Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Is it possible that these Brexit pressures are being instigated by people throughout the EU who want to break down/up the EU and they want to start with UK because no one else wants to take the blame?

The Rassemblement National [aka Le Pen's party] officially abandons "Frexit" and a return to the French franc

Europe1 - 14 April 2019

Marine Le Pen will present Monday in Strasbourg her 25 proposals for the European elections. [...] In this program entitled "For a Europe of nations and peoples", the National Gathering made a noticeable change: it does not speak anymore of France exiting the European Union, nor of a return to the franc.

After long months of uncertainty, the position of the RN is now clear: the functioning of the euro area must change, but France should not return to its national currency. Marine Le Pen had also said she understands the concerns of the French people on the subject. Same thing for Frexit: forgotten. From now on, Marine Le Pen defends the revision of the European treaties, notably with the abolition of the European Commission (but the maintenance of the European Council and Parliament). [...]

In its program, the National Gathering also operates a small "greening", inspired by the economist and essayist Hervé Juvin, himself a candidate RN for the European elections. The party proposes zero taxes on short value chains [e.g. from farmers to consummers of food], to tax anti-ecological imports, or to set up a system of "national responsibility for private companies to encourage the virtuous behaviors (no relocations, hiring a national workforce, incentives to use local suppliers and products) ". [...]

‘People’s Voice’ project aimed at escaping shadow of failed 2016 referendum strategy

People’s Vote campaigners are hoping to overhaul the establishment image of the remain campaign and its “project fear” narrative with a mass listening project aimed at informing a future referendum campaign.

The campaign for a fresh Brexit referendum has been holding People’s Voice events for leave and remain voters and plans to expand these in an attempt to identify common concerns.

The events were launched in January by the Labour MP Jess Phillips and have been held in leave-voting towns, including Grimsby and Sunderland, as well as remain towns and cities such as Glasgow and Brighton.

The project is understood to be seeking to run a different campaign to the widely criticised remain operation before the 2016 referendum.

Sources suggested campaigners wanted to “learn the lessons” of that campaign. They also hoped to convince sceptical Labour MPs that a second referendum would not necessarily be divisive, and could even allow the party to take charge of a changed narrative linked to big issues such as climate change and austerity.

In a report looking at the impact of events so far, a key concern cited by both leave and remain voters was fear about falsehoods being fed to voters by politicians, including the remain campaign’s “project fear” and the far-fetched promises made by the leave campaign.

Other worries voiced on both sides of the Brexit divide included a decline of patriotism, rising inequality, climate change and insecure work.

Bridget Phillipson, the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, said a new referendum campaign would need “a more respectful, honest conversation about this whole issue”.

She said an event she had hosted in Sunderland had proved the Brexit debate need not be acrimonious. “We can agree on the facts and the challenges our country faces even if we disagree on the solutions,” she said.

“I know there are divisions in this country and passionately held views on all sides of the Brexit debate, but I believe we’ll do far better talking about them than sweeping them under the carpet. A final-say referendum can be different from 2016: it can start a conversation that’s long overdue about the things that really matter to this country.”
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Is it possible that these Brexit pressures are being instigated by people throughout the EU who want to break down/up the EU and they want to start with UK because no one else wants to take the blame?

No, it is not possible. The UK owns this one.

There are plenty of channels for interests to influence each other throughout the EU.

Once Brexit is established as a precedent, other EU member states will follow.

livinglava wrote:

There are plenty of channels for interests to influence each other throughout the EU.

Bother to name them?

livinglava wrote:

Once Brexit is established as a precedent, other EU member states will follow.

"Brexit" is a portmanteau of "British" and "exit".
The UK signed a letter triggering the process more than two years ago.

Any member country can activated the official mechanism to get out of the European Union - Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

It is an "absolutely priority" for the government to leave the EU by 23 May to avoid having to take part in European elections, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The foreign secretary said the public would find it "hugely disappointing" to be asked to send MEPs to Brussels.

Asked if it could be a disaster for the Tories, he told the BBC "in terms of polling it certainly looks that way".

