Please, please stop spreading the lie that Brexit was to fight against neoliberalism

[leveymg]

86. I already answered that. Like Ireland, Scotland and N Ire gain from EU and global investment

Last edited Mon Jun 27, 2016, 04:50 PM - Edit history (3)

and may more so now with the withdrawal of England from the EU.

The impact of globalization on poverty has been by no means evenly distributed across the EU and the UK. The post-industrial Midlands and South, other than the City of London, have seen massive loss of unionized jobs -- you know, the type that used to be stable and had benefits, including pensions -- after decades of neoliberal restructuring, plant closures, and underemployment, people are becoming desperate. Underemployment and declining benefits particularly impact aging workers in the Midlands and South who tend to retire later, as this map shows:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/

In addition, the geographic breakdown of the Brexit vote tends to follow incomes. Lower income persons tended to vote to Leave, as the maps below and at the bottom show. That is particularly clear in post-industrial Manchester and the East Midlands, the epicenter of the Leave vote, which is also now the poorest part of England.


The result of globalization has been real wage decline and dire prospects for many as successive British governments have also cut back on the social support network. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/04/british-workers-suffered-biggest-real-wage-fall-major-g20-countries


The decline in real wages and underemployment is more acute in the post-industrial areas that voted to Leave. Economic insecurity, particularly afflicting an aging population across areas once reliant on manufacturing across England, is what drove Brexit, and it fully explains the geographical and age group breakdown of the results.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Compare