The Politics of Brexit

Dr. Jack Caravelli was a guest on Secure Freedom Radio this week with Frank Gaffney. Caravelli served in the CIA and on the White House National Security Council. He is also the author of “The Age of Hatred: Islam, Iran and the New Middle East.”

Gaffney asked Caravelli for his thoughts on Brexit:

“So far this year I’ve made five trips to London, so I think I’m in touch with what’s been going on and seeing the arc of public opinion, since January. The shock to the system, as it were, as reflected in all the papers that act as if the sky is falling, simply was the expectation that although the vote was expected to be close, that the majority would vote to remain in the EU, and as you know Frank, that’s exactly what did not happen. Now we are into historic, unprecedented territory. There’s never been a nation that’s voted to leave the European Union, but I think the reasons for that are not hard to find. I think some of that goes back to, you know, a real growing sense of frustration among the majority of UK voters, that the EU was not serving their interests.”

Caravelli claims that a British official recently told him that fifty percent of the laws the UK has to enforce come from the EU, not British Parliament. He suggested this, combined with economic problems, out of control migration and other factors led to the frustration which produced the vote.

Gaffney suggested that there is a desire by some here and in the UK to punish Britain fro voting to leave the EU. Caravelli agreed:

“Certainly, in some quarters if you read the statements coming out of different nations on the continent, I think that if those in France, Germany or elsewhere would try to impose quote unquote any punishments on the UK for the vote, that would be extremely shortsighted, totally unhelpful to all sides and I think among other things, as you were implying, it certainly could backfire on the punishers, simply because not only in the UK is there deep concern about how the EU operates and the heavy handed way that it tries to govern its members. So, you know, we are seeing now the UK vote might only be the tip of the iceberg.”

Gaffney brought up the parallels between the Brexit and sentiments in the United States as suggested by Donald Trump and asked Caravelli to comment:

“I think the parallels are not perfect, they’re not exact but I think Trump makes a valid point… The parallels do exist, beginning with, as you mentioned, the immigration problem. It’s a very sore point for the Brits, has been in all my visits, I keep hearing the same things from people on all sides of the political spectrum. They realize there is deep concern about the growing Muslim population in the UK.”

Caravelli went on to suggest that style aside, Trump has definitely hit a nerve in America by bringing the issue to the political debate.

Finally, Gaffney asked Caravelli if there’s a chance that the UK could break up over this and he said there’s a 50/50 chance that Scotland could leave the UK to join the EU.