Some local Tory activists have signalled they will not campaign and regard the polls as a "distraction".

If nationalists throughout the EU wanted to coordinate to effectuate a breakup/breakdown of the EU...

I think it's a proven fact that the Russian troll farms did support Brexit, as they supported Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, the AfD in Germany, and the neofascists in Italy.

Theresa May has written to civil servants saying no-deal preparations must carry on despite a new October deadline for the UK’s exit from the European Union.

An email seen by the Guardian shows that the prime minister has told government staff that plans for crashing out of the EU are necessary and will continue to be signed off by permanent secretaries.

It follows criticism of May’s government for wasting money after it emerged in a leaked email to Sky News that no-deal plans were being “wound down”.

In an email sent to the civil service on Monday, May clarified this point, writing that some no-deal planning would continue. Senior civil servants including the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, would decide which plans could be shelved, the prime minister said.

“On preparations specifically for leaving the EU without a deal, you will rightly be guided by the cabinet secretary and by your own permanent secretaries about continued planning. Necessary preparations for a no-deal outcome must continue, though with sensibly adjusted timescales given the extension we have agreed,” May wrote.
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No 10 is feeling the pressure to pull the plug on Brexit talks with Labour and move to an alternative plan, amid warnings that the opposition is in no hurry for a deal before the European elections.

With talks deadlocked and no sign that the government moving on its red lines, neither the Conservatives or Labour want to appear responsible for the breakdown in discussions.

However, government sources acknowledge Theresa May is under much greater time pressure than Labour, which has little incentive to do a deal before the European and local elections that are likely to result in the Conservatives suffering heavy losses to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.

Ministers and their opposition counterparts are taking part in working groups on some issues this week, but there will be no discussion before Easter on the big issues of a customs union or a confirmatory referendum, making it easy for Labour to reject the prime minister’s overtures so far.

The government’s alternative plan is for MPs to thrash out an acceptable version of May’s deal through a series of votes or by amending the withdrawal bill, but experts said there was barely enough time to do this in the five weeks before the European elections.

Nikki da Costa, formerly the legislative affairs director in No 10, suggested getting the withdrawal bill passed by 22 May would “require a level of legislative aggression from government not seen in this parliament”.

There is also concern in No 10 that Labour may not get behind the plan to let MPs amend the withdrawal bill to find a way forward. Downing Street is worried that if the withdrawal bill were to be voted down before the stage of amendments, May would have to prorogue parliament and start again by bringing it forward with a new session and Queen’s speech, a move also fraught with difficulties given the government’s weakened relationship with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP).

However, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, warned on Monday that a failure to find some way of getting agreement for a deal before the European elections would be “highly, extremely, very, very challenging” for May, suggesting she may struggle to cling on longer as prime minister if that were the case.

“That would be a very serious situation – I don’t pretend otherwise – but we aren’t at that point,” he said, during a visit to Japan. Asked if fighting the elections would be a disaster for the Tories, he told the BBC: “In terms of polling, it certainly looks that way”.

He even suggested the Conservatives may have to go back into talks with the DUP, which has repeatedly rejected May’s withdrawal agreement on account of the backstop that could keep Northern Ireland in a customs union. “We don’t know if they are going to work and it may be that we need to find a way to rebuild the Conservative-DUP coalition,” Hunt said.

Other Conservatives believe the European elections are now all but inevitable, despite May’s claims that they are avoidable. One Conservative MEP told the Guardian that it was “cloud cuckoo land” to think European elections can be avoided at this stage.

Conservative party officials are privately acknowledging the party will lose around half of their MEPs. The party is so concerned about defections to the Brexit party and Change UK that all candidates are being asked to sign legal undertakings that they would resign as MEPs if they were to jump ship for another party.

“They are worried about losing MEPs on both ends of the spectrum. It could be a major embarrassment,” one candidate to become an MEP said.

In response, a Tory party spokesperson said: “As is usual, Conservative candidates are expected to join the Conservative political group.”

