City of Sunderland, hammered by London & EU-led deindustrialisation, happy to vote for Brexit

[brentspeak]

Yes, it really was neoliberalism which motivated quite a few people to vote Brexit. EU handouts hardly compensated for closed factories and the planned wage deflation and job competition from imported cheap foreign labor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/world/europe/european-union-brexit-sunderland-britain-cameron.html

Pro-‘Brexit’ City of Sunderland Glad to Poke Establishment in the Eye

By KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURAJUNE 27, 2016

snip

“All the industries, everything, has gone,” said Michael Wake, 55, forklift operator, gesturing toward Roker Beach, once black from the soot of the shipyards. “We were powerful, strong. But Brussels and the government, they’ve taken it all away.”

In 1988, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher closed the last of the shipyards that once lined the River Wear. The European Union contributed a 45 million pound, or $60 million, aid package to help laid-off workers, but Sunderland never recovered from the loss. It consistently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, about 9 percent.

The referendum, Mr. Wake said, was an opportunity to “poke the eye” of Mr. Cameron and the London establishment.

Fears over job security from an influx of cheap European laborers was another motivation. Heather Govan, 28, a decorator, said cheap labor helped big businesses by keeping costs down, but not self-employed people like her.

[840high]

1. .+1

[leveymg]

2. Sunderland is the poorest area in England. Ground Zero for Brexit.

The correlation between the revolt against Neoliberalism and the self-destruction of the UK is real. The US is next, if we let it.

[Hoyt]

3. They may feel better for sticking it to the man, but that's about all. It's not likely to make

things better as they think/hope. It's going to take a new way of thinking about society and economics from a global perspective, not a bunch of "sovereign nations" competing. And that's going to be a difficult process.

[SMC22307]

4. “We were powerful, strong ... they've taken it all away."

That's what the *they're-all-xenophobic-racists* crowd refuses to understand.

[TubbersUK]

5. This part is disturbing:

Instead, they and working-class voters across Britain are increasingly moving right over the issue of immigration, switching to the anti-Brussels, anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, which campaigned for the exit so Britain could control the borders.

Sunderland also elected a UKIP MEP:

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/sunderland-gets-ukip-mep-as-tories-and-lib-dems-are-booted-out-1-6636916

[Bad Thoughts]

6. Here's a clue: "last of the shipyards"

There were many shipyards on the Wear that were steadily closing since the 1950s. The river wasn't a good place to build modern vessels, and those shipyards were unable to compete.

What did the EU do? Give the social funds to help the workers, something that Thatcher did not do.

[TubbersUK]

7. That's true and they're still getting slim pickings from the Tories

Cameron and his cronies are every bit as ruthless as Thatcher:

North East councils to suffer funding cuts as Government sends cash south

North East councils were preparing to implement cuts to services after the Government confirmed it was pressing ahead with a dramatic reduction in funding.

To add insult to injury, ministers announced that councils would receive £150 million a year for the next two years to help them cope - but figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government showed that almost none of this is going to the North East.

Instead, areas further south such as Hampshire and Surrey will receive millions of pounds in extra funding.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-east-councils-suffer-funding-10860554

[amandabeech]

8. A handout is not the same as a job, even a low paying one.

Jobs give self-respect. To many people, social welfare does not. These people want to WORK. Being forced to take welfare destroys them, their families and their communities.

Not everyone can work in the City of London, and not everyone can learn to code.

Ignoring the social costs of people left behind by neoliberal policies led to the Brexit vote.

The fact that few here on DU can understand that just increases the alienation of a large sector of the population here in the US just as it has in the UK.

If you can't account for the social and political costs of this, then you'll not understand when Michigan votes for Trump.

I'm here in Michigan. I am the daughter of an autobody repairman and the favorite of my bachelor uncle who worked on the line at GM in Grand Rapids.

I've been talking about these problems since the late '70s.

There's a reason why Bernie and The Donald won Michigan.

If the Dems don't understand and realize that social and political stability require jobs FOR ALL, then don't blame us out here in flyover country when The Orange One wins in November.

P.S. Some of my ancestors came from York, England.

[Bad Thoughts]

9. The jobs were already leaving. Thatcher did nothing about it.

The EU was not to blame.

[amandabeech]

16. Thatcher was scum, but she has been out for a long time.

But what did Blair or the EU do to bring meaningful jobs into this area?

Handouts do not equal jobs in terms of self-respect, family integrity, or community cohesion.

Under the poodle, the only option was to join the military, if you were a young male, and get sent to get blown up in one of Bush's wars. Not a great option.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. As the article says, they gave aid which grew the largest car plant in Britain

Sunderland’s citizens seem to have voted against their own interests. Not only has the city been a big recipient of European money, it is also the home of a Nissan car factory, Britain’s largest, and automobiles produced there are exported, duty free, to Europe. The plant, which absorbed workers from the dying shipyards after it opened 30 years ago, became a symbol of the benefits of European Union membership, and Nissan opposed the British exit.

eg

Britain's chances of winning a £200m contract to build the new Nissan Micra in Sunderland improved dramatically last night when EU officials signalled that Brussels will definitely approve a £40m government grant designed to encourage the Japanese company to choose the UK over France.

