When Does Democracy Become A Contagion That Needs To Be Contained?

[wonderpup]

We are told by various pundits that any 'deal' the UK gets from the EU regarding trade will be modified and inhibited by the EU's need to avoid 'contagion' in the form of other member states being tempted to leave the Union.

Let's be clear that the 'contagion' of which we speak here is that most virulent of diseases- democratic representation. So afraid of this disease are the EU apparatchiks that they almost seem willing to risk a global financial crisis rather than allow the UK to obtain favourable trading conditions going forward.

So at some point in the short history of the EU democracy has become toxic to it's survival- and suppressing democracy is now seen as an essential prerequisite of that survival.

The Eu is desperate to ensure that it's capitve populations have no chance to repeat the Brexit process- how long will it be before they are building walls in Europe not to keep migrants out but to keep their own people in?

At which point their transfomation into a neo liberal version of the USSR will be complete.

Edited June 24, 2016 by wonderpup

[South Lorne]

We are told by various pundits that any 'deal' the UK gets from the EU regarding trade will be modified and inhibited by the EU's need to avoid 'contagion' in the form of other member states being tempted to leave the Union.

Let's be clear that the 'contagion' of which we speak here is that most virulent of diseases- democratic representation. So afraid of this disease are the EU apparatchiks that they almost seem willing to risk a global financial crisis rather than allow the UK to obtain favourable trading conditions going forward.

So at some point in the short history of the EU democracy has become toxic to it's survival- and suppressing democracy is now seen as an essential prerequisite of that survival.

The Eu is desperate to ensure that it's capitve populations have no chance to repeat the Brexit process- how long will it be before they are building walls in Europe not to keep migrants out but to keep their own people in?

At which point their transfomation into a neo liberal version of the USSR will be complete.

...berlin wall 2...

[interestrateripoff]

The eu loves freedom. Providing you choose freedom in the eu.

Although having said that the eu would clearly like to secure some of the UK economy for itself.

[South Lorne]

The eu loves freedom. Providing you choose freedom in the eu.

Although having said that the eu would clearly like to secure some of the UK economy for itself.

...the EU loves elitism because it's undemocratic...democracy will overcome it.......

Edited June 24, 2016 by South Lorne

[mattyboy1973]

The EU apparatchiks will posture for a while, but when it comes down to it, trade deals will be sorted. Look at Germany, for example - BMW and VW sell billions of £ worth of cars in the UK each year. These companies have a lot of influence with the German govt and they are simply not going to allow tariffs to go up. If Germany doesn't want them, it won't happen. And so it goes.. I have absolutely no doubt that we will end up similar trade arrangements across the whole of Europe once this all starts to blow over.

[Bora Horza]

At which point their transfomation into a neo liberal version of the USSR will be complete.

They might try but I suspect it's already too late.

The forces that are pushing the EU apart are too great and numerous: Immigration, security, increasing nationalism, unemployment, debt levels, concerns about accountability and so on.

If they do restrict democracy in some way people are going to point at the UK and say “You allowed them to vote, why not us?”.

I don't think the EU has the apparatus in place – yet - to prevent it.

[UncleMeat]

This video sums it up well from a gentleman who has seen it all before. 5 minutes of your time and well worth a watch:

[wonderpup]

What I find so horribly fascinating about the lexicon of 'contagion' and containment being coined so freely by the EU Elite is their complete inability to recognize that it expresses precisely the authoritarian intolerance of democratic principles the EU was founded to prevent.

The last regime in Europe that had to suppress democracy in order to maintain it's coherence eventually collapsed due to it's own internal contradictions- this regime seems to heading down the same road.

[olde guto]

The EU apparatchiks will posture for a while, but when it comes down to it, trade deals will be sorted. Look at Germany, for example - BMW and VW sell billions of £ worth of cars in the UK each year. These companies have a lot of influence with the German govt and they are simply not going to allow tariffs to go up. If Germany doesn't want them, it won't happen. And so it goes.. I have absolutely no doubt that we will end up similar trade arrangements across the whole of Europe once this all starts to blow over.

Don't forget that British companies like JLR will put pressure on the government as well. Companies such as airbus will put pressure on all side. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up in the EEA, in all but name.

To stop the contagion this will come at a price with no structural funds or CAP money to stop countries that are net beneficiaries getting any ideas, or even countries like France where the sheep burning farmers won't accept the loss of CAP money.

Realpolitik

[doahh]

This video sums it up well from a gentleman who has seen it all before. 5 minutes of your time and well worth a watch

Great little analysis. Wiki has him down as

Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky was prominent in the Soviet dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s and spent a total of twelve years in psychiatric prison-hospitals, labor camps and prisons within the Soviet Union.^[2] Since being expelled from the country in late 1976 he has remained in active and vocal opposition to the Soviet system and the shortcomings of its successor regimes in Russia. A writer,^[3]neurophysiologist,^[4][5] and activist, he is celebrated for his part in the campaign to expose and halt the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.^[6]

Today he is a member of the international advisory council for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation,^[7] a director of the Gratitude Fund set up in 1998 to commemorate and support former dissidents,^{[c 1]} a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute in Washington.^[8] In 2001, Vladimir Bukovsky received the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom which has been awarded annually since 1993 by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.^[9]

Edited June 25, 2016 by doahh