GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – Two Results And A Foreboding
If you’re not interested in politics or rugby then you probably got more sleep than I did last night.
New Zealand’s resounding 46-14 win over Ireland in the Rugby World Cup took our team one step further towards achieving their goal.
The 322-306 vote in the British House of Commons forcing Boris Johnson to seek yet another Brexit delay however, was a backward step for the British financiers backing the Leave campaign because they don’t like the EU’s determination to make banking more transparent.
My foreboding?
While many of our own politicians are rubbing their hands in anticipation that Britain leaving the EU would meanus selling more of our exports to the UK , I worry about the money deals that are now embedded in such ‘Free Trade’ agreements.
Boris is struggling to get his new Brexit deal over the line, but if he is successful you can expect City of London financiers to immediately start looking around to see how much money they can make by plundering the economies of the world.
New Zealand is very much on their hit list.
Why? Because Britain is keen to join the CPTPP of which we are a member and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already said his country would welcome the UK into that 11 country ‘Free ‘Trade deal with “open arms”
There’s nothing “free” about these deals. They come at a cost – to our sovereignty , our independence and yes, even our identity; because the more that others own us, they less we own ourselves.
So.. Go the All Blacks!
Beware of Boris.
Stay tuned.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Why do you think the EU wants to make banking more transparent than the London banks do Bryan? I’m not saying you are wrong but I would like to understand the reasoning. It was the governor of the Bank of England that provided the most up to date and revealing explanation of how banking and banks work a few years ago when he made the point in a report that advancing loans and handling deposits are two completely unrelated banking activities with no interdependence. Since removed from the BOE website but still available online.
What else is there to know?
I don’t see that much scope for us selling our surplus ag production to the UK in the near future; their farmers are stressing out because they expect to lose their EU markets.
An interesting transition for Britain if they are so keen to get out of one nationalism suffocating trading block in order to get straight into another. I suppose it is more attractive and more remunerative to be a bigger fish in a smaller puddle; one where you can call the shots.
All over the world both opposite moves are trending. While the US is moving toward isolation from China and most of the rest of the world through sanctioning countries left and right on the one hand , and putting up tariffs all over the place on the other countries are being forced into self sufficiency to survive. A bloody good thing for national security and for the environment as far as I can see in the long run. I am sure that the vast majority of world trade is grossly wasteful of resources and efficient only by exploitation of poor people and poor countries, and only apparently profitable via distorted exchange rates.
We live in interesting times.
D J S