Brexit struck a blow for free trade

Much of the media especially reporters and commentators who are not old enough to remember when there was no European Union seem to be in abject panic over what they see as the disintegration of Western Civilization as evidenced by Brexit. There was a NATO long before there was a EU and it was much stronger and more forceful than any military alliance existent today. The popular theme from media elites who identify with and carry water for political elites is that driven by bigotry and xenophobia the masses seem willing to risk war and prosperity to sate their previously controlled bigotry. There are comparisons to the Weimar Germany that produced Hitler and the general assumption that those voting to leave the sacrosanct and benign Union would sooner starve than prosper with Muslim refugees.

Actually Margaret Thatcher kept the EU at arms length and demanded that Britain would keep its currency and control its immigration. The immigrants that are taking British jobs are legal immigrants from the ever expanding European Union. It is not the Union Thatcher's generation signed on to. In 2004 Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia entered. In 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined. Future candidates for membership include Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Within the present rules citizens of all of the aforementioned countries will have a right to seek employment in Britain albeit under a regulated regime. As those Brits who work in factories and shops are not the same Brits who write immigration rules with the EU there are differences as to how many jobs should go to foreign born workers and the factory workers have had enough.

As with Obama, Ryan and Cruz who authored an op-ed with the Speaker in support of TPP, free trade is a misnomer. Quite the opposite! Contemporary trade agreements come with hundreds of pages of regulations that are binding on all citizen whether they are engaged in trade or even employed in a trading industry. In the case of the EU the Brussels bureaucrats who make the laws have adapted a green agenda to save the world from global warming. Member countries must adopt a " mitigation ambition mechanism ". A mitigation ambition mechanism? This vulgarity from the country that gave the world Milton and Shakespeare? Doctor Johnson call your office. George Orwell where are you when we need you? What self respecting Englishman could countenance any organization that employed such verbiage?

 

At the top of the eco friendly hit list is the innocent hair dryer. From the Telegraph;

The European Union is considering pulling the plug on high-wattage hair dryers, lawn mowers and electric kettles in a follow up to its controversial ban on powerful vacuum cleaners.
The power of hairdryers could be reduced by as much as 30 per cent in order to be more eco-friendly, a draft study commissioned by Brussels suggests, threatening many of the models favoured by hairdressers and consumers for speedy blow-dries.

From another Telegraph post;

“What we want is to let the free market reign, not this diktat by bureaucrat,” said David Coburn, a UK Independence party MEP from Scotland who highlighted the proposals set out in the EU’s “Ecodesign” consultation.
Mr Coburn, who recently purchased a new kettle and toaster on moving house, has grumbled that his new appliances no longer seem to have the ‘oomph’ they once did. “I think I must have bought a euro-toaster, I have to put the bread in five times and it’s still pale and pasty. Perhaps it’s powered by windmills,” he told The Telegraph, “And the kettle? Watching a kettle boil has never been so boring.”

There are limits to how much government interference any society will tolerate and that limit has been reached in Merry Old England. Being overbearing just because you can get away with it is a liberal trait that rightfully should be punished. Stripped of the onerous regulation that has encumbered its economy Britain will be stronger, freer and happier.