UK leaves EU

[Algarus]

Earlier today the citizens of the UK voted to leave the European Union by a vote of 51% to 49%. David Cameron also resigned from his position as Prime Minister and world markets are in flux as investors try and get a grasp on this utter shock to many. I'm just curious on everyone thinks about this event, weither this could possibly hold long term consequences for Europe as a whole and what this could mean for the future of the EU.

 

[Outlander]

Huh.

 

[Algarus]

Huh.

Did I do this thread wrong?

 

[Nor'baal]

It was a total catastrophe, and has placed this country on the path to economic ruin. My generation has been screwed over by people who have no idea what it is like to be starting out in the real world.

I am honestly devastated at the result, and horrified that people in the UK fell for the lies and voted to leave.

 

[Eccles]

I'm just curious on everyone thinks about this event, weither this could possibly hold long term consequences for Europe as a whole and what this could mean for the future of the EU.

The detrimental effects to the EU would be minimal, I believe. The UK had its own currency and them leaving the EU opens the doors to Scotland and Northern Ireland becoming independent to join the EU, it sounds farfetched, but it's been said to be an option. It'll take the UK some time to officially leave the EU and during that period we'll probably see a lot of shifts in regards to the economy. New trade agreements must be drafted asap, but there's no guarantee that it won't be cheaper for companies to leave the UK and settle somewhere else in the EU if Europe is their main customer base.

Regardless of what I, or anyone believes, we'll have to wait and see.

EDIT: to expand on Norbs: It's indeed true that the people voting for leave were generally 60+ and those who wanted to remain 18-32. Painful, for sure.

 

[FinnSimmons]

It was a total catastrophe, and has placed this country on the path to economic ruin. My generation has been screwed over by people who have no idea what it is like to be starting out in the real world.

I am honestly devastated at the result, and horrified that people in the UK fell for the lies and voted to leave.

Somehow I am not really surprised they did vote leave.

I do hope Brussles realizes that something is wrong with the way they do things and starts to change somewhat drastically but I also hope they take no half measures and treat the UK as the quitter they democratically decided to be.
Shows you the flaw in the system doesn't it? If information isn't shared propperly, if people are lied to and missinformed then bad decisions will be made. Fear is a bad advisor in times like these. I would have expected more levelheadedness in the whole thing. Then again Boris Johnson does look like Trump to me.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

[6/24/16, 12:55:10 AM] Laurent: i don’t believe in democracy
[6/24/16, 12:55:12 AM] Laurent: any more
[6/24/16, 12:55:13 AM] Laurent: LOOL
[6/24/16, 12:55:34 AM] Brandon Rhea: I believe
[6/24/16, 12:55:36 AM] Brandon Rhea: that Darth Sidious
[6/24/16, 12:55:38 AM] Brandon Rhea: had a point
[6/24/16, 12:55:39 AM] Brandon Rhea: LOL

 

[Clayton]

Scotland, which the entirety of voted Remain, has effectively said they're leaving the UK. This is going to be interesting.

 

[Logan]

What was the impetus for the UK's decision to leave?

 

[Nor'baal]

Immigrants takin' ur jurbs, and BLADDY FORIGENERS making OUR BLADDY LAWS!

 

[Reya Starlyght]

Immigrants takin' ur jurbs, and BLADDY FORIGENERS making OUR BLADDY LAWS!

Wait, is this really this reason?

I'll be honest I know absolutely nothing to about this topic.

 

[Nor'baal]

Core arguments for leave:

• Immigrants
• The EU makes to many laws
• Immigrants

 

[Logan]

Core arguments for leave:

• Immigrants
• The EU makes to many laws
• Immigrants

The UK is trending dangerously close to 'MURCA logic there.

 

[Clayton]

Core arguments for leave:

• Immigrants
• The EU makes to many laws
• Immigrants

"It will be the economically more sound decision."

*Pound plummets in value*

"BELIEVE IN BRITAIN!"


EDIT:

A nifty map, courtesy of the BBC, showing how the UK voted. Orange is Remain, Blue is Leave.

 

[Officiant]

I'm both the eternal optimist and the eternal Euroskeptic so I really only believe that this can be a good thing long term. As an American (my multitude of passports not withstanding) though, I won't have to play the waiting game of Britain's future which will take at least two years to determine. In that time a lot could change, the battling with the EU over an exit plan and treaty negotiations could be especially acrimonious or if they follow the best exit plans laid down a few years ago, things might go smoothly if they are able to stick to that vision as a matter of public record.

