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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 12/12/19

Don't Forget the Real Root of Brexit: Fear of Eurozone Economic Contagion

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Previously published by PressTV

BREXIT
BREXIT
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It's hard to get the Western mainstream media to discuss Brexit properly: Wikipedia's timeline doesn't start until 2016, for some reason, and I'm sure that's where many journalists' research starts and ends on serious subjects of global importance.

What's certain is that the last thing the Western mainstream media wants to talk about regarding Brexit is the single most important reason for its historical importance: a successful Brexit will show Eurosceptic nations that leaving is actually not fatal, and thus Brexit could be the start of the end of the pan-European movement.

The reality is that a Brexit success is likely the only, best chance to save the pan-European project: Brussels will only be pushed for more democratic accountability, transparency and progressive reforms if pushed to do so by an outside force, if ever.

While Europe has been forced to watch Brexit with baited breath for nearly three years justice delayed is justice denied" but when was the EU ever concerned about democratic justice? Let's not pretend that prior to their historic vote we weren't also discussing "Grexit", "Frexit", "Quitaly", and others (I most preferred "Nullgaria", "Czech-Out" and "Malternative").

And yet Brexit is portrayed as a catastrophe which unexpectedly descended from heaven, as opposed to a long-building reaction like as any other major historical process? It is as if the whole European debacle from 2009-16 was swept under the rug, and not just by Wikipedia.

The Brexit process won't be accurately judged for 3-5 years, but if the UK is economically humming and culturally dynamic by 2022 it's sure that a wave of "exits" will be demanded. What we can honestly foresee is a 1989 Berlin Wall moment: mass demonstrations to abolish the EU in the near future. "Ms. Lagarde" tear down this wall of taxpayer Quantitative Easing!" (Bankers run the West, so she's basically top on the totem pole.)

How did we get to do discussing an EU "Berlin Wall" moment? I can say what one wrong answer is: refugee migration, which is what the bulk of Brexit coverage has been since 2016.

Don't believe the revisionist history of capitalist Western media the primary root of Brexit was the UK's rightful abhorrence for the economic and democratic deficiencies of the Eurozone. From 2009 onward it grew worse and worse and more obvious to all, even to allegedly "stupid" Brexiteers.

As Britain goes back to the polls on December 12, it's crucial to accurately remember the timeline of what led up to Brexit and what really caused it.

Demand an honest timeline Brexit's true beginnings

Let's go back to 2012: the Great Recession was clearly not going anywhere - the proposed solution of QE and ZIRP (zero percent interest rates) was not producing results for the real economy. The Occupy Movement had just begun the previous fall, and anti-1% and anti-banker sentiment was peaking. The European Sovereign Debt Crisis also peaked that year, causing the largest macro-economic bloc to be on the verge of total chaos. The victory of an anti-austerity candidate in France provoked the same reaction as it did in 1981 with Francois Mitterrand: attacks on the national bond market by high finance. 2012 was chaotic in Europe, to say the least.

I bring up 2012 because this is when the European Sovereign Debt crisis threw into stark relief the fundamentally unjust, unaccountable, unequal nature of the pan-European project" and this was not at all missed by the average person in the UK.

The Eurozone scrambled to come up with ways to coordinate budgets, debt and banks. The answer was "more Europe, not less Europe" remember? Germany rejected all these ideas so they never got off the ground, but anybody can see how this slogan is often anathema to a Britain which has for decades emphatically shown with actions that they are dedicated Eurosceptics. Unsurprisingly, the government of David Cameron also wanted no part of the proposed compact for "more Europe".

As 2012-13 rolled on the pan-European project did nothing to cover themselves in glory: Francois Hollande proved all the worst British stereotypes of the cowardly Frenchman, the European Central Bank promised "whatever it takes" via as QE (the Brits have always publicly opposed QE and easy money, like the Germans) which was obviously viewed in the UK as what it really was more foreign bank bailouts via the ballooning of national debts. Brussels had definitively proved how punitive and stupid it could be as the Greek bailout gutted the country for the benefit of German and French bankers. The Eurozone averted total chaos but also had horrible economic performance, which continues today.

All of these things are forgotten by the Mainstream Media, which says, "Pro-Brexit Brits are racists who hate foreigners!"

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Ramin Mazaheri is currently covering the US elections. He is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, (more...)
 

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