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“So the cold hard truth about Brexit is this. There is only one Brexit as Mervyn King says – a hard-Brexit… The government is going to the polls to extend its powers to the point of authoritarianism in order that it can bypass representative democracy and do as it pleases. Its legacy will be to force a deregulation festival upon Britain if it wins.” – True Publica (October 29, 2019) [1]
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A marriage of nearly half a century is coming to an end.
As of 23:00 GMT on January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom officially withdraws all of its personnel from all influential bodies within the European trading block, including the European Parliament, and begins negotiations with the European Union on a new trade and security relationship. [2]
The road to this divorce has been a chaotic one. Originating with a high stakes gamble by pro-EU Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to contain the Eurosceptics in his own party, the island country voted to end its relationship with its continental neighbour by the slimmest of margins in the June 2016 referendum. Cameron’s successor Theresa May, unable to secure a deal to establish the terms of a Brexit, would resign as PM, making room for Leave campaigner Boris Johnson to take charge of the UK government and its Brexit process.
In the lead up to the December 12th election, Johnson was able to set the tone for the campaign with a clear pledge to ‘Get Brexit Done’ while the Labour Party would be dogged by their poor handling of the Brexit issue as well as smears directed toward leader Jeremy Corbyn. When the dust cleared, the Conservatives would command the largest majority of seats since Margaret Thatcher’s historic election in 1979, thereby establishing for himself a strong mandate to complete once and for all the UK’s departure from the EU.
A transition period will persist until the end of 2020 at which point, deal or no deal, the UK will no longer receive any of the advantages or handicaps associated with EU membership. [3]
The Brexit drama has unquestionably left an indelible mark on the political institutions of this once mighty imperial power, and will no doubt have consequences for its former partners, and the economies it will now be dealing with as a separate entity. This week’s Global Research News Hour radio program endeavours to explore these and other developments in the country within this exciting and timely one hour show.
For the bulk of the show, two guests, Winnipeg based Political Studies Professor Radhika Desai and Belgium-based journalist Youri Smouter discuss the foreseeable impact of Brexit, what happened during the December 2019 election, and the challenges within the Labour Party and how they may affect its policy stance, if or when that party should ever return to power. Toward the end of the show, we touch base with commentator Patrick Henningsen about the session of Parliament he attended which featured whistleblower testimony challenging the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) conclusions regarding alleged chemical weapons use by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Radhika Desai is Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press. She is the author of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013) among other books, as well as numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals.
Youri Smouter is a journalist and host/producer of an upcoming online current affairs program. He had participated in the September 2019 Labour Party Conference as a press correspondent.
Patrick Henningsen is a journalist, geopolitical analyst and Founder/Editor of 21st Century Wire. He has been a regular host on UK Column and has appeared as an expert commentator on a number of international publications including Consortium News, UK Column, The Guardian, Global Research, New Dawn Magazine (Australia), and also on leading global networks like RT New International, Al Jazeera, ITN (UK), CGTN (China), Indus News (PK), Edge Media (SKY 200 UK) and US syndicated radio shows Fault Lines Radio, and Coast to Coast AM.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 285)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .
The Global Research News Hour now airs Fridays at 6pm PST, 8pm CST and 9pm EST on Alternative Current Radio (alternativecurrentradio.com)
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Notes:
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/brexit-the-cold-hard-truth-emerges/5693360
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Adam Bienkov, Thomas Colson and Adam Payne (January 31, 2020) ‘What will actually change after the UK leaves the EU on Brexit day?’, Business Insider; https://www.businessinsider.com/what-will-actually-change-after-the-uk-leaves-the-eu-on-brexit-day-2020-1
- ibid
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