Sunday, February 21, 2016

I should also be allowed to vote in the absurd UK referendum

The UK referendum about the "Brexit" option is absurd for at least two reasons. First, as all binary sovereignty referenda in the XXI Century it creates the fiction that there are only two equally reasonable options. In the campaign, the media will give equal voice to people that support reasonable positions and to excentric people that would be in the margins of politics in normal times. Second, only one of the possible choices is the result of an agreement. It is a ridiculous agreement, but it is at least an apparent agreement that gives some credibility and substance to the In vote. But the Out vote would create huge uncertainty in case of victory. The day after would be unmanageable, and some sort of agreement would have to be produced then to facilitate some status to the UK that integrated it in one of the free trade options that third countries have with the EU. But this agreement would have to be accepted by the EU, unless the British want to be a stranded country for the years to come. Although the referendum is absurd, its outcome has effects beyond the UK, and that is a good reason for other people outside the UK having something to say. A victory of the out vote would trigger a new referendum in Scotland, and this would fuel secessionist demands in other European countries. The crisis of the EU as a result of the departure of one of its largest economies would be an enourmous wound to the European project, which received the Nobel Peace price not long ago. The United States and other jurisdictions have expressed their concerns for the outcome of a referendum that takes place only to solve an interal problem of the Conservative Party of David Cameron. I would vote yes to stop all this nonsense, but more than this I believe that the world of the XXI century cannot be build using tools of the past (like the sovereignty binary referendum).

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