This image of German chancellor Angela Merkel sums up the Brexit sentiment precisely.
The above image appears in the Financial Times article Brexit: Angela Merkel pushes back on EU pressure for quick divorce.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has attempted to rein in pressure from within Europe to force Britain quickly to trigger divorce proceedings with the EU, saying that while “it shouldn’t take forever”, rushing into an exit was unwarranted.
Ms Merkel’s cautious words, coming during a day-long gathering of her CDU/CSU bloc, came in stark contrast to those from other EU leaders, including European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and even some within her own government, pushing for immediate Brexit.
Mr Juncker told German media that he would like Brexit proceedings “to get started immediately”.
“Britons decided . . . that they want to leave the European Union, so it doesn’t make any sense to wait until October to try to negotiate the terms of their departure,” Mr Juncker said.
Similarly, foreign ministers of the founding six EU states, who held a hastily arranged meeting in Berlin on Saturday, also urged quick action. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, said it should only take “a few days” for a new UK leader to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which begins two-year exit proceedings.
Mr Schulz and Sigmar Gabriel, Ms Merkel’s deputy chancellor — acting as German social democrats — have put forward a 10-point EU reform plan proposing more power for national parliaments and the EU parliament. They criticise the union for taking decisions at closed-door gatherings of the 28 leaders — an approach favoured by Ms Merkel.
Ms Merkel, who has resisted any moves that would separate the core six founding EU members from the rest of the bloc, emphasised that any decision on a way forward with Britain should be taken with all member states. At an EU summit next week, the leaders of the 27 remaining members are expected to meet without Mr Cameron in the room.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60678b42-3aa2-11e6-8716-a4a71e8140b0.html#ixzz4Cfpxn65G
German social democrats may also see chances to make common cause with the centre-left governments in France and Italy against Ms Merkel’s tough economic rules for the eurozone — and to work for more fiscal flexibility for vulnerable economies.
Meanwhile, both Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of Poland’s ruling PiS party, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, have called for treaty changes.
However, Ms Merkel is dead against such drastic moves. Her close political ally, European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, warned that treaty change plans would “be a model for rightwing populists to take apart the European project”.
It’s easy to sympathize with Merkel. But why sympathize with anything that delays the inevitable?
EU rules and regulations are nonsensical, and so is EU protection of French agricultural.
It would be best to scrap the whole damn thing and start all over. Unfortunately, that is not how nannycrats like Merkel think.
Curiously, Merkel is correct on one count. Punishing the UK will backfire wildly.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
You forget to mention that the European foreign ministers met with the Americans… I wonder…
Germany can stop shipping Volkswagens to Britain right away.
The outright arrogance-The gov now want a SECOND VOTE ON BREXIT because they think people were “TOO CONFUSED” (ROFL!)about what they were voting for;
Interesting that Cameron didn’t leave office at the end of the month, but rather will resign in November, after the second vote if it happens- i smell PURE CORRUPTION-as if he is waiting around KNOWING that it will win the second time around, and he will stick around forever as the PM
Careful – any move to marginalize the vote and trample expectations is to my view HIGH TREASON . We do not want civil conflict in the UK, that is why there was a referendum. If the result is used to antagonize the British, to apart a section of society that reacts to this antagonism and persecute them, then the politicians responsible will have effectively pitted their countrymen against each other in physical combat. I don’t need to describe what happens to people who do that from a position of office.
It’s easy to sympathize with Merkel?? On the contrary, her Dictatorship has been a catastrophe and she is personally indifferent to the murders and rapes by her refugee friends. To hell with Merkel….
…”.her refugee friends.”
Yes, plus all 2.5 million or so Muslims qualified to vote, and likely close to 100 percent voted remain. Sans the Muslim population the vote was not close.
“After Brexit, London mayor Sadiq Khan tells immigrants: “You are very welcome here””
Evidently they’re getting set up for the next poll.
This time no screwups – Enshalla!
She is a pragmatist who is channeling Howard Hughes in that stalling is good business. If things aren’t going your way today, then stall and wait until tomorrow.
Brexit is only the beginning and may also be the end. People taking control from government and oligarchs is not going to be easy, fast, or certain. More votes that don’t go the way of the establishment are needed, followed by large ginormous oceans of capital that support the collapse of the establishment in favor of free enterprise. Count me somewhat skeptical that enough people are on board and not asleep while creeping world government slowly takes over completely.
