Chapter 824 Brexit?
On October 5, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, passed away due to illness.
It can be said that Jobs has been fighting against illness over the years. Of course, it is also because he has enough resources that he can persist until now. If it were an ordinary person, such as pancreatic cancer With a terminal illness, it is impossible to live for so many more years.
After Jobs, Apple has entered the Cook era. He will continue to run Apple and move towards the goal of becoming the world's most valuable and most profitable mobile phone company.
But Barron understands that after Jobs’s death, Apple will gradually lose their ability to innovate. Until Barron is reborn, Apple’s mobile phones can still only be regarded as “resting on their laurels” and rely on their loyalty. The fan base and the suppression of Huawei by the United States have allowed Apple's success to continue.
On this day, Barron learned of the death of Jobs after a private meeting with Cameron.
Although he did not have much contact with Jobs, and Jobs was criticized in many aspects, it has to be admitted that in terms of business and design, Jobs was a genius.
Therefore, he could not help but feel emotional about the death of Steve Jobs.
Currently, Cameron’s main focus is on reducing British government spending. In this meeting, the two talked about the European debt crisis, and the somewhat sensitive topic of British There is a growing interest in society to leave the European Union.
In fact, Britain's European policy has always been quite controversial in the country, and both the public and the political elite are divided on this issue.
Historically, Britain was initially dismissive of France and Germany's launch of European unity after World War II.
When the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, marking the start of the European integration process, Britain was not involved.
It was not until 1973 that Britain decided to join the European Community in order to share the benefits of the growing European Common Market.
Then in the early 1990s, when European countries negotiated the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which laid the foundation for monetary integration, the then Prime Minister John Major ignored the "Eurosceptics" within the Conservative Party. ” opposed and signed the treaty - this caused unprecedented divisions in the Conservative Party and indirectly led to the Conservative Party being in opposition for many years.
While the Labor Party was in power, although Britain joined the EU, it was still wary of European integration due to the strong Eurosceptic sentiment among the people.
Although the UK signed the Maastricht Treaty, it did not participate in the Eurozone...
The UK also did not sign the Schengen Agreement that was later established to further promote the common market...
Then when signing the "Lisbon Treaty", it asked for "exceptional rights" in the fields of justice, social policy and other fields...
Until recently, after the European debt crisis, the Conservative Party returned to power The government is even openly glad that Britain has not joined the euro zone.
Specifically, during the evolution of the European debt crisis, objectively speaking, Britain and the United States stood together and took an attitude of adding insult to injury to the crisis.
Therefore, it seems that Britain's European policy of "coming from outside" the EU puts it in danger of being increasingly marginalized in EU affairs.
At the same time, the British government's European policy has also made domestic Euroscepticism increasingly intense.
According to the latest polls, more than 75% of British people want to hold a referendum to decide whether to remain in the EU. During this meeting, Cameron told Barron that he had recently received a letter from some Conservative MPs, in which they believed that the price paid by Britain for EU membership was too high...
In his recent external stance, Cameron also stated that he would not rule out deciding whether to leave Europe through a referendum...
Of course, Barron understands that Cameron’s statement not only serves the purpose of appeasing the people and the “Eurosceptics” in the party, but also uses it to “blackmail” the EU into doing more in dealing with relations with Britain. Intention to give in.
However, Barron knows that after the impact of the European debt crisis, although the EU still cares about whether Britain remains in the EU, it will no longer make concessions to Britain's special requirements.
In response to Cameron’s recent statement, Krischbaum, Chairman of the European Committee of the German Bundestag, said in an interview:
“Britain intends to leave the EU, or is trying to break away from the EU in some special areas. It is obviously not suitable for the current situation..."
In fact, both Barron and Cameron know one thing very well, that is, once Britain withdraws from the EU, it will cause great harm to Britain itself. Much more than the harm to the EU.
And in terms of Barron's own interests, he does not want Britain to eventually choose to leave the EU due to a referendum like in previous lives.
After all, he has plans in various European countries, and the European market is also very important to his industry-Britain can either choose to be deeply bound to the United States, or it needs to rely on the European Union to expand its business. Outside of the United States, make a difference...
Having experience in his previous life, Barron knew that choosing the former path would not bring much benefit to England, and would instead become a pawn of the United States.
But he also knows that if things continue as they are now, there is still a high probability that the outcome of Brexit will come true.
There are also reasons for this in British domestic politics - the current reality is that some members of the Conservative Party are actively clamoring for a referendum in order to cater to public opinion.
The Labor Party, which has become an opposition party, may also propose a referendum on whether to stay in the EU before the next general election in order to split the Conservative Party.
The result is that although neither party leader wants Britain to leave the EU, such a referendum is almost inevitable.
In addition, once it is confirmed that a referendum will be held to decide whether to leave the European Union, the United States will inevitably use various methods to influence the British people, so as to achieve the purpose of causing Britain to leave the European Union and weakening Europe.
Barron will naturally try his best to avoid this situation.
In Barron's previous life, Britain finally voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in 2016, and then officially left the European Union in 2020 after stumbling.
After Brexit, deep barriers formed between the UK and Europe, which not only affected its trade, but also pushed up the cost of living for its domestic people, and blocked the flow of talents between it and Europe, which has a negative impact on the UK. caused a great negative impact.
At the same time, this result also forced Britain to move closer to the United States. However, the way the United States acted later did not benefit Britain. Instead, it needed to support the United States' decisions in many aspects...
This has to be said to be a bad move, and it was also caused by the chaotic political situation in England.
So from now on, Barron will try his best to avoid this outcome.
(End of this chapter)