tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5190994177632420720.post8011169212026130280..comments2023-10-25T08:27:37.972-07:00Comments on Viridis Lumen: The Man Who Couldn't Be Bothered: Boris Johnson and the Lives of OthersViridis Lumenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08097453038753328641noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5190994177632420720.post-2456448188970040712016-07-02T00:51:36.750-07:002016-07-02T00:51:36.750-07:00Completely agree Steve and my own support for Rema...Completely agree Steve and my own support for Remain was far from wildly enthusiastic. And of course leave voters are not all racists, faf from it and there is nothing in the article to say that - what I do say is that the rhetoric of the Leave campaign leadership was xenophobic and has given perission to those who hold such views to express them.<br /><br />The reasons you give for Leave are all sound except that they are not the conditions under which Brexit will take place: Brexit led by Gove/May or whoever will be to further neoliberalism, not defeat it. However, the piece is aimed at Johnson, not the wider leave campaign or voters, and is intended to highlight how our politics remain in the grip of a self-serving and self-indulgent elite who do not take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.Viridis Lumenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08097453038753328641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5190994177632420720.post-6809457530354312422016-07-01T14:52:49.455-07:002016-07-01T14:52:49.455-07:00Perfectly valid criticisms of the infantilist ambi...Perfectly valid criticisms of the infantilist ambitions of Boris Johnson, Adrian. But the trouble is there are perfectly good and valid,progressive, internationalist and left wing reasons for rejecting the EU. It is a neo-liberal capitalist project with soft dusting of social democracy to hide its true nature. I voted Leave as did many others I know on the left. Many people I know voted Remain not because they believe in the EU but because they did not want to associate themselves with xenophobic jingoism of Farage and Johnson. The idea that supporting an institution designed to entrench the neo-liberal free market just so you won't be labelled a racist or that there won't be 'an ugly upsurge in nationalism' does not seem a very strong one to me. Indeed, those same arguments were used on the Brit left during the Scottish independence referendum - you can't be an internationalist or a socialist and vote for independence because you'll split the (UK) working class and give rise to nationalist sentiments. I appreciate you and the Green party came down on the fixit rather than the lexit side of the argument, but I see no possibility of the EU being seriously reformed in a left progressive direction. If we want a new international set up we'll have to buils it from the ground up - together. And I think that means accepting that 52% of people who voted Leave in the UK are not all elderly Eastbourne couples yearning for the fifties, or rude racist bastards who want to give Polish waitresses a hard time.Steve Arnottnoreply@blogger.com