One difference that strikes me when comparing the Winter of Discontent to the current situation in Britain is the overall political situation. In the former case it was much easier to name a culprit: the militant labor unions, who were holding the Labour Party and the country hostage to their demands. There was a sharp, bitter ideological edge to the WoD that seems not to be present today.
Of course, it would be possible to cast the climate-change Greens in the role once played by the unions. While green policies are not solely to blame for the current crisis, they have played a role, e.g. by making the UK over-reliant on "renewable" energy. Thus when the usually blustery North Sea quieted down, wind-generated energy suddenly became unavailable. In the US, this would have provided the GOP with a great talking point. But in Britain, both major parties tug their forelock to Green orthodoxy.
I’ve read that Britain lost its captive markets in the Empire after WWII, and after the post-war reconstruction boom faded the effects of that loss started becoming apparent. One of the responses to loss is an attraction to extreme ‘one pure answer’ ideologies. If that was the Left in the seventies and the Right today, is it reasonable to say that Britain is still working through that change in circumstance? In the build up to Brexit there was all this stuff written about free trading Britain being set free from Brussels’ constraints - but how could Britain have been free trading but still dependent on captive markets? Is it a case of self image trumping [!] reality?
I have a lot of views on Brexit but I am somewhat reluctant to spend the time listening them all out. I do think Brexit which I do not believe will be reversed on any type politically relevant timeline is in fact one of the greatest if not perhaps the greatest defeat for the American centric Atlanticism at least since 1989 if not 1945. Basically America's closest ally in terms of intelligence, law enforcement, judicial, extradition and many other forms of cooperation has immolated themselves. Yes it is unfair to say that Emmanuel Macron is "Anti American" in the way that Jose Bove is but Macron is certainly not pro-American in the way British Prime Ministers were from Thatcher to May. More significantly with Britain's departure those remaining pro American Atlanticist voices in places like Central and Eastern Europe have been marginalized. Truthfully some countries in the CEE like Hungary have long been slipping from pro American orbit but the most telling picture is if you look what countries in the EU27 have come out ahead post Brexit in terms of gaining political and economic power in the EU27 it basically the likes of Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Germany, even non EU MS Switzerland NOT the pro American trans-atlanticist CEE countries which have gained nothing in the financial services field unlike the former countries with all important implications for anti-money laundering and anti-kleptocracy initiatives.
I was watching the final Episode of Season 5 of the US TV show Billions where the villainous Billionaire Antagonist Bobby Axelrod(the final appearance of actor Damian Lewis in the show) evades American law enforcement authorities one final time by sneaking on a private jet and arriving in Switzerland as a newly minted Swiss citizen immune from extradition while on the others side of the Atlantic the FBI moving into arrest Axelrod for financial corruption charges open a decoy helicopters to find it empty. This is I think might be the analogy for the end of the UK-US transatlantic special relationship that "ruled" global finance and European economics 1945-2020.
**BTW the extradition scene in Billions is quite apt. British policy unlike Continental Europe and most unlike Switzerland has generally allowed unquestioned acceptance of US extradition requests. This policy was supported by UK politicians of all stripes including one of the afore authors Denis MacShane as part and parcel of maintaining a US-UK rule of law Anglo Saxon special relationship. This will still exist but as the UK and City of London become less important in Europe the reach of American law enforcement will diminish and if you believe in the righteousness of American justice(which I BTW don't necessarily do) then this is obviously a small example of a "bad" and harmful thing happening to America because of Brexit.
Claire, when did you invite Chicken Little to join the Cosmopolitan Globalist team?
If Oxley and MacShane are to be believed, the sky is falling, at least over the United Kingdom. And neither of them even mentioned the UK's biggest challenge of all; healing the rift in the Royal Family.
Let's hope Boris Johnson isn't too proud to grovel. Maybe if he gets on his hands and knees he can beg Germany and France to let his nation rejoin the EU. After all, the EU is so powerful, so competent, so streamlined and so wise, that merely by rejoining, the UK's predicament will be solved in a flash.
Who knows, maybe if the UK rejoins they can entice Ursula van der Leyven to mediate the dispute between Harry and Meghan and William and Kate. After all, nothing would be worse for the UK than that conflict getting out of hand. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Shakespeare knows that when these disputes get ugly, there's bloodshed all the way around. Maybe it's not a return to the 1970s that Oxley and MacShane should be worried about; maybe it's the threat of returning a few more centuries into the nation's violent past.
To be fair, Frau van der Leyen might be too preoccupied with her current duties to mediate that dispute. If so, perhaps the EU's brilliant diplomats could weigh in. Is anyone better equipped to negotiate a royal meeting of the minds than the brilliant Josep Borrell. No one takes the EU's foreign policy seriously so Borrell probably has plenty of time on his hands. Of course, if a British mediator is called for, the retired EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Margaret Ashton of Upholland might be recruited to assist the royals in resolving their dispute. After all, given the brilliant job she did negotiating the JCPOA with the Iranians, surely she can find common ground between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
But ultimately, it's all up to Boris. Does he have what it takes to admit that he was wrong and Oxley and MacShane were right all along when the said Brexit was an own goal?
I am going to have more to say on this post but I would recommend watching this video of Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute arguing that Brexit was not going to make the UK some free market paradise akin to Hong Kong of the 1970s instead it turn Britain into Britain of the 1970s.
