Has anyone talked about how much austerity

[edhopper]

had to do with the Brexit vote.
Cause I bet some people who suffered under Cameron's ill conceived agenda blamed the EU

[lapfog_1]

1. yes

Even if they didn't blame the EU, they may have blamed Cameron and thus voted against whatever he supported.

But there were many reasons to vote "leave"... nationalism, economy, etc.

According to British analysts, "remain" was winning when it was only an economic populism message, it was only when they started the advertisements showing long lines of Syrian immigrants did the polling start to close in favor of "leave"

[Igel]

5. That's the standard argue against capitalism.

People vote, but vote blindly, stupidly, and use issues as proxies.

"I don't like how the governor's dealing with the environment, so I'll vote to ban affirmation action. I'm an informed, intelligent voter." Not.

[hollysmom]

2. I think it is not all about imigration but I am not there. many resettled Brits I know think this is

the worst thing ever. Not my country, I have no idea. A lot of things sound good, like unifying, but they are not always as good as you hope.
I have no idea - I mean England kept it's own money so there is that. Does that mean they were never fully committed to the EU?

[truebrit71]

3. They screwed the poor and the working class and then told them that Johnny Foreigner was to blame...

Backed up enthusiastically by Murdoch and the rest of the right-wing press.

There were legitimate concerns and problems with the EU for sure, but they could have been worked out from inside. Not any more.

They didn't listen to Lyndon Johnson's very simple rule that it's better to be inside the tent pissing out, them outside pissing in. The UK is about to find that out the hard way....

[Wounded Bear]

6. SOP for the neocon playbook...

go in and shut down programs, and then blame someone else for lack of services.

Uninformed and misinformed voters fall in line.

Has been happening here in the US for years.

[truebrit71]

23. Absolutely. Worked like a charm for Brexit...

Now they're acting like a dog that finally caught the car...

"Oh, the extra money for the NHS? Yeah, we didn't really mean that. Curbing immigration? Yeah, we didn't mean that either..."

[99th_Monkey]

4. I'm betting there is another "Peoples Referendum" or some such.

And this election won't stand, at the end of the day, provided Cameron stays "resigned" to it.

[Recursion]

7. What does the EU have to do with austerity?

I keep seeing this and asking it. The EU doesn't have any austerity rules.

Are people confusing it with the ECB and the Eurozone?

[edhopper]

9. Cameron imposed som pretty heavy austerity on Britain

of course it hurt the economy. I wonder if some voters blamed the EU for their problems instead of the Brit Gov's policy.

And BTW, if you th8ink the EU has nothing to do with austerity, you should read up on what happened to Greece.

[Recursion]

10. What does the EU have to do with Greek austerity? Again, are you thinking of the ECB?

The ECB (which is a completely separate question, and an awful idea, and something the UK decided not to join) imposed austerity conditions on Greece. What did the EU have to do with that?

[Rex]

11. So you missed the entire 2008 economic collapse and where the EU bailed out Greece

and Portugal. You should do some research on the subject I bet you will learn a lot about it.

[Recursion]

14. Again, you're thinking of the ECB (and IMF)

Not the EU. Do some research about it.

[edhopper]

12. You may be right

but i thought it was both the EU and the ECB that demanded austerity.

[Denzil_DC]

8. Yes, quite a few UK Duers have.

Too many times to make it worth giving you any links, really.

From what I've seen in discussions on the UK Group and elsewhere, the vast majority of us were remain.

And yes, the blame's conveniently been palmed off on the EU - and immigrants.

I think it's going to get even uglier in years to come when we're out of the EU, whatever immigration measures have been enacted (not that it sounds like the Leave side seriously expect to be able to limit it to any extent, but they kept that quiet till after the vote), and people are still suffering from precisely the same problems. Then they'll have to look for other scapegoats.

You can no doubt see where that could lead.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. UK fiscal policy is totally separate from Europe and the ECB has no influence

the people who suffered from Tory cuts were much more likely to blame immigrants than the EU. The "Leave" vote was "take back control of our borders" (and kick those foreigners out).

[edhopper]

15. But the anti-immaigrants voters

blamed the EU. And many thought the EU was forcing immigrants on the UK.

I realize the EU had nothing to do with their austerity, but uninformed voters might have blamed it anyway.

Like Trump voters and Mexicans.

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. Not just uninformed, actively stupid

I have seen interviews with Leave voters saying they voted Leave to end Muslim immigration to the UK. This is the level of political awareness we're dealing with, here.

[edhopper]

18. Just like here.

Hopefully not enough of them to give Donald the election.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. Even stupider, really

(Muslim immigrants aren't coming from EU countries)

[edhopper]

20. True

but hopefully not enough of them.

(Muslim immigrants aren't coming from EU countries)

I don't think facts had anything to do with the vote.

[rug]

16. They wanted to Make Britain Great Again.

[yardwork]

21. Of course. Just like Obama being blamed for Congress's decisions.

[edhopper]

22. Well that one is true

if he would only give in and do everything the Repukes wanted, things would get done.