Look at the Fed for one simple example of oligarch / big government control. The mortgage bonds on the balance sheet are still being renewed. As bonds mature, replacements are purchased. Why? This makes no sense as housing is not in a tailspin and the central bank desire for everyone to have risk assets to invest in would be satisfied somewhat more. The Fed needs marching orders from somewhere just to let go of this little bit of establishment control. When the Fed decides to let balances run down, look and see who told them it was OK for them to proceed.
Of course, stalling works for both parties in a negotiation. The Brits could stall in invoking formal notice of intention to leave the EU, Article 50, in order to threaten more of the dreaded uncertainty the Project Fear campaigners dished out leading up to the vote. The deal … give the Brits good exit terms or face their version of Project Fear. There’s no reason for the Brits to hurry, yet there’s no reason for the Brits not to cherry pick the rules that are beneficial for them to use. Winner winner chicken dinner.
I saw the embedded quote about FT needing money, please share the link. Therefore, I clicked on the link to read the article… and got it blocked by the FT.
I’m going to assume that Mish has purchased the rights to quote their stuff on his blog… but as policy, I try to stay away from news and articles spread by “news-constrictors”. When one makes their business model the constriction of their job, one is actually trying to break society.
When the AMA moves to limit the number of medical doctors, to raise doctor wages… that’s evil. When the unions move to stop all national transportation to raise their wages… that’s evil. When riverboat pilots, mad at the riverboat owners’ wage busting, hide the river changes from lower-waged pilots, to cause riverboats to strike the shoals and explode with all on board… that’s evil. And when those responsible for news, who have inserted themselves between the news sources and the news readers, limit the news to only those who can afford to pay… they have ceased to act as the 4th Estate (de Toqueville). They have moved to conquer the government for their own interests.
SOOO…. Mish, what would be my suggestion for a blogger? I would suggest: (1) research the sources that lead to the paywalled columnist’s artice. (2) work out a deal directly with the columnist that bypasses the paywaller (3) quote the paywalled columnist in a very limited fashion, referencing where you got it, and get the source of your blog elsewhere.
As an aside, I will also note that I find it evil when the employers wage-bust and do not pay a just living wage for vitally required services. In line with that, when I invested in PMs, I *DID* mention Mish as my source, hopefully triggering some level of payment to him (Because I *do* value his analysis). Now, my trading’s been limited because PMs have done badly. Would that they had done better. However, I *do* put my money where my mouth is.
The outright lies and “informational chaos” on this Brexit story has really been remarkable. Trillions of dollars was obliterated on Friday but “it’s really about something nonsensical.” These are hard numbers…more than just a lot of people were ruined on Friday but this event is unfolding in the context of a War…the biggest deficit spending on one since World War 2.
Keep your head about you and stick to the comments sections as this is a fast moving story that has nothing to do with “Trump versus Hillary.”
Excellent comment btw. We”ll see how long until all commenting is disabled on everything as is being attempted in China.
Already Google and Facebook have been given their orders to start circling the wagons on telling people what’s in fact going on…something they have reported they fully intend on supporting of course.
The NY Times, WaPo, CNN, etc are rolling in paranoid schizophrenic madness to a clinical degree.
Its truly remarkable to literally see this given past reporting of say … Nazi Germany in WW2 or the Blitz in London or what the US bombing raids over Europe was like.
The media institutions since WW2 have been set up for Holocaust 2.0 ever since we recognized Israel so the information will flow irregardless of “the spin.”
It is interesting to speculate on the information itself being a weapon however.
No War is ever like the last one.
Stay close to your posse.
Great Britain will become an associate member (whatever that means) and things will go on as normal with politicians saying things have changed when in reality current direction of politics will remain unchanged.
There was and is only one aim in exiting the EU, and that would be to de-subordinate British politics from EU dictate. The national politics that follows will be just that, agreements and associations will be completely at UK discretion at all times, instead of long pre-signed commitments to future accord on as yet undevised topics that need a referendum or political upheaval to undo. Future direction may remain roughly similar, or not, but the above makes all the difference
Look at EU politics, at Greece or Spain etc. – what is the point in having a discapacitated national authority that cannot answer to its people, even if it wanted to. The UK population has simply stated ‘ We are not dud, we will have and maintain our own say, thank you very much’.
Actually I think it will make a lot of difference over time, if only to avoid the end of Britain as we know it.
