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Brexit will make the UK like Guernsey – So says a French pol

Of all the dire threats, this from the French Economy Minister (there is one? an economy I mean) is the most chilling, since it reminds me of how far we have fallen.

Leaving the European Union would make the UK as significant as Guernsey, France’s economy minister has said

So the rate of income tax would be a standard 20% and there would be no VAT and no Capital Gains or Inheritance Tax? That’s some good deal for being insignificant.

Of course, this 20% tax rate is an anomaly in Guernsey, it was introduced as 4 shillings in the pound (20 shillings per pound/livre) in WW2. Let’s look at some of the measures the Nazis introduced in the occupied Channel Islands.

On arrival in the islands, the Germans issued proclamations imposing new laws on the resident islanders. As time progressed, additional laws restricting rights were posted and had to be obeyed. The restrictions included:

Confiscation of:

weapons (1940)
boats (1940)
radios (1940) then (1942)
motor vehicles (forced sale) (1940)
cameras (1942)
fuel
houses
furniture

Restrictions on:

fishing (1940)
drinking spirits (1940)
exporting goods (1940)
changing prices of goods (1940)
patriotic songs and signs (1940)
more than three people meeting together (1940)
access to beaches
fuel
freedom of speech
access to medicines
some clubs and associations.

Changes to:

drive on right of roads (1941)
rations (1943, 44 & 45)
clocks to German time (1940)

Forced to accept:

curfew (1940)
exchange rate to Reichsmarks (1940)
census (1940)
identity cards (1941)
growing vegetables
food rationing (1940)
increase in income tax to 4/- (1940)
lodgers billeted
German language in schools
Cycling in single file (1941)
work from Germans
censorship

Well we have a long way to fall before that state of affairs, and cycling in double file is by no means discouraged bar some circumstances by the Highway Code, presumably in the hope of causing more accidents.

So let freedom reign, even though the sky (and tax rates) may fall.

And today, I couldn’t help noticing the timing of these sequential adverts on a hoarding in Newcastle.
Remain

and next this:
Greece

12 comments to Brexit will make the UK like Guernsey – So says a French pol

  • Laird

    Great Frog*, those dastardly Germans made those poor Channel Islanders drive on the right side of the road!?! And grow vegetables? Was there no limit to their depravity?

    * Thanks, Julie! 🙂

  • newrouter

    did you know?

    > The principle of subsidiarity plays an important role in the political functioning of the European Union concerning the relationship between the EU governing bodies and the member states.<

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity

    "go tell the banana its 10 feet tall" (jefferson airplane allusion)

  • Mr Ed

    Laird,

    They did have their own version of the European Arrest Warrant, with troublesome Islanders deported to The Continent, some to perish.

    And the Argies in the Falklands also changed the side of the road for driving and introduced compulsory language teaching for their language during their attempt at genocide, until assorted Paratroopers, Marines, Guards and Gurkhas turned up.

    And then again, the US changed the side of the road for driving in Okinawa during its occupation, and this lasted until 1978.

  • Nicholas (Unlicensed Joker!) Gray

    If we just made all streets one-way, it wouldn’t matter! Just make sure that all roads are connected (no dead-ends).

  • The Pedant-General

    ” Scouting was banned, but continued undercover”

    That’s the spirit!

  • Mary Contrary

    Forget the hyperbole about Guernsification, that’s just political propaganda. The real story is this:

    “I believe in Europe, but in its reorganisation,” he [Macron] told RTL radio. “It’s the end of an ultra-liberal Europe that has lost its political direction. The European project cannot only be a system of abolishing rules.”
    He said the debate in Britain was about correcting the effect of ultra-liberal policies “that they pushed us into”.

    That’s a clear statement of political intent from someone in a position to bring it about. Vote Remain on Thursday, and the project of reversing what influence on EU policy Britain has exerted begins on Friday. Says the French Economy Minister.

    That is the real news story here.

  • Following on from Mary Contrary (June 21, 2016 at 9:43 am), the beeb report at ten last night included that Donald Tusk is (very belatedly) trying the same line: just vote remain and of course we’ll reform ourselves. In general, by the standards of the Greg Dyke era, the beeb’s coverage of it was not that bad: their EU editor in Brussels had clearly gone just a bit native but far less than it would have been back then.

    I hope I am not over-sanguine in thinking that, after Tusk’s earlier recent remarks, it would be a very low-information voter who would fall for this stuff.

  • Paul Marks

    Good post.

    I wish we could be like Guernsey – especially Guernsey in the 19th century. Although the 1920s would do.

  • PersonFromPorlock

    Laird
    June 20, 2016 at 11:26 pm

    Great Frog*, those dastardly Germans made those poor Channel Islanders drive on the right side of the road!?! And grow vegetables? Was there no limit to their depravity?

    I have long suspected that Liberals object to some of the things the Nazis did, but don’t find the arbitrary state power they used to do them all that upsetting.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Laird, I was just speaking with the Great Frog and his co-Creator, A Head of Lettuce Named Ralph, importuning them not to put dire hexes upon me for spreading their names about. Especially the former.

    They both said that just this once I shouldn’t worry about it, as they had decided that a little popular recognition might make their lives as the Absolute Masters a little easier (but that this dispensation must be understood as a one-off).

    So I’m sure the G.F. is gratified at your mentioning him in grateful tones. Apparently even Great frogs enjoy a bit of positive press now and then. 😉

  • Laird

    “just this once”

    Julie, I’m confused: Is this one-time dispensation for me or for you? After all, you’re responsible for my invocation of the Supreme Amphibian’s name. So if I do it again are you in trouble? That’s a pretty awesome power you’ve handed me!

  • Julie near Chicago

    Oh, prithee, Sire, take pity upon this unfortunate lass, and speak That Name only with the greatest respect and gratitude.

    Else I shall have to bonk thee upon the noodle with a red-hot cast-iron spider so as to still thy deviltrous tongue, lest its words insult the G.F.’s aural sense, and I be turned inside-out like a John Brunner character. 🙁 🙁 🙁

    For indeed, Sir, the fault would be mine.

    *At least I think it was his creation. Maybe the Maximum Croaker will know.