Brexit - Decline and fall or Liberty and rebirth?

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
Your rights were won at Runnymede!
No freeman shall be fined or bound,
Or dispossessed of freehold ground,
Except by lawful judgment found
And passed upon him by his peers.
Forget not, after all these years,
The Charter signed at Runnymede.

-         Rudyard Kipling

Eight hundred years ago, at the verdant field of Runnymede, the Magna Carta was signed. And so was the modern concept of Liberty born into the world and forever transformed humanity.

An original copy of the Great Charter resides in the Australian Parliament, another sits beside the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution in Washington. I had the privilege of gazing upon one of the few original copies at Salisbury Cathedral in England. There was no crowd gathered, no queues, no eager excitement. People walked up to it, gazed briefly at the unremarkable looking, tattered and thickly lettered parchment, and left, their footfalls echoing in the 13^th century vestibule. Eight centuries does have the effect of removing even the most resplendent burnish. But as Lord Byron wrote:

‘But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.’

While most people may not remember the seismic effects of the Great Charter, its resonance reverberates to this very day. The revolutionary idea that the document implanted into the green island of England, and then exported to the rest of Europe and the globe, is that individual rights and liberties shall be protected by a common law which sits above everyone, even above Church and Throne. Furthermore, to ensure this lofty ideal is upheld, the Charter contains the archetype formula by which the liberty proclaimed within can be guaranteed; that of representative government, parliament, House of Commons; in short, the democratic process. Hence it ensured that individual liberties and freedoms are not given by some lofty court; instead the responsibility to uphold our civil rights is disseminated into the hands of each citizen as voters.

From this sublime idea, England transformed from a country with an ethnic notion of nationhood to one of propositional nationhood. It means that anyone from any creed and any background can become British if they partake in the values, civic responsibilities and the laws of the land. This tradition is what inspired the classic texts on liberty, freedom of thought and the emancipation of the species. Milton’s Areopagitica, Thomas Paine’s On the Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women and J.S. Mill’s On Liberty; books that should be compulsory reading to all and books that underlie virtually all one needs to know in the argument for and about liberty.

This tradition of personal liberty as grounds for society is why, for example, the British was the first and the most important country in the battle to abolish slavery, which was the status quo around the globe, having in effect outlawed it by the late eleventh and early twelfth century and producing people like Lord Mansfield, who proclaimed in the famous Somerset v Stewart case in 1772, that “England was too pure an air for a slave to breathe in.” And Granville Sharp, who founded the Society for the Abolishing of the Slave Trade in 1787 which went on to rally other countries to abandon the slave trade. In addition to this, the Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron, which between 1807 and 1860 blockaded the slave trade route by patrolling West Africa at great expense, great risks and against economic self-interest; in doing so liberating an estimated 150,000 Africans. A captured slave in the 19^th century on a French or Spanish or Portuguese ship would know when they spot the Union Jack snapping at the mast, that that flag represented freedom.

This tradition is an British tradition and is what inspired a small island country to lead the battle against tyranny, censorship, thought policing and centralising of power in the form of National Socialism in the last Great War, barely a life time ago. Indeed, the only way to trace the spread of this radical and uncommon idea is through a series of military victories of the British people. This proud tradition, expressed in the language with which this piece is writ, is the precious common inheritance of all who are lucky enough to live in countries that have adopted its uncommon values. And like the Great Charter sitting quietly in Salisbury Cathedral, it must not be forgotten or taken for granted.

Having adumbrated at some length the ineradicable connection between Britain and the Liberal tradition and all the modern rights that have sprung from its wombs, it should become fairly obvious to those who know a little of the workings of the European Union why it is that the people of UK has chosen to leave and why it is right for them to have chosen to leave. It is a restatement of the ideals of the Great Charter, an invigilation of the inheritors to stand up for their birthright of liberty. A fight back against the ever centralising and ever more undemocratic system of governance where 28 unelected commissioners with no accountability in Brussels make suffocating and unfair blanket laws and regulations for a people they don’t represent. Ask yourself if you can name the 3 presidents of the EU let alone know where they are from, what their credentials are and who voted for them. How is it that Jean-Claude Junker, an ousted politician from Luxembourg, is now taking control not only of the tiny country whose people democratically and explicitly chose not to have his leadership, but also the rest of Europe by becoming the President of the European Commission?

The most prevalent argument on the Remain side in the campaign was based on economy. The uncertainty that the UK faces and the potential downturn that might befall the markets are a real threat and rightly to be wary of. Markets hate uncertainty and the inevitable drop in the Pound has occurred. However, look at the facts. One of the crises facing the EU is the Eurozone debt crisis, with Greece, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Hungary, Romania and Latvia all requiring large bailouts which the UK, being the second largest economy within the EU, has to shoulder. Even after signing an agreement to exempt the UK from further bailout contributions, something the UK Prime Minister David Cameron waved with gusto as a great victory, when the third Greek bailout was called in 2015, the treaty was torn up and UK had to pay a hefty £1 billion yet again. If the EU treats their second largest contributor in this disingenuous and contemptuous fashion when they are on the cusp of having a referendum to decide whether they want to stay or leave, ask yourself how they will treat the UK if it had voted to stay? Other countries like Italy and Belgium are not doing great either. The economic future is filled with bailouts and austerity. The sting is that the financial crisis is entirely of the EU’s making, thus the UK is paying for the mistakes of the unelected heads in Brussels who ran the continent into rocky shores without the power to change its course. To stay for fear of uncertainty would have been what Milton Friedman called the tyranny of the status quo. What is certain is that the future in the EU is one of decline. The Leave vote is to take the tiller back into its own hands so that the UK, like most other sovereign nations, can have its own say about its own future.

