[beninvalencia]

This is also a very astute comment I think. The EU and those with interests that are similar will need to increase scaremongering even more to try and prevent other countries from leaving the EU. I wonder what will happen at Greece's next bailout/imposed conditions breaking point...

[WillPostForFood]

Increased scaremongering to try and force countries to stay seriously risks having the opposite effect. Look at it like employee retention. Are you going to call everyone into a meeting and yell at them and tell them will be unemployable if they leave, or maybe a better strategy would be to offer some flex time and a couple extra vacation days.

[andrewstuart2]

Anecdotally, the things that have made me most likely to stay at a job is seeing a few high-profile people leave, only to come back with horror stories about their other jobs.

I honestly believe I work for an amazing company so the metaphor may not be perfect, but if you want to increase confidence temporarily you could certainly try to manufacture these circumstances. In my case I think they're genuine, which does actually give me significant pause any time I think about how much of a raise I might get, or where else I might go.

[danielmorozoff]

This is precisely the case. The integrity of the entire block is now in question as any trade with the U.K. Will now jeopardize some interests internal to the eu. Nationalism is inevitable. Let's hope this does not culminate in war.

[ZenoArrow]

War? Steady on there fella, NATO isn't under threat. People seem to forget that it's NATO that represents our military alliance, not the EU.

[danielmorozoff]

pre-WWI / WWII had its fair share of military alliances. None of those alliances were threatened and we know how that turned out.

Imho I think the threat of greater force does not prevent nations from taking drastic actions when pushed against a wall.

Civil unrest is caused by large unemployment especially of the young, which in turn leads to nationalistic and isolationist policies breeding bigotry and violence that are seized upon by demagogues. These are warning signs of something to come. The weird thing is they seem to be popping up all over both in eastern and western europe over the course of the last decade.

The US election in turn I think will definitely tilt the balance. From what i have seen it is not looking good on this side of the pond either.

[ZenoArrow]

I agree with you that high unemployment leads to civil unrest, and you can only hope that trustworthy individuals can fill the power vacuum that leads to. It's not a completely hopeless situation, you've got groups like Podemos in Spain pushing forward, and I think the likes of Corbyn in the UK and Sanders in the US represent the interests of the working class and middle class of their respective countries (even if Sanders doesn't get elected, he seems to be inspiring more people to get involved in the political process to push for the things that benefit the majority).

As for isolationism leading to war, I think this I think has been blown out of proportion. Of course in extreme examples it can happen, but I'd suggest at most we'd be looking at Australian-style economic protectionism rather than North Korean-style isolationism.

[danielmorozoff]

I do not want to seem like the guy holding the doomsday banner. I totally agree with you that there are still ways of righting the ship and isolationism is not a contract for war, I am simply pointing out that the similarity to what we have seen in history before is uncanny and we must heed those warnings.

To avoid sounding cliche, I hope we remember history...

[mcv]

The scaremongering is exactly the thing that has to stop. It's undermining the EU. A European Union of Fear doesn't work.

The EU simply has to ensure its rules are sensible and fair, and offer the UK a fair deal. The UK will still be better off than non-EU countries, but not as good as EU members. Members who want the full benefits will stay.

[cm2187]

The public opinion that will be the most hostile to the next Greek bailout is the German opinion (French and Italians support it because they think sooner or later it will be their turn). I don't think the Germans are hostile to the EU yet. But if that happens it is the end of the EU.