To my mind the only real threat to Britain is not independence from the EU but Scottish Independence. A second referendum is a highly volatile element that will have to be decided very, very soon if they want to leave before Britain leaves the EU which could be as early as fall 2018, leaving them precious little time to organize a referendum and if they win, secede, all while the British government is preparing for a different shake-up. The SNP wanted a firm 2 year deadline for independence if they won last time so the vote would need to be soon (which requires the consent of the British parliament). Is an Independence win likely? I think so, considering the arguments made for Scotland remaining in the last referendum but polls have indicated that Scots really don't want a second referendum, not as much as the Quebecois don't want a third referendum, but enough that they might be weary of having to go to the polls to decide their region's fate for a third time in a row.

 

[BLADE]

It was a total catastrophe, and has placed this country on the path to economic ruin. My generation has been screwed over by people who have no idea what it is like to be starting out in the real world.

I am honestly devastated at the result, and horrified that people in the UK fell for the lies and voted to leave.

"The economy" isn't some kind of bloodless technocratic field on which certain inputs have an inarguable outcome. A weak pound, for example, may well benefit local industrial capitalists --who will also enjoy marginally greater room of maneuver outside of the EU in terms of labor repression. Universities may benefit from the diminished leverage grad students and non-tenured professors will enjoy once freedom of movement is curtailed as another example.

Neither of these are particularly good outcomes nor do they speak the Brobdingnagian mendacity of Camp Leave (which is not to say that Camp Remain was any better), but there is a very real logic to Leave's arguments, leaving aside the distance between the desensitized rage of its constituent voters and the swaggering cruelty and Little England hubris of its inbred, chinless self-appointed representatives (Boris wot went to a European school, don't you know?)

I also don't particularly mourn the fracturing of the EU. The processes behind it ultimately are far more significant and germane than even the most punchable Farage face (and there is a veritably farraginous selection). Nor am I impressed with the hoary (and as always with liberalism --useless) exhortations of the EU's inherent beneficence or internationalism.

Treacle. The EU is, was, and shall remain repressive. Just not, I suspect, in the way the "shopkeepers" and "regular people" Boris and Nigel (and good lord, don't those names just sound like some kind of Alan Moore-ism; one can just imagine Farage as a sort of confidence man for Norsefire or the like ) conjured up during the campaign believe it is.

P.S. The faux-Left in Britain got its wish as far as Cameron (another chinless mediocrity) getting the broom. That's another aspect of this the media is ignoring: the culpability of the official parties from the ostensible Labour "left" and its parasitic satellites to the official centre-right. Cameron, if you'll recall gambled on this referendum as a way to shore up his leadership. Just another example of the short-sighted, cynical, and truly idiotic jactitations that pass for contemporary statesmanship.

P.P.S. I do sympathize with my British friends. From my time at Uni there I knew folks who needed free travel to do their work in classics, or sociology or mathematics. Rotten luck, but I suppose if England (Scotland will be leaving) is intent on doing its best impression of Guadalajara-by-the-Thames (though North) Britons might consider brushing up on their French, Italian, or German. I suspect Europe's own economic malaise will have a way of sharpening any offers of marriage for a blue and gold passport.

 

[Kaane]

I'm just sitting here roiling in my godless anarchist rage hoping this will end up completely dissolving the EU, leaving a power vacuum large enough for Russia and China to do something bold enough to raise the ire of the United States and plunge the entire world into a third Great War.


























Yes I'm kidding dammit, what's wrong with you

 

[Cheshire]

Scotland, which the entirety of voted Remain, has effectively said they're leaving the UK. This is going to be interesting.

Nicola played her cards well, GG Nicola, GG

GOOO INDEPENDENCE!!!!

 

[Officiant]

Nicola played her cards well, GG Nicola, GG

GOOO INDEPENDENCE!!!!

I've always been ambivalent about Scottish Independence, I really don't see the rationale since the Scots barely form a "nation" in the firm sense but to each his own, I am a firm supporter of self-determination with precedent. However, the EU is unlikely to ever accept Scotland in as a member without changing the rules. Scotland doesn't meet EU budget criteria as an independent state and with the combined shock of England not being in the EU and Scotland not being in the UK, the flow of English money that Scotland has more or less subsisted on without their oil profits, will be gone. Scotland would become the northern equivalent of Moldavia.

Not to mention that Scotland is unlikely to accept the Euro (which they would have to do if they rejoined). Still, as I said before, anything is possible and Scottish independence, even without EU membership, would be a serious blow to the UK.

 

[Aberforth]

While there are definitely pros and cons to the European Union, what I think is the most concerning is that older people seem to have made a decision alone that will affect the lives of younger generations for the years to come. Also, I was astonished to learn that most people don't seem to know what they have voted for. In the hours following the announcement that the eurosceptic had won the referendum, the most researched terms on Google accros the United Kingdoms where "What is the European Union?" and "What are the consequences of leaving the European Union?" It worries me as a strong advocate of direct democracy which referendums are an exemple of.