You have to realize that Ireland has about 100 trillion in “notional monies” tied up in their so called “State.” With no EU the Euro and that so called Bank and those so called Airlines might in fact simply cease operations on Monday as there are no dollars in the World with which to run a business in Europe. In other words the Euro heads quickly to worthless on Monday and Europe is forced to resort to printing national currencies (Spanish election today leaving to a Spanish exit on Monday and a return to the Peso.)
You can have enormous demand for dollars but still not have any…as odd as that sounds.
Wall Street is panic buying the YEN it should be noted.
ECB has become EU politics, when politics does not go as planned, ECB, hence Euro, is placed in doubt. In reality nothing has changed yet, but the perception is present, the veil being lifted. Participants know that EU will find it very difficult to hold itself together, that any attempt by EU/ECB to impose solutions will be conflictive. I am sat here now in EU… the mood is heavy, EU has already stretched its ability, and belief in its ability, beyond the credible… that is what is left, reclamations… from all sides.
You can thank the Euro for this, which is part of EU political expansionism, hence goodbye EU also. EU should have been kept at minimalist accords on openess, not a political tool/objective.
Watch first how EU attempts to install a solution now, might work in a way, might be terrible.
Thankfully UK kept its own currency, it will not take the blame for disagreeing, only its own share of any mistakes.
While enjoying some cocktails at the pool yesterday, basking in the warmth of the aftermath of the Brexit vote, a thought struck me. Can we expect certain (((European parties))) to step up efforts to facilitate Muslim terror attacks in Britain, as a sort of revenge or retaliatory “see we told you so” gesture for leaving the EU? I wouldn’t put it past them. War is coming.
‘The mayor of Calais says migrants living in the Jungle camp and others in France should be moved to Britain so Brits “take the consequences” of Brexit.”‘
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1340224/calais-mayor-wants-french-migrant-camps-moved-to-the-uk-but-theres-no-chance/
Wishful thinking on the part of the French mayor. A bit too late for that option. Membership in the EU entitles and mandates being home to whatever refugees EU policymakers (Merkel or whomever) wish you to have. That is one of the privileges of EU membership that Brexit sheds.
France is stuck, and as long as the mercenary armies clash in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere, refugees for the EU will be in plentiful oversupply. Indeed, refugee supply will further exceed EU demand if Hilary and the neo-Cons have their way in further expanding the warfare in Syria and Iraq to Iran, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China.
Pure idiocy to think you can fund, fuel and support wars without experiencing some of it yourself. Even in the USA: Abe Lincoln was blown away after his “successful” war against Southern secession. Orlando was second generation blowback from Afghanistan. Despite the dimwit efforts of Hilary and the Dems to “not waste a good crisis” and turn Orlando into a gun control issue, it is foreign warfare blowback from War Party foreign policy supported by Hilary as Senator and Sec. of State. The shooter was a trained police/security officer fully qualified to use and possess guns and arms as part of his job working for the USA government Police/Warfare State. Calais, San Bernadino and Orlando are beneficiaries of the same USA War Party policies.
A terrorist attack on the UK would confirm the Brexit vote.
Angela Merkel was at the very heart of BrExit (Leave). The globalist/elitist/socialist/”progressive” policies and attitudes are destroying Europe as we know it. Mass immigration of a religion/culture that doesn’t respect other religions/cultures (i.e. sharia law) is going to ultimately come to conflict and warfare. This is obvious in the ME and also now in Europe. Europe is importing not the means of production, but rather the means of destruction. The “little people” are (finally) starting to wake up to the idiocracy from the elites such as Merkel. BrExit is just the beginning and “you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.” Much of the West has a broken Social Contract. The elite socialists don’t know what’s best for the people. Self determination, not gov’t from a distant centrally planned bureaucracy (whether it be Brussels or Washington, D.C.) is always the best solution. Just deserts for Merkel and her cronies.
“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them.” – Jean Monnet
“The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries, but between authoritarians and libertarians.” – George Orwell
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” – Thomas Paine
Excellent post and quotes. The demographics of Muslim immigration make conflict inevitable.
