Vive la France!

By far the best reaction to Brexit came from France.  Many European leaders rightly saw the Brexit vote as a repudiation of their policies but, instead of being humbled by it, were simply angry about it.  They were sure they knew what was best for the peasants and can't see where they went wrong  -- EXCEPT M. Hollande.  The French president rightly saw the excesses of the EU bureaucracy as a powerful motor behind British dissatisfaction with the EU. 

I also liked the reaction of Donald Tusk, representative of the heroic Polish people, who insisted: 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'.  Being the ham in the sandwich between Germany and Russia, Poles have had to have that attitude. Some excerpts below of the European reaction.


European leaders have warned Britain to leave the EU quickly and avoid prolonging uncertainty.

The presidents of the EU's main institutions said in a statement today that they expect London to act on the decision to leave 'as soon as possible, however painful that process may be.'

As he demanded Britain make a quick exit from the EU, furious European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the U.K.'s relationship with the EU had been ambiguous, but was 'now clear.'

He added a prolonged exit was 'the opposite of what we need', adding that it was difficult to accept that 'a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party'.

French President Francois Hollande has admitted the EU requires 'profound change' in the wake of the Brexit vote as German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay at the result.

Hollande said the UK's vote to leave the EU must act as a 'jolt' to the bloc to implement the change needed to address its troubles - adding he was 'sad' to see Britain sever relations.

The French President warned the remaining 27 member states that action was needed to reconnect with citizens. 'The British people have decided to leave. It is a sad decision but one which I respect,' he said.  'The vote puts the European Union in difficulties. It must recognise its shortfalls.

'A jolt is necessary. Europe must reaffirm it values of freedom, solidarity, peace. The EU must be understood and controlled by its citizens. I will do everything to secure profound change rather than decline.'

As leaders across Europe woke up to the news, France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen changed her Twitter picture to a Union Jack and told her followers the result was 'victory for freedom'.

'As I have been asking for years, we must now have the same referendum in France and EU countries,' she wrote.

This morning, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a member of the Le Pen dynasty and an FN MP,  tweeted 'Victory!'


Egregious, I know.  But this is a picture of Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, an anti-immigration member of the French parliament

The Le Pens are fiercely anti-Europe. They view an end to the EU as the best way of implementing their anti-immigration and anti-globalisation agenda.

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was 'sad for the United Kingdom' and that 'Europe will continue but it must react and rediscover the confidence of its peoples. It's urgent.'

Meanwhile the result also triggered Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders to call for a referendum on EU membership in the Netherlands. Wilders, who is leading opinion polls, said if he is elected prime minister in March he will force a vote.

He said in a statement: 'We want to be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders and our own immigration policy. 'As quickly as possible the Dutch need to get the opportunity to have their say about Dutch membership of the European Union.

'If I become prime minister, there will be a referendum in the Netherlands on leaving the European Union as well. Let the Dutch people decide.'

SOURCE

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No wonder Trump looks happy - Britain's exit from Europe should leave Hillary Clinton shaking in her boots and Donald knows it!

I don't always agree with Piers Morgan but he is one of the few who know both British and American politics close up.  He is also an old friend of Trump and, despite some disagreements, is one of his few British defenders. So what he says below is worth a thought

Wow, wow, wow, wow, and WOW again. Not much shocks me after 33 years as a journalist in the news business, but Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is a truly staggering, historic and earth-shattering moment which I never thought would happen.

Full disclosure now it’s all over: I voted against Brexit and for Remain. My reason? The EU is indisputably a badly-run, antiquated organisation in desperate need of major reform, but to my mind that reform would be far better achieved by Britain staying inside it and leading the charge of change.

It wasn’t an easy decision, nor one I took lightly. The ramifications of this vote will play out for many years if not decades to come, and I’m not even remotely certain that I’m right in my assessment. In fact, the only thing I am certain about is that we’re now headed for a sustained period of uncertainty.

But mine was at least an honest belief based on careful study of all the facts and shamelessly scare-mongering claims laid before us by both sides.

I have four children and felt acutely conscious as I headed for my local electoral polling center last night that this decision would impact directly on them and their future lives, and those of their children and their children’s children.

This EU Referendum campaign, one of the most vicious, nasty and occasionally hideous in political history, split the British people like no issue I have ever witnessed before.

Many families, mine included, were bitterly divided. My father, sister and youngest brother voted to Leave the EU; my mother, wife and other brother voted to Remain. One of my two voting-age sons went for Remain, the other concluded he wasn’t persuaded by either side.

Passions ran very high and may take a long time to calm back down.

My Remain brother, a British Army officer who has serious concerns about what Brexit might mean for the security of Europe and the UK, actually warned his Facebook friends this morning that if any of them ‘gloated’ over this ‘bloody disaster’ he would never speak to them again. Interestingly, my sister’s husband, until recently also an army colonel, voted Leave.

Now though, it’s done, we are where we are and none of us really knows what will happen next. My guess is that things won’t be as bad as the Remain camp warned us nor as Utopian as the Leave camp promised.

We’ll all ‘keep buggering on’, as Churchill used to say, and it will probably all work itself out, somehow, in the end. Just as it did after World War 2.

More immediately, though, the fact Britain’s quit Europe will have a huge impact on global politics, not least in America which faces its own general election in November.

As the EU result came in, by eerie coincidence (though he obviously timed it deliberately to maximise publicity for the launch of his new golf course), Donald Trump flew into Scotland.

Trump and Vladimir Putin were the only two world political figures who publicly stated their support for Brexit.

So it was unsurprising to hear the Republican presidential nominee say how happy he was that Britons had ‘taken back their country’.

The parallels between Trump’s campaign and that waged by Brexit leaders Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are obvious.

All three men are all anti-politicians, in the sense that they don’t behave or speak like conventional politicians. Their joint modus operandi is shooting from the hip and saying outrageous things to grab media attention.

They crack inappropriate jokes, belittle opponents often in a very puerile way, and have all been variously dismissed as ‘buffoons’and ‘idiots’ and even compared to Hitler.

But they share unshakeable self-confidence and have skilfully presented themselves as outsiders far removed from the political elite and ‘establishment’, who stand up for the average man and woman in the street.

They’ve also focused with laser-like, ruthless precision on hot button issues which they know many of those people are genuinely worried about, notably immigration and terrorism.

At his presser in Scotland this morning, Trump said: ‘People are angry all over the world. They’re angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over and nobody even knows who they are. They’re angry about many, many things in the UK. It’s essentially the same thing that’s happening in the United States.’

Regardless of what you think of Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, and his uncompromising talk of walls and bans, does anybody really doubt after this shock Brexit result that he’s right about the levels of anger?

It may not be obvious to the political and media elites living in their hallowed, protected homes in privileged areas.  But travel to the north of England, or to the middle of America, and you will find very real fury with government and very real concern over the impact of perceived immigration control failures.

There’s an increasing large gulf between the politically correct ‘cool’ and ‘establishment’ crowd who view any publicly stated concern about border controls as ‘racism’, and those who have to live at the sharp end of it.

The clear message from this sensational day for any politician or world leader is this: ignore the concerns of the people at your peril.

Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron assumed, arrogantly and patronisingly, that he would win this referendum by relying on the tried and tested vote-winning issue of the economy. But he seriously misjudged the mood of the nation.

In fact, it was immigration and ‘getting our country back’ which won it for the Brexiters.

Donald Trump is currently behind Hillary Clinton in most presidency polls, betting odds and Wall Street opinion - but so was the Leave camp for much of the EU campaign.

What none of the UK pollsters, bookmakers and city experts realised was there was a huge groundswell of anger which was going to tip the balance away from their presumed favourite.

If it can happen in Britain, it can most definitely happen in America. The issues are the same, and the cheer-leaders for change aren’t that dissimilar either.

SOURCE

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Trump Shows Just How Hard He'll Slam Clinton

It was a pair of dueling speeches, really, attack and counter attack. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton feebly struck at Donald Trump’s economic policies in an attempt to discredit the real estate mogul’s past experience. The next day, Donald Trump made a speech designed to take on Clinton’s experience as secretary of state, her “best” résumé item for the presidency. “The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars — and unleashed ISIS across the world,” said the presumed GOP nominee. “No secretary of state has been more wrong, more often and in more places than Hillary Clinton. Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.”

As several commentators noted, this may very well be Trump’s best strategy to unite the Republican Party after the divisive primary: Focus the firepower on Clinton. Hot Air’s Allahpundit writes, “If he had stuck to this message at his rallies and in his interviews over the last six weeks, there’d be no ‘Dump Trump’ contingent at the convention and his fundraising may well have taken off. Nothing unites the right, after all, like a forceful argument against the left.”

And there was plenty for Trump to slam — even without touching on the Clintons' personal lives. “Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft,” Trump said. He even found fault in her campaign slogan: “Her campaign slogan is, ‘I’m with her.’ You know what my response to that is? I’m with you: the American people.” By the time Trump is done with her, Clinton’s only accomplishment, if she’s elected, will be that she’s a woman. And as commentator David Limbaugh notes, what accomplishment is that for the Left, which thinks gender is subject to change?

SOURCE

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