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Denzil_DC

(8,090 posts)
10. It's interesting that non-UK-based DU members always jump so quickly to blame "PUTIN!!!".
Tue Sep 3, 2019, 07:51 AM
Sep 2019

You tend not to find many of we UK-based members doing that.

The anti-EU drumbeat in our media has been going on for years, prodded along not least by our current prime minister when he was a "journalist". For instance, a recent study found that people in Liverpool, which has long boycotted the Sun newspaper, are less Euro-skeptic than those in other cities. In recent times, the BBC, after Tory governmental pressure led to placemen and women being installed in its upper management, has long promoted Farage and UKIP (and now the Brexit Party) and given them airtime way beyond what their numbers would have ever justified.

The influence of US "think tanks" and libertarian/neoliberal lobby groups in UK politics is well documented, and has been for years. If you're looking for outside actors contaminating UK politics, you don't have to look much further than that, and it's far clearer how those interests would benefit from a no deal Brexit.

It would be very convenient to blame "PUTIN!!!" for all our ills. Then all we'd have to do is find ways to block that influence. The fact is that it's rooted in our society. It can be exploited and nudged along, sure, but we have to own it to counter it. Until the referendum, there was plenty of everyday griping about the EU, but it wasn't a major priority among the public.

The Tory Party's attempts to counter the long-term Euro-skepticism in its ranks (which had been a major problem since at least the Major government) and counter the electoral threat of UKIP allowed opportunists to persuade enough people who had reasons for discontent that the EU was behind all our ills, when in reality it was our own over-centralization and the idiotic fixation with treating the country's finances like those of a household (a hangover from Thatcherism) and championing austerity as the solution.

Those are homegrown problems. Putin's a side player.

Recommendations

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I can't understand why the UK is doing this Brexit thing, seems like a total loser to me. katmondoo Sep 2019 #1
Common sense has little to do with it, and the EU is partly to blame. DFW Sep 2019 #4
Brexit was sold to the Brits based on lies and fear RVN VET71 Sep 2019 #11
Same thing that's happening in the U.S. Grokenstein Sep 2019 #7
A number of reasons The King of Prussia Sep 2019 #8
Rather than "Let's just get it over with" DFW Sep 2019 #2
Of course it's ripping up the UK. That's what Putin wanted when he funded the campaign. DemocracyMouse Sep 2019 #3
...and did I mention PUTIN and his MOB are going for our 2020 elections too? DemocracyMouse Sep 2019 #5
Rifts in the EU and NATO definitely serve Russian interests more than any of ours. n/t DFW Sep 2019 #6
It's interesting that non-UK-based DU members always jump so quickly to blame "PUTIN!!!". Denzil_DC Sep 2019 #10
You are missing the essence. ALL MOBS, indeed all monopolies, are killing democracy. DemocracyMouse Sep 2019 #12
I don't believe I'm missing anything. Denzil_DC Sep 2019 #14
I don't necessarily blame Putin as a main cause, just a big beneficiary DFW Sep 2019 #15
He could be a beneficiary. But the EU was expected to implode with Brexit. It hasn't. Denzil_DC Sep 2019 #16
You really think it was Putin? The King of Prussia Sep 2019 #17
I'm sorry you feel that way... DemocracyMouse Sep 2019 #18
They're free to disagree. It's still not persuasive. Denzil_DC Sep 2019 #19
Time to reclassify 'Lord of the Flies' as a dystopian prediction? muriel_volestrangler Sep 2019 #9
It's not the people spreading chaos. ALL MOBS, indeed all monopolies, are killing democracy. DemocracyMouse Sep 2019 #13
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