4 ms·
There are several obvious culprits, here's the timeline: 1) Promoting the proxy war in Ukraine and impeding diplomatic negotiations, plus pushing for the expan
by photochemsyn 4y ago
There are several obvious culprits, here's the timeline:
1) Promoting the proxy war in Ukraine and impeding diplomatic negotiations, plus pushing for the expansion of NATO, had the result of pushing gas prices through the roof, driving record inflation (and enriching a few gas suppliers). This is the primary cause for the recent economic slump. The Neoconomist magazine is not going to address this issue, however.
2) A poorly managed Brexit. Maintaining a regulatory level playing field with Europe on issues like food safety standards would have facilitated trade. If Brexit had been better focused on pushing back against neoliberalism (halting the export of manufacturing jobs, limiting the import of cheap labor, controlling cross-border capital flows at the nation-state level) it would have worked out better. However, here's what gave impetus for the push for Brexit:
3) Privatization of national resources since Thatcher, and the resulting increase in costs for basic services. Railways, electrical suppliers, etc. were all put in the hands of wealthy interests who steadily raised rates to enrich themselves, leading to increasing poverty and the destruction of the British middle class. This growing wealth gap sparked national anger, hence support for Brexit.
Face reality: the ~40-yr neoliberal program has been an absolute disaster, and should be thrown on the scrap heap of history immediately.
- hermitcrab 4y ago>Promoting the proxy war in Ukraine Taking a lead in helping the Ukrainians defend themselves seems like about the only laudable thing the UK government has done in a long time.
- photochemsyn 4y agoPushing for the expansion of NATO and promoting a regime change operation in Ukraine that resulted in a government that attempted to ban the Russian language and which had an undeniable neo-Nazi element affiliated with it was not such a good idea in retrospect, was it? Imagine if a regime came to power in the USA, and it attempted to ban the Spanish language, eliminated Spanish-language versions of government documents, etc. Maybe many regions of the USA - such as much of the American Southwest - would not want to be ruled by such a government? Similarly, how do you think the USA would respond to Chinese military bases and nuclear weapons being based in Mexico, or Russian military bases and nuclear weapons being based in Cuba (oh, we've already seen what kind of response that triggered, back in 1962-1963, wasn't it)?
- hermitcrab 4y agoUkraine had no realistic prospect of joining NATO any time soon (that may change since the invasion). Without the expansion of NATO it might have been the baltic states that were on the recieving end of a 'special operation' long before now. And they would have been much less able to defend themselves than Ukraine has been. Pretty much every country has a 'neo-Nazi element'. Including Britain and the US. It isn't clear to me that Ukraine was any worse in this respect. >in a government that attempted to ban the Russian language "Ukraine’s parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-parliament-language-idUSKCN1S111N https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-parliament-langua... If that what you are referring to? That doesn't sound like a ban on the Russian language to me.
- epistasis 4y ago> attempted to ban the Russian language Yikes, this is a terrible lie. Source: the Ukrainians in my household who were primarily Russian speaking up until February. Your comment has no basis in reality, is just regurgitating the propaganda of a genocidal autocrat which is attempting to extinguish Ukrainians as a language. Repeating lies like this is somewhat despicable, and though I'm trying to remain polite because of HN rules, such ridiculous propaganda that you are spouting is beyond the pale and in real life would be close to fighting words.
- justin66 4y ago> undeniable neo-Nazi element One of the things I've learned as an outsider while trying to distinguish between propaganda and reality vis a vis Ukraine is that the Nazis are pretty deniable.
- hermitcrab 4y agoIt would be weird if Ukraine didn't have any neo-Nazis, given that pretty much every other European country does.
- notahacker 4y ago
- krona 4y ago> Face reality: the ~40-yr neoliberal program has been an absolute disaster, and should be thrown on the scrap heap of history immediately. I still prefer NHS waiting lists to breadlines.