1) Intentionally turn the Middle East into a quagmire resulting in
2) radical elements fighting amongst themselves and killing each other THERE, creating
2) a wave of Middle Eastern refugees into EU social welfare states inspiring
3) the dissolution of the EU
meanwhile:
4) Make available VAST amounts of easy credit that
5) allows China to VASTLY overbuild production capacity which eventually
6) leads to a crash and economic destruction there and unemployment levels which
7) leads to possible civil revolt against the hugely corrupt Chinese Communist Party
If I actually thought “our folks” could be that clever, that would be quite a good plan for the country still holding the world’s reserve currency (with no serious challengers to that no matter what BS you may have read) which also happens to be the weapons salesman of the world. Quite Machiavellian.
On #1 above, I have long been wondering, knowing all of the publicly available info about that in great depth, “HOW could they ever be THAT stupid?!” Now, I’m almost beginning to wonder if it’s really just stupidity. Even considering 9/11, the deaths from terrorism in the U.S. (and even Europe) are microscopic blips in national death statistics – very small negative consequences here except for the relatively few directly involved.
Comments yes…commentary on “respected News organizations” no.
“Hillary opens a 20 point lead on Donald Trump” is not to be believed.
What is to be believed is that a hundred people were slaughtered in Orlando by a “something” and Police Squad! staring Andy North is in charge of that.
You mean by Radical Islamic Terrorists?
They show their stripes!
“Her close political ally, European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, warned that treaty change plans would “be a model for rightwing populists to take apart the European project”.
Accordingly, a populist is: “a person who holds, or who is concerned with, the views of ordinary people.”
a populist is anyone who thinks different than the European nannycrats
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ba/6b/3f/ba6b3f7751f9ef3af517fa055febadef.jpg
Just watch the “elite” now attempt to manifest their self fulfilling disaster consequences in the EU and blame it on the “leave” voters.
Brexit, the short version…
BREXIT poisoned.
commenter here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-live-emergency-meetings-eu-uk-leave-vote#comment-77205935
”
If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.
Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.
With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.
How?
Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.
And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten … the list grew and grew.
The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.
The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?
Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?
Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.
If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over – Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession … broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.
The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.
When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was “never”. When Michael Gove went on and on about “informal negotiations” … why? why not the formal ones straight away? … he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.
All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.
“
The best reply I could find to the above commentator.
”
Nowhere in article 50 it’s mentioned that the government has to sent a letter by mail to all other governments. It only mentions vaguely that it has to inform the EU and other nations. In my humble opinion that is exactly what has already happened. So let’s start the negotiations.
”
In fact, negotiations themselves seem optional, beyond coordinating events like how and when Brittan changes their passport control.
Voting will soon be banned and democracy suspended. Warm comfie blankets for all, our leaders know what’s best!
Oh, so you’re hoping that technical obstacles will obstruct the majority will of the people because YOU don’t like the results. Let’s see, there’s a word for that. Several, actually…
Denial anger bargaining depression and acceptance. Kind of fun to watch the various players work their way along the five stages of grief.
Because we are dealing with politicians take anything they say to mean its direct opposite. Merkel wants to go fast? Expect delaying tactics from her. Boris Jonson says go slow? Watch him move with lightening speed if he gets the chance. Times ten for Farage. The more taciturn and subdued the actor appears rest assured he is preparing to pounce.
Fast is “slow” for bureaucracies like the EU. Someone really needs to define the terms “fast” and “slow.” Brexit is a done deal, and I expect Cameron to keep his word just as he did in allowing the referendum. Lots of little “deals” compose the UK-EU relationship, and they will all have to be disentangled and reworked at their own speeds.
When an EU leader says “fast,” they could mean years.
EU deflation picked up a notch thanks to Brexit.
There can be no Brexit before it’s time,,,,and it’s not time yet.
Too much at stake, and there is the CIS waiting in the wings to move in on Western Europe. Billary and company won’t let that happen.
Rock, meet Hard Place. With Central Banks against the wall, and more refugees/migrants arriving everyday, we may be a spark away from making BREXIT moot.
“It would be best to scrap the whole damn thing and start all over.”
No long-term workable is solution possible without the loss of sovereignty over national budgets. That’s even worse than what the Brits are justifiably complaining about now:
Why The European Union Is Doomed
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar11/EU-doomed3-11.html
“But there were flaws in the structure that are now painfully apparent. The Union consolidated power over the shared currency (euro) and trade but not over the member states’ current-account (trade) deficits and budget deficits. While lip-service was paid to fiscal rectitude via caps on deficit spending, in the real world there were no meaningful controls on the creation of private or state credit or on sovereign borrowing and spending.”