EU referendum

How does the US see the EU referendum?

The New York Times gives a clear explanation of what the arguments and personalities are, enough to have a reasonable understanding from outside the country. It needs no hyperbole to show how destructive a Leave vote would be. Most independent economists and large businesses favor staying in, as do the most recent heads of Britain’s intelligence services. President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Xi Jinping of China also want Britain to stay in. Not the French Front National, though. Retaining access to the free market would probably mean allowing free movement of citizens, making a mockery of the main emotional call for leave- No Immigrants! Most economists favor remaining in the bloc and say that an exit would cut growth, weaken the pound and hurt the City of London, Britain’s financial center. Even economists who favor an exit say that growth would be affected in the short and medium term, though they also say that Britain would be better off by 2030.

Their comment columns have noticed that support for Leave and for Trump in the US are similar phenomena, a wave of populism [concerning] a flood of migrants.

The Fox News website does not seem to bother reporting the EU referendum much, just linking to a Leave-Supremacist article in the (British) Daily Telegraph. Downing Street is “panicked” over the EU referendum amid growing internal signs that support for the Leave campaign is surging, it quotes.

The Wall St Journal is giving full coverage, and Google shows their headlines: Investors flee banks in UK and EU, as Brexit jitters mount; UK’s Brexit referendum will leave deep scars; UK’s immigration unease animates Brexit vote; UK house prices set to fall on EU referendum- a bit of good news, there, people actually being able to afford houses, but often seen as bad; Killing of Jo Cox silences both sides ahead of UK vote.

ABC news does a bit of local colour, interviewing random people in the street, and crafts it into a shock headline and shock first few paragraphs- the most likely to be read- then further paragraphs showing it might not be that bad. In English Port, Immigration Drives Debate on EU Referendum… Don’t try to talk to Brian Hall about economics, trading blocs or the value of the British pound. He won’t listen. There’s one factor — and one factor only — shaping his view in the June 23 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union: immigration. He’s tired of Eastern Europeans arriving on these shores, and he plans to use his vote to make that point. Yuck. However the article ends by saying Donna Marshall lost her job six months ago and is struggling to find work. She plans to vote “remain” because she thinks her chances of employment would suffer if Britain left the EU. The 53-year-old doesn’t see Eastern Europeans as a threat to future employment. “It doesn’t do us any harm to have more immigrants here,” Marshall said. “I have had coffee with refugees. They’ve had such terrible experiences, they’ve been shot and had their houses burned. They are not people seeking benefits, they want a better life.” I have met people who have conflated refugees and EU migration.

I wrote this, then read the NYT’s opinion piece showing the full horror of holding the referendum at all, leave alone voting leave. Isolation brings out the worst in Britain. And it never works.

I pray that more of us will follow Donna. I see my German friend, and am ashamed for my country.

New York Times Explaining the referendum. Britain’s Donald Trump moment. From Great Britain to Little England.

Fox News headline plus link.

ABC News in Dover.