The European Commission had said it harboured serious doubts about the aid. But a senior EU official yesterday told the Guardian the grant would now be rubber-stamped at a meeting tomorrow.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jan/16/andrewosborn

[Bad Thoughts]

23. So the EU didn't cause the problem, and got around to fixing it

Which the UK government dithered on.

How horrible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Well, that particular example came from Blair's government, and the EU OKed it

The EU has rules about state aid to commercial firms, and this was allowed under them. In a nutshell:

Sometimes government authorities spend public money supporting local industries or individual companies. This gives them an unfair advantage over similar sectors in other EU countries. In other words, it damages competition and distorts trade.

It is the Commission’s job to prevent this, allowing government support only if it is genuinely in the wider public interest – if it aims to benefit society or the economy as a whole.
...
Examples

Allowed (in the common EU interest) – support that helps or promotes disadvantaged regions, small and medium-sized businesses, research and development, environmental protection, training, employment or culture.

Not allowed – general investment aid for large companies outside well-defined disadvantaged regions, export support and support to cover companies' running costs (operating aid).

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/government_aid_en.html

One can argue about whether governments, or the EU, does enough to help disadvantaged regions or smaller businesses, but it's not a strict neoliberal "the market is the only thing that counts" approach.

[Bad Thoughts]

25. I would argue that the EU does more than the constituent governments

At the very least, regional planning is far more assiduous at the European level, identifying places that are becoming isolated through modernization, whether those places be rural or deindustrial. What limits its effectiveness is the lack of willingness to participate in development projects by national governments and the lack of leverage of local and regional politicians. It is not at all surprising that the French régions with the best developmental records are those that have worked most closely and directly with the EU, and those that have shunned it have fallen farther behind.

Ultimately, the EU cares more about the evenness of access, whereas national governments focus on individual industries and regions out of economic and political expediency.

[leveymg]

26. The Nissan plant came 15 years ago and the area is still the poorest in England

Obviously, Foreign Investment didn't make up for the British firms (and jobs) Sunderland lost.

Take a look at these two maps of income distribution and the geography of the Brexit vote, and try to tell us that this isn't about the economic impact of neoliberalism. There's Sunderland, at the spot of orange on the coast north of Manchester.

[TubbersUK]

11. That's True, But the North East won't be getting either now

Not from the Conservatives. Just more of this:

200 Government jobs under threat across the North East, claim Labour

Nearly 200 Government jobs in the North East are under threat, Labour has claimed .

It’s a result of plans for dramatic cuts to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which employs thousands of staff across the country.

A leaked consultation has revealed that the Department is planning to axe four in 10 jobs. They include staff working in agencies overseen by the Department.

Those at risk include 117 staff in Newcastle working for ACAS and the Insolvency Service, and 67 in Gateshead working for Skills Funding Agency and a regional office of the Department itself.

The consultation document, part of the ‘BIS2020’ plan promoted by Business Secretary Sajid Javid, was leaked to Labour’s shadow civil service minister Louise Haigh.

The Department is refusing to answer questions on the leaked document but answers to Parliamentary questions show that the total number of staff in the organisations being targeted for job losses is 14,183, and 10,873 of these work in the regions rather than the Department’s Whitehall head office.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/200-government-jobs-under-threat-11286812

[amandabeech]

17. You do have a point here,

but I'd like to know what type of people are employed in these jobs. Are they laid off industrial workers or their children who didn't make the cut for university? Those sound like office jobs, but there are many men who simply are not suited to office work. If you've never had a close relationship with blue collar guys, and it is mostly a guy problem, it would be hard to understand why they require a different type of job.

[TubbersUK]

19. Public sector, office jobs

The last shipyards in the NE closed about 1990 I think.

The UK's now a service economy.

The public sector, in my experience, employs the whole gamut of people, working parents (both genders), graduates (though often covering non-graduate roles), school-leavers etc etc

The North East has the worst unemployment in the UK so every job is important.

[iandhr]

10. The idea that Boris Johnson doesn't represent "neoliberalism" is ludicrous.

[TubbersUK]

14. I Know - he's a rabid neo-liberal

All those plans for turning the UK into a sort of neo-liberal fantasy island - a barely regulated capitalist free for all.

God help us.

[mountain grammy]

12. And the poverty is the main reason young people were for remaining..

All of Europe was their opportunity, now it's not.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. And, this will prove to be the worst of the tragedy:

All of Europe was their opportunity, now it's not.

