Writing in the WSJ, Iain Murray and James C. Bennett see an opportunity for NAFTA to serve as a lifeline to Britain:
The European Economic Community (EEC) for which the British signed up in a 1975 referendum—a community of free trade and cooperation, not supranational bureaucracy—is long gone. Worse, even today’s less-palatable EU will soon no longer be on offer. Sometime in the next few years at most, Britain will likely face the choice between immersion in a powerful centralized European mega-state and full exit.
Most probably, the choice will be made in an atmosphere of crisis, with dramatic media coverage proclaiming impending doom for Europe. Britain today needs to think seriously about a Plan B, so that it does not have to take an option it will regret for lack of coherent alternatives.
Britain does have other choices. To find the country’s new role, British leaders should look to North America.
It’s questionable outside a major meltdown that the UK should leave the Eurozone and marry economies with the Anglosphere. But I like to hear it talked about, if only because the rumors will make Nicholas Sarkozy’s head explode.
Most of the Europeans I work with believe that if the Euro dies, so will the EU. I think they are mistaken.
But NAFTA, which has done more to destroy American labor than just about anything I can think of? England has too many labor-destroying policies already, NAFTA would go unnoticed.
The world is changing, and the coal- and oil-fired consumption cycles that have, admittedly, generated tremendous wealth for some and previously unthinkable standards of living for so many are about to run out. Not tomorrow, but in a slow winding down over the decades to come. Finding new markets is not a solution for the problems facing a world where energy becomes increasingly, prohibitively, expensive.
I was under the impression that the only reason the UK joined the EEC in the first place was so that they could stab the beast from within. A good plan, IMHO, but badly executed. They ended up being absorbed, and now need to find a way out.
The UK…the mouse that roared…and now squeaks.
I fear that the time has passed for such maneuvering by the strains of Anglos. The social scene within England and possibly Scotland, has been diliuted in great measure by unrestricted immigration and the newbies’ apparent devotion to the welfare state.
Too late.
The Scots left in Scotland are thoroughly Socialist with a capital S. Everyone of different persuasion has emigrated.
The Scots left in Scotland are thoroughly Socialist. The rest have emigrated.
Hmmm, 51st through 56th states?
Nah. we’re too far gone for that.
“Territory of Britain”?… or TS, TE, TW, TNI? Not statehood. Not until they get a state constitution, approved by Congress. For NI, eliminate the IRA, then we’ll talk.
Just making sure my Canadian passport is well in date.
Veeeeery prudent move there hog. Very Prudent.
[...] Neptunus Lex [...]
I’d have little trouble with a free trade zone of the Anglosphere. makes a lot more sense than a NAFTA. Britain, Oz, New Zealand, and Canuckistan have pretty much equal stupidity in laws and so would be closer in bidness environment than say the US and China.
The immigration thing and the “ethnic” problem in the UK makes it all problematic, though. Hogday is quite wise in making sure he has a bolt hole in Canuckistan.
Phoned cousin Jane in Cobourg Ont t’other day. Only minus 10 (C) overnight. Pah, it was colder than that in Yorkshire last winter. I have woolies.