The radix malorum of this financial crisis is the very unwise decision of the EU to unify currency without union of fiscal policy, due to their absurd fixation on the idea of political integration and federation regardless of the cost to the people. Part of the reason the UK is doing so well is because it retained its currency and is free to adjust to the vagaries of the market place. In those countries who joined the union most unreservedly, unemployment rates are sky high, especially youth unemployment, which is almost 50% in Greece and Spain and more than 40% in Italy and Croatia. The EU clearly showed their disregard for democracy by ignoring the overwhelming referendum result in Greece against further austerity measures and a possible Grexit so that they can devalue their currency, default and rebuild their economy, as would usually be the road to economic recovery. Instead, the EU installed their own puppet government with technocrats who will bend to whatever the EU wishes, thereby robbing democracy from the proud and ancient land where it first blossomed. The dual financial and immigration crises both demonstrably argue against the fantasy that the EU is great for harmony. What the EU clearly shows is an avid wish for more centralised power and not merely bilateral collaborations between neighbours as it claims. It has already one by one accrued the attributes of a nation; it has a currency, a border, a flag, a national anthem, a president, foreign minister, embassies, law making powers and there is currently serious push for an EU army. This is not by any means a regional association working towards the betterment of each nation but the erosion of sovereignty and leeching of democratic powers.  When you disconnect the 'demos' from the 'Kratos' in democracy, what always happens is the authority coercing and oppressing the people. Think the Delian League of ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, USSR.

Bernard-Henri Levy, probably the most notable living French philosopher and writer has recently said that if France held a referendum, they would probably leave too. He summarised the EU as stifling Europe with bureaucrats who have turned the continent into an intellectual wasteland with no space for “dreams and ideas”. The EU is introverted. It creates a minutiae of pan-European regulations on businesses, to the point of regulating how bendy a banana or a cucumber can be. Large corporations love this as they can afford to have a team of people making sure they comply with these regulations while knowing their medium and small-sized competitors cannot. Hence the multi-nationals like JP Morgan and Goldman Sacks, Citibank and Morgan Stanley all contributed to the Remain campaign. As we know, these corporations do not as a rule give out money unless it is an investment for future returns. 

The corruption of the EU, with 10,000 employees paid more than the UK Prime Minister and paying minimal taxes, is so flagrant that even the Remain side argued that one of the advantages of staying in the autocratic system is that then the UK can reform it from within. After 40 years of clear failures of this, such an argument is absurdly optimistic to say the least. Long brooding resentments have risen to the surface, inspired by the UK's decision. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "Brussels must hear the voice of the people, this is the biggest lesson from this decision." The head of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said "We need a positive reaction, and not persistent movement in the same direction, a direction which has led to crisis." The Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said that “the outcome of the referendum was unforeseen only to those who are unable to see the discontent, the social malaise, and the idea held by many citizens that Europe is not the solution but part of the problem,” Now Denmark, France, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Finland, Hungary and the Neatherlands all face demands for referendum over EU membership. Not the picture of a united, harmonious, happy continent the liberal Europhile media wishes you to believe. But countries being squandered by the oppressive, undemocratic system that is far removed from the people they govern. On the other hand, the UK, after leaving, has already received offers from the US,  Germany and Canada who want special trade deals. 

The EU trading bloc, or more accurately a Customs Union, has shrunk inexorably, from about 33% of the world’s market 30 years ago to about 17% now – while all other trading bloc in the world grew without exception. Trading of goods and services between the UK and the EU has shrunken by more than 10% in the last decade and this reduction would have been higher if not for the EU having control of the UK’s ability to make free trade agreements with economic engines like China, Japan, India, Australia and Canada. It is surely absurd, considering the shared language, common laws, trade laws, arbitration processes and history between the UK and India, Australia and Canada, that they cannot arrange free trade deals between themselves because of the parochial protectivism of the EU. More than 50 years after its members gave up their right to negotiate their own trade agreements, the EU finally negotiated a free trade agreement with South Korea in 2011, its first such deal with a major developed economy. It took the EU 5 years longer to negotiate this than Switzerland, who is not in the EU and the EU still doesn't have a free trade deal with any top 10 economies in the world. This argues against another point from the Remain side which suggests that remaining in the EU will mean that the UK will remain to be cosmopolitan. It is demonstrably the opposite. After its exit, it looks increasingly likely that citizens from old allies such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and India as well as other parts of the world, will have much better ability to travel and work in the UK, having been kicked down in favour of EU passport holders. Though there will inevitably be short term toils, the exit has insured the UK’s future will be in its own hands as promised by their Great Charter and not under the control of failing Eruocrats who has bungled again and again.