One difference that strikes me when comparing the Winter of Discontent to the current situation in Britain is the overall political situation. In the former case it was much easier to name a culprit: the militant labor unions, who were holding the Labour Party and the country hostage to their demands. There was a sharp, bitter ideological edge to the WoD that seems not to be present today.
Of course, it would be possible to cast the climate-change Greens in the role once played by the unions. While green policies are not solely to blame for the current crisis, they have played a role, e.g. by making the UK over-reliant on "renewable" energy. Thus when the usually blustery North Sea quieted down, wind-generated energy suddenly became unavailable. In the US, this would have provided the GOP with a great talking point. But in Britain, both major parties tug their forelock to Green orthodoxy.
I’ve read that Britain lost its captive markets in the Empire after WWII, and after the post-war reconstruction boom faded the effects of that loss started becoming apparent. One of the responses to loss is an attraction to extreme ‘one pure answer’ ideologies. If that was the Left in the seventies and the Right today, is it reasonable to say that Britain is still working through that change in circumstance? In the build up to Brexit there was all this stuff written about free trading Britain being set free from Brussels’ constraints - but how could Britain have been free trading but still dependent on captive markets? Is it a case of self image trumping [!] reality?
I have a lot of views on Brexit but I am somewhat reluctant to spend the time listening them all out. I do think Brexit which I do not believe will be reversed on any type politically relevant timeline is in fact one of the greatest if not perhaps the greatest defeat for the American centric Atlanticism at least since 1989 if not 1945. Basically America's closest ally in terms of intelligence, law enforcement, judicial, extradition and many other forms of cooperation has immolated themselves. Yes it is unfair to say that Emmanuel Macron is "Anti American" in the way that Jose Bove is but Macron is certainly not pro-American in the way British Prime Ministers were from Thatcher to May. More significantly with Britain's departure those remaining pro American Atlanticist voices in places like Central and Eastern Europe have been marginalized. Truthfully some countries in the CEE like Hungary have long been slipping from pro American orbit but the most telling picture is if you look what countries in the EU27 have come out ahead post Brexit in terms of gaining political and economic power in the EU27 it basically the likes of Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Germany, even non EU MS Switzerland NOT the pro American trans-atlanticist CEE countries which have gained nothing in the financial services field unlike the former countries with all important implications for anti-money laundering and anti-kleptocracy initiatives.
I was watching the final Episode of Season 5 of the US TV show Billions where the villainous Billionaire Antagonist Bobby Axelrod(the final appearance of actor Damian Lewis in the show) evades American law enforcement authorities one final time by sneaking on a private jet and arriving in Switzerland as a newly minted Swiss citizen immune from extradition while on the others side of the Atlantic the FBI moving into arrest Axelrod for financial corruption charges open a decoy helicopters to find it empty. This is I think might be the analogy for the end of the UK-US transatlantic special relationship that "ruled" global finance and European economics 1945-2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMDhNNYGIbg
**BTW the extradition scene in Billions is quite apt. British policy unlike Continental Europe and most unlike Switzerland has generally allowed unquestioned acceptance of US extradition requests. This policy was supported by UK politicians of all stripes including one of the afore authors Denis MacShane as part and parcel of maintaining a US-UK rule of law Anglo Saxon special relationship. This will still exist but as the UK and City of London become less important in Europe the reach of American law enforcement will diminish and if you believe in the righteousness of American justice(which I BTW don't necessarily do) then this is obviously a small example of a "bad" and harmful thing happening to America because of Brexit.
Claire, when did you invite Chicken Little to join the Cosmopolitan Globalist team?
If Oxley and MacShane are to be believed, the sky is falling, at least over the United Kingdom. And neither of them even mentioned the UK's biggest challenge of all; healing the rift in the Royal Family.
Let's hope Boris Johnson isn't too proud to grovel. Maybe if he gets on his hands and knees he can beg Germany and France to let his nation rejoin the EU. After all, the EU is so powerful, so competent, so streamlined and so wise, that merely by rejoining, the UK's predicament will be solved in a flash.
Who knows, maybe if the UK rejoins they can entice Ursula van der Leyven to mediate the dispute between Harry and Meghan and William and Kate. After all, nothing would be worse for the UK than that conflict getting out of hand. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Shakespeare knows that when these disputes get ugly, there's bloodshed all the way around. Maybe it's not a return to the 1970s that Oxley and MacShane should be worried about; maybe it's the threat of returning a few more centuries into the nation's violent past.
To be fair, Frau van der Leyen might be too preoccupied with her current duties to mediate that dispute. If so, perhaps the EU's brilliant diplomats could weigh in. Is anyone better equipped to negotiate a royal meeting of the minds than the brilliant Josep Borrell. No one takes the EU's foreign policy seriously so Borrell probably has plenty of time on his hands. Of course, if a British mediator is called for, the retired EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Margaret Ashton of Upholland might be recruited to assist the royals in resolving their dispute. After all, given the brilliant job she did negotiating the JCPOA with the Iranians, surely she can find common ground between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
But ultimately, it's all up to Boris. Does he have what it takes to admit that he was wrong and Oxley and MacShane were right all along when the said Brexit was an own goal?
I am going to have more to say on this post but I would recommend watching this video of Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute arguing that Brexit was not going to make the UK some free market paradise akin to Hong Kong of the 1970s instead it turn Britain into Britain of the 1970s.
https://youtu.be/EcIkIz98zXU?t=817