

 

Another rabid Christian, a US teaching pastor at Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, Wallace Henley, tells us with gravitas:

 

 

Jonathan Sandys is no elitist, but he is the great-grandson of Sir Winston Churchill. He and I co-authored God and Churchill, which explores Jonathan's great-grandfather's spiritual background and providential destiny. Jonathan, a British citizen now living in Houston, very much wanted Britain to remain in the EU.

"A United Europe was my great-grandfather's dream," he said, as we had a friendly debate.

Jonathan, like his famous ancestor, has a broad vision. He is concerned for Britain's security in a world where Obama foreign policy has shredded overseas confidence in a friendship with the United States [whatever this means].

"My great-grandfather would have voted 'Remain,'" thinks Jonathan.

But I'm not sure.

Churchill's vision was in the context of 1945 Europe. It was a continent struggling to rebuild after the Second World War. Europe in 1945 still remembered the First World War, when the august ruling monarchs, most blood-related, went at each other through the sacrifice of their young men. Churchill wanted a Europe that would live as a community, not an asteroid belt of colliding states.

Further, as Jonathan and I show in detail in God and Churchill, Sir Winston saw the Second World War as being for the survival of "Christian Civilization," a term he used repeatedly. One doubts he would be excited about the rabid secularism of the current EU and its abandonment of "Christian Civilization."

Jonathan and I, though disagreeing about the current vote, concur that Brexit contained important lessons. For one, he says, it revealed the weakness of the UK's leadership. Were Churchill in power now the vote would have never come up because he would have personally gone to Brussels and roared at the elites, confronted their errors, and demolished their authoritarian policies.

Jonathan and I believe the UK vote is a wake-up call for Britain and its leaders, as well as the United States. But the current situation is ominous. Hillary Clinton's foreign policy flaws, from the casual handling of secrets essential to national security, to failure to grasp what is really going on in certain situations, are painfully obvious right now. And what of Donald Trump's undeveloped, unproven, and vague, sometimes even confused, understanding of global issues?

Naïveté about the world and disregard for its member states are the jagged edges of the iceberg sinking the EU "Titanic." That, combined with the core problem of the rejection of God and the Judeo-Christian worldview, and the aloof arrogance and authoritarianism of the Brussels elite have caused the EU ship to not be seaworthy for the tempests roiling the globe.

That's why she may break up on those troubled waters, and why likely there will soon be a rush to the lifeboats.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/eu-denying-europes-christian-roots-contributed-to-brexit-165713/#tUHPY5EouKCPxm0O.99

Who knows how Churchill would have voted. One thing we know is that Churchill was a racist bastard. So he might have voted out. Without the Russians, Churchill could have lost the war. Conjecture of course. Some countries were playing a double game then, like Sweden. Sweden still does it in regard to Julian Assange. The Julian Assange case my have had a certain impact on Brexit as well. People stopped subconsciently trusting their leaders — on the left or the right.
Naïveté first belongs to those intelligent people who believe in god and see Armageddon at every street corners. 
To some extend Brexit is going to strengthen Europe. It should. That's what Gus believes, should the other 27 countries play ball properly. 27 is a great number for making things stronger. 
With Scotland, Gibraltar and Northern Island wanting to "secede" from Brexit and join Europe, this could add a bit of sauce to the puzzle nonetheless. I cannot predict the future, because I know nothing. But should I be Merkel and Hollande, I would embrace one another with greater vigour and get rid of the US cloud. 

The dismantling of NATO would not be a bad start. Create a new EU Force, away from the warmongering Yanks. From then on make peace with Russia and start to make real European progress. Do it soon... before the new US president gets her stripes, because she will want war with something or rather — and will want you to do the dirty work. 
Still be friendly with the British but don't trust them. They never were worthy of the trust of the Europeans, anyway.

 

Boris Johnson says he will not run to replace British Prime Minister Cameron

Ever the showman, Boris Johnson called it the "punchline" when he announced he could not be the person to lead the UK. A unifying figure was needed for the country, he said, and "that person cannot be me."

read more: http://www.dw.com/en/boris-johnson-says-he-will-not-run-to-replace-british-prime-minister-cameron/a-19368771

appearing deceptively measured, Tony Blair adds oils to the fire...

 

 

Tony Blair has called for “serious statesmanship” in the talks with the European Unionthat will shape the future of the UK after Brexit.

The former prime minister warned “our nation is in peril” after the vote to leave the EU and the negotiations on the UK’s future relationship with the other countries would be of “extraordinary complexity”.

He urged the contenders in the Tory leadership race to act with “genuine patriotic regard” to the country’s future as he accepted his own party was “effectively disabled”.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Blair said: “There is going to be a negotiation of extraordinary complexity where there are a thousand devils in every detail. Those we used to call ‘our European partners’ are, unsurprisingly, divided and uncertain themselves.”

He said some countries wanted a quick divorce, while others favoured a delay in commencing the article 50 process, which starts a two-year countdown to Brexit.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/01/our-nation-is-in-peril-tony-blair-urges-calm-in-brexit-talks

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Tony Blair should be in prison.