In light of the Brexit result, the self-flagellating, pearl-clutching tantrums from particularly the young, leftist crowd has really been disheartening. Twenty-four hours after the results of a democratic vote, some of these self-righteous, entitled and privileged people, insulated by social welfare and many who had never held down a real job or paid taxes, are calling for another referendum. They clearly have no respect or understanding of how the democratic process works. When interviewed, they are “sad” and “hurt” and “worried”. They are angry because they think they won’t be able to travel and work in the EU. They think the 'old people', the majority of whom voted for Brexit are “selfish” as they will die soon and leave the beautiful young people to languor and waste away in the repercussions of their “uninformed”, “ignorant”, “irresponsible” vote. The liberal and Europhile media fanned this with headlines like "How old people have screwed over the younger generation" (Independent), "EU Referendum Results: Young ‘Screwed By Older Generations" (Huffington Post) and "WE SHOULD BAN OLD PEOPLE FROM VOTING" (GQ Magazine). 

Get over yourselves.

To say of the people who fought and bled in wars to guarantee your liberty, who suffered from the austerity of postwar Europe and who worked hard to raise it from the ashes so that it is thriving and free and among the best place to live in the world, and who has seen the decline of the EU as a trading bloc and who has lived through the mutation of the EEC, the original trade union, into an unelected political autocracy with ambitions of federalization, that they should not have a say in the future of their country because you may have to spend an hour to apply for a visa to go to France for a holiday or Spain to work (not that there are any jobs left), like the rest of the world, is unbelievably churlish, egotistical, ungrateful and nasty, not to say reeking of fascism (especially pertinent if you know the etymology of the word). There is a wonderful old Greek saying, that a society flourishes when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. It obviously never entered the narcissistic, squalid little minds of these pampered Millennial imbeciles that their parents and grandparents might be motivated to vote, with the benefit of their experience and knowledge, for the best for their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters because they love them. They want to retain for them their most precious inheritance of liberty, bestowed 800 years ago by the Magna Carta. I hope these odious young fools will look back on themselves very soon and that their hearts burn with shame. 

The UK remains a permanent 5 in the UN with veto powers, it is a key member of NATO, it is still the 6^th largest economy and the 4^th largest military in the world, it will likely join the EEA and the EFTA and other trading blocs and trade fairly with the EU like Switzerland and Norway and Iceland (utilising the free trading zone in place covering Europe already from Iceland to Turkey) and make new and nourishing free trade agreements with its old allies and friends in Europe and the rest of the growing world. No wall will be raised on the white cliffs of Dover, people will still easily travel and work and play between the exquisite isles of the UK and the alluring continent of which it still is and will always be a part. Far from facing decline and fall, the vote to leave has wrested powers from an autocracy and given it back into the hands of the voters. Liberty is regained and a rebirth is on the horizon.

    Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

    We are not now that strength which in old days

    Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

    One equal temper of heroic hearts,

    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

    To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Some articles for your reference:

On Australians

http://www.afr.com/news/world/europe/brexit-eu-free-trade-deal-with-australia-will-be-ok-says-downer-20160625-gprz9q

http://www.smh.com.au/world/brexit-may-give-australians-easier-immigration-to-uk-20160601-gp9i5y.html

Arguing for leave

Dan Hannan (UK MEP)

https://next.ft.com/content/ecaa3388-1b4f-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122

http://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2016/04/daniel-hannan-heres-what-happens-when-britain-votes-to-leave.html

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/daniel-hannan-brexit-will-gentle-process/

Douglas Murray (Journalist, writer, commentator)

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436200/britain-brexit-eu-referendum-stakes-high-united-kingdom

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/leaving-the-eu-isnt-an-unknown-its-a-return-to-the-status-quo/

http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2016-02-20/in-or-out-journalist-douglas-murray-makes-his-case-for-brexit

Peter Hitchens (Journalist, writer, commentator)

http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2016/06/peter-hitchens-theres-a-faint-chance-we-may-get-our-nation-back-one-day.html

Jerome Booth (Economist)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-i-voted-for-brexit-the-eu-house-is-ablaze-2016-06-25

Allum Bokhari (Journalist)

http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/06/24/the-end-of-globalism/

Shameful behaviours

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/27/leave-voters-suffer-widespread-abuse-media-focuses-brexit-racism/

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/27/media-calls-ban-old-people-voting-brexit-vote/

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36634407

Positive economic outlook

https://next.ft.com/content/0aa518d6-3b98-11e6-8716-a4a71e8140b0

https://next.ft.com/content/d35362a0-3c57-11e6-8716-a4a71e8140b0

http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/post-brexit-india-uk-trade-pact-likely-to-get-a-fillip-2874225/

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/27/nevermind-the-brexit-uk-will-emerge-with-a-good-trade-deal.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/brexit-us-britain-trade-deal-224776

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/01/one-glance-at-the-eus-dismal-trade-policy-simply-destroys-the-ec/

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-trade-deals-europe-facts-eu-referendum-they-dont-actually-look-bad-a7101626.html