I opened the week with Julia Hartley-Brewer on talkRADIO to discuss two escalating situations — the looming serious problems for the UK if there is “No Deal” over a Brexit departure from the European Union, and Donald Trump’s Twitter fuming over the Trump-Russia investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The discussion begins with an explanation of the economic challenges, including disruption of supply lines for food and medicine, if Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 with no trade arrangements. It also notes how economic crisis has given way to political manipulations, including discussions between hard-right former White House advisor Steve Bannon and the camps of three leading “Brexiteers” — former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage.
What worries me is that the politics around this effort, which has escalated since Donald Trump’s visit to the UK in mid-July, are overtaking economic preparations. Let’s just rip the EU apart, let’s take Prime Minister Theresa May out of power, and the economic consquences be damned.