An Explanation of Brexit to My Dissatisfaction

[dewline]

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Remainers-so-convinced-that-staying-in-the-European-Union-is-what-is-best-for-the-UK/answers/154093759

Comments

[thewayne]

Some thoughts _while_ I'm reading it:

--I did not know that the UK was not part of the Schengen area, but only partly under those rules. That was one thing that I loved when we did our Europe trip: we landed in Frankfurt, eventually took a train to Prague, back to Berlin, flew home. So seamless! And Customs and Immigration was so much easier in Germany than in the USA! A friend of mine had the same experience returning from the UK: much easier there than here.

--HAVING TO JOB SEARCH FOR 35 HOURS A WEEK?! I can't imagine anything more stultifying and depressing! When I was on unemployment here, I had to apply for three or four jobs a week in order to maintain benefits and had to keep records of what I applied for and produce them if requested so they could audit if need be. I was never asked, but I had those records.

--I was surprised they left out Russian social media amplification of the Leave side before the election.

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AND I've finished the article. *PHEW!* Quite a read, and pretty much something that I've been arguing along the lines of for a few decades now. It's clearly something that Our Beloved Leader is, in his own bumbling way, trying to do. Fortunately he doesn't have as much power as the PM does.

The article does sum it up nicely: follow the money. I've contended for some time that the Republican Party's unofficial motto is "I've got mine, screw you", which also nicely dovetails into this article.

[dewline]

About Schengen: I'm thinking more and more that Canada signing onto that might be a fair tradeoff for a number of other benefits of EU membership.

About job search expectations: Applying to four or five jobs a week? Now I'm envious. Mind you, Canadian expectations are a minimum of two unique contacts per day. But the job search diary-keeping advice given by the feds here currently tends to encourage a positive and flexible definition of "job search-related contacts and activities". I tend to consider this a good thing for both morale and diligence-of-search maintenance purposes of the people looking for work. Also, for skills-building and maintenance, come to think of it.

I've been asked to hand in two-week extracts from my job-search diaries on occasion over the years, but that's been okay despite my anxieties in the moment.

Of course, I expect this to get messed up severely if the Conservatives get back into federal government in Canada.

[thewayne]

Here, where I live, it was HARD finding reasonable job contacts! I ended up applying for stuff that I knew I wouldn’t accept if offered, things that would require relocation, etc. There simply aren’t reasonable jobs for IT in this direct area, at least not decent ones that have regular openings. Basically there’s not an expanding local job market. I went beyond my skill set in applying to jobs that I did not qualify for, and that I was massively overqualified for, and the same thing happened: almost zero response rate.

It was very depressing, but the payment was useful. Heck, that payment was more than double what I’m earning now! Theoretically I’m starting full-time January 2, which I don’t expect will increase my wages, but will double my hours.

On Putinist Meddling in Brexit:

[dewline]

Yes, the Putinist interventions did get left out of that essay. A mistake in my view.

Re: On Putinist Meddling in Brexit:

[thewayne]

It did get mentioned later in, but I thought it deserved earlier and more prominent mention.