[TubbersUK]

15. Here's Something re Sunderland from one of the Conservative Party's favourite think tanks

Last edited Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:34 AM - Edit history (16)

It's breathtaking in its brutality and wrong-headedness and a good example of their mind-set.. I can only think that what is being hinted at is some sort of re-location of the population. One's thing's clear though, they're saying Sunderland is a basket case, write it off somehow.

Anyway, the paper's from 2008 so the re-location idea must have been deemed too stupid and/or expensive. Sadly for Sunderland, the Conservatives seem to have gone for a 'let it rot and hope the people drift away' approach instead - or maybe just 'let it rot'. God forbid they actually make some significant investment in the area.

Sunderland – a case study of the limits of regeneration

The evidence strongly suggests that there is next to no chance of people in Sunderland having the
same opportunities as the people of Birmingham or Portsmouth, let alone the same chances as those
in London or Oxford. It is time to stop pretending that there is a bright future for Sunderland and
ask ourselves instead what we need to do to offer people in Sunderland better prospects.

http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/publications/cities%20unlimited%20-%20aug%2008.pdf

Policy Exchange is a neoconservative orientated think-tank with close ties to UK Prime Minister David Cameron. [1] It was launched in April 2002 by two former Asda executives Francis Maude and Archie Norman with Nicholas Boles as its founding director. [2] It is part of the Stockholm Network [3] a working group of European market-oriented think-tanks.

In the three years since Cameron's speech, as his star has risen so has that of Policy Exchange (despite the embarrassment of Newsnight's exposé of its questionable research into radical Islam, and the recent report suggesting northern cities were doomed). Its staff has increased from 5 to 35, its budget, mostly donations from the City, has grown nearly tenfold. One of its founders, Nick Boles, has become head of policy for Cameron; its former chief researcher, James O'Shaughnessy, is now chief researcher at Tory central office; current director Anthony Browne has just been appointed head of policy for Boris Johnson in London... [18]

http://powerbase.info/index.php/Policy_Exchange

[Recursion]

18. Well, then, they need to develop skills that somebody is willing to pay them for

And they need to do it fast, because the Tory boot is about to come down really hard on their throat once EU rules stop holding it back.

[The2ndWheel]

21. That's always the vague answer to the question

Develop skills that somebody is willing to pay for. What skills, and who? Some kind of skills, and somebody. Even though many people around the world can do many of the jobs that are out there to do, and, of course, the ever increasing automation. Skills become less special, and somebody no longer needs people as much.

[Recursion]

22. Which is why the "bring back manufacturing jobs" demagoguery is so infuriating

Those. Jobs. Are. Never. Coming. Back.

People need to read that, over and over, until it sinks in.

I have absolutely no idea what skills they need to develop, but they're damn sure going to have a harder time doing it outside of the EU than they would inside it.

[DetlefK]

27. “The E.U. is a mystery to us. We’ve never heard about it up here.”

Then how about informing yourself?
What do you think the elections for the European Parliament are done for?
Have you ever voted in these elections?
Have you ever cared what the European Parliament does?
Have you ever wondered what executive decisions the European Commission actually makes, day in, day out?
Have you ever taken note how the EU influences your daily life?


And switching to a protectionist economy will surely attract investors to the UK.

[Odin2005]

28. What a load of crap, EU labor and union laws were PROTECTING these people...

...from the worst of Thatcherism. Now the Conservative Party will be free to pull all the BS they want without EU "interference".

[Adrahil]

29. I won't say populist anger played no role, but....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/racist-incidents-skyrocket-after-brexit-vote_us_57713b71e4b0f168323a16df

[PaulaFarrell]

30. yes that completely explains why my friend was accosted in a coffee shop today

Shaken, and told to go home. Oh wait no it doesn't. That would be the xenophobia doing that.

[pampango]

31. Let's poke the liberal elite in the eye so the conservative super-elite can govern.

I guess if the liberal 'elite' is the only elite on the ballot it is their eye gets poked.

Our Donald cannot wait to poke the liberal elite in the eye.

Good luck folks when Boris Johnson and the conservative elite get to govern after escaping from EU labor and environmental regulations.

[TubbersUK]

33. [phone]

[Albertoo]

32. What a gross vote misdirection

Your OP says the Sunderland voted against the EU because of Margaret Thatcher's policies.

Last I checked, Margaret Thatcher had been elected by UK voters, not by the rest of Europe.

This referendum has been a mess.

[TubbersUK]

34. Except

Last edited Wed Jun 29, 2016, 08:45 AM - Edit history (1)

The Brexit vote broken down by party affiliation :

Conservative 40%
UKIP 25%
Labour 21%
Other 14%

At least 65% of the Brexit vote came from the right - so not only was Brexit conceived and led by the right, it was also delivered by the right. The UK right is of course more than happy with neo-liberalism (oh, except for the 'bloody foreigners' it attracts).

How The Parties Divided

58% of Conservative voters opted for Brexit
96% of UKIP voters opted for Brexit
37% of Labour voters opted for Brexit -

So - 63% of Labour voters rejected Brexit



http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/#more-14746