From calling a snap election to offering to step down, the prime minister has not only lost but failed to win support for her deal
[...]
Few Conservatives expected Brexit to triumph in the referendum. But the 52% result and May’s elevation to Downing Street changed the picture dramatically.
[...]
The implication that the UK would leave the single market and probably the customs union came as a surprise. May also promised that article 50, which gave the EU two years’ notice of the UK’s intention to quit, would be triggered by the end of March 2017, intended, Wilkins recalls, to reassure the party’s right wing.
[...]
Eurosceptics argue this was the point at which May fell into the hands of the civil service, relying on Heywood and Oliver Robbins, who transferred to No 10 from the Department for Exiting the European Union led by David Davis. Gradually, on the party’s right, a betrayal narrative emerged.
[...]
May’s Brexit deal finally arrived in November and although the Chequers proposal did not feature, arguments returned to the backstop.
[...]
The DUP and the ERG formed a tactical alliance and despite endless talks May could never bring the party around in the following months.
[...]
Something dramatic was needed. May began a bizarre negotiation, primarily with Johnson, and seemed to be edging towards surrendering Downing Street.
[...]
An end, of sorts, was in the air, and a few days later an emotional May told the backbench 1922 Committee if the deal was passed, “I am prepared to leave this job earlier than I intended”. Some of the prime minister’s most persistent critics could scarcely hide their delight, revealing how personal some of the opposition had become.

Her offer, finally, split the ERG. But it was not enough. Figures, such as Rees-Mogg, who had been looking for an opportunity to climb down, said they would vote with the government, but there were still enough diehards to sink the deal.

Baker told colleagues minutes after May’s announcement that he was “consumed with a ferocious rage” and he could bulldoze parliament “into the river”. The MP led 28 hard Brexiters into the division lobby against the deal, joining six Tory remainers and the 10-strong DUP to create a majority of 58 to block it.

May declared “we are now reaching the limits of this process” but this did not mean she was quitting. Instead she embarked on a new, if unlikely, plan to talk to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, about trying to find a way through the Commons because she could no longer rely on her own side.

“It’s a case of Lyndon Johnson’s rule, isn’t it,” one May adviser said ruefully, reflecting on the parliamentary arithmetic. “You have to learn how to count.”

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If nationalists throughout the EU wanted to coordinate to effectuate a breakup/breakdown of the EU...

You mean, like Russian operatives supporting extreme right parties all over Europe for the purpose of breaking down the EU?

I think it's a proven fact that the Russian troll farms did support Brexit, as they supported Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, the AfD in Germany, and the neofascists in Italy.

Nevertheless, the UK has shown strong ownership of their pro-Brexit vote, as they should.

Did you insult anyone?

The Independent Group of MPs who left Labour and the Conservatives earlier this year has successfully registered as a political party named "Change UK" to take part in European Parliament elections next motnh.

The party will launch its European election campaign next week and said it had already received more than 3,700 applications from people wanting to stand as candidates.

It is currently short-listing and interviewing people to whittle the number down to 70 candidates who will contest the elections on 23 May.

The government has said it does not want the UK to take part in the EU elections and insists it can still get a Brexit deal approved by parliament in time to cancel the polls.

But with cross-party talks on Brexit deadlocked and parliament having rejected Theresa May's plan on three occasions, political parties are gearing up to take part in the contest.

Heidi Allen, Change UK's interim leader, asked members of the public to donate money tot he party's campaign.

She said: “This is a fight for Britain’s voice in Europe – and we have been overwhelmed by the thousands of people wanting to roll up their sleeves and join our campaign from every walk of life and every corner of the country.

“Change UK – The Independent Group have a clear message in the European elections: we demand a People’s Vote and, if it is held, all our MPs will campaign to remain in and reform the European Union.

“We will announce our MEP candidates at a launch event Tuesday next week. But we need more help to fix our broken politics, so we’ll be setting up our European Election Fighting Fund on our website to give us a chance to compete with the big established political parties. We are David, and they are Goliath - but we can do this together.”