amideislas

That's just predictable brexit jitters. If it actually goes to a brexit, you can expect up to 20% more "tanking". So don't buy any Sterling until after the referendum.

Unless of course it looks like it's going towards remain, in which case, buy sterling now, while it's low.

magnumpi

It's been around 50-55p to the $$ for ages

jimf

Cheaper roaming charges and avoiding the end of western political civilisation....

Donald Tusk: Brexit could destroy Western political civilisation - BBC News

dave_j

Phone needs charging.....

Shard

The scaremongering from the Remain campaign has been lamentable. It does smack of desperation, but then they are confronted by a mob of emotionally charged nationalistic xenephobes who fail to appreciate the stability and opportunity in the EU.

Oink

Or, they’re simply facing a position that is suggesting that as a nation state it might be preferable not to be part of, or subject to, a supranational authority, and that democracy works better at a local and more direct level rather than one that is centralized and removed.

It also strikes me that if the unrestricted borders were attracting tens of thousands of accountants, doctors, middle mangers and academics etc. then I suspect the word xenophobe would be replaced by the term, informed and involved citizens who are directly expressing and exercising their democratic duty.

Shard

It's one part of the equation, flawed democracy vs other benefits achieved by being a member state. Unfortunately, the general public are not interested in analyses and just ready to "stick it to those tossers in Brussels".

jimf

Dennis skinner and John Mann have declared for leave. Corbyn seems to be luke warm at best...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/11/jeremy-corbyn-under-pressure-with-labour-staff-reduced-to-tears/

Oink

Having read and studied all of the essays that collectively are known as the US Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers I think there are many reasons that UK citizens should rightly be wary that their rights and political efficacy maybe somewhat watered down within in a larger polity.

Novocastrian

Yeah, good one. I suppose having studied all that stuff you'll probably remember that that was about 200 years ago?

Obviously an object lesson for 2016. