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Whatever else you’ve heard about vaccines this
remains unavoidably true. Those who deny it either (a) had an idealised view of the EU they’re now shocked to find is wrong, (b) always thought the EU evil, (c) want the EU destroyed because it hinders their wider agenda. A 
/1. https://twitter.com/andrewprlevi/status/1353852878155345920
remains unavoidably true. Those who deny it either (a) had an idealised view of the EU they’re now shocked to find is wrong, (b) always thought the EU evil, (c) want the EU destroyed because it hinders their wider agenda. A /1. https://twitter.com/andrewprlevi/status/1353852878155345920
Those in category (a) mostly knew little about the EU, but thought it a good thing: peace, prosperity etc., without deeper consideration of how those are really brought about. No shame in that, but poor preparation for being confronted with EU power as a weaker, .../2.
...smaller party for the first time in half a century. Category (b) ranges from ideologues who genuinely (but baselessly & utterly absurdly) believe their own rhetoric of “EUSSR”, “4th Reich” etc., to those who, again without real foundation, think “Europeans” are cruel .../3.
... to animals (unlike the English, of course) & the EU’s the reason. Category (c) includes pretty much the entire Vote Leave leadership & the government it has formed (though many are additionally in category (b)). /4.
The wider agenda at play could be summarised in the single word “sovereignty”. But, on their face, the arguments are so ridiculous - they haven’t applied in the real geopolitics since the modern concept of sovereignty was established in the Treaty of Westphalia .../5.
... over 370 years ago - one can only assume they’re made in bad faith, or by genuine but supremely ignorant people. The latter need no further description. The bad faith actors merit some. /6.
They know sovereignty is always conditional on obligations to others (treaties & the like) which govern any advanced country’s most important relationships, which in turn largely determine its ability to maintain & enhance its security & prosperity. /7.
But they’re viscerally opposed - intellect doesn’t come into it, a point they, in their unfettered emotion are blind to - to the particular form those conditions unavoidably take, & have done for 75 years. /8.
That’s to say: the US-led global order, of which the EU (previously EEC/ EC) is one of the few indispensable & foundational pillars (the main foundational era being the 1940s & 50s). /9.
In taking this view they share the mindset of the more unhinged members of the old Soviet leadership & their current Putinesque successors, & of authoritarians, autarchists, “racial” & “cultural” supremacists & their like, everywhere. /10.
In the UK there’s also, of course, an imperial hangover (visible in Russia, too) driving much resentment against the, up to now, inescapable reality of US preeminence. In short, the US has had the power to determine, or at least set firm boundaries to, what we do. /11.
That, in our category (c)s’ view, needs to end, both because it’s infuriating in itself & because, whether hypocritically or genuinely, it involves the US to a greater or lesser extent imposing liberal social order & versions of market capitalism on (most of) .../12.
... the most prosperous & strategically important countries in the world. That’s included the UK. The immediate question for the UK now is whether the new US leadership considers it sufficiently strategically significant to crush the Vote Leave insurrection against US power./13.
If it does, despite the relative erosion of US preeminence over the last few decades, it has more than enough tools at its disposal rapidly to end the Brexit spasm. And send a warning to others with similar ambitions. /14.
If it doesn’t, it will be because it assesses that it’s less costly to the US to contain England (which is what “rUK” will likely be) than to force it back into line. That’s a very cold, dark place to be for the country on the receiving end. /15.
A spat over vaccines - exceptionally important though they are - will seem trivial by comparison. The Vote Leave luminaries think the US is now sufficiently weak that England can finally return to its path of historic destiny, unrestrained by US power. /16.
With a radically adjusted social order, key features of which are: reintroduction of the death penalty, roll-back of gay & women’s rights, oligarchic state-captured capitalism, & ideologically xenophobic citizenship & immigration policies. /17.
They’re horrified - & terrified - by the Biden & wider Democrat victory. They’ll do all they can to help reinstall Trumpism in the US, & grow versions of it not just in the UK, but throughout Europe (think Orban, Le Pen ...) & the world. /18.
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce all that from the vaccine story & the way it’s being spun. Although the political mud on the perpetrators’ shoes, & the nervous tic in their right eye, do rather give the game away. /19.
But it does help to know the Vote Leave people, the Trumpists, Orbanites & Putinards. And be connected to the real world, existing stubbornly, ineluctably, beyond their imaginings.
If this has been any help, I’ll be delighted. If it hasn’t, be warned: I’ll keep trying! /20. End
If this has been any help, I’ll be delighted. If it hasn’t, be warned: I’ll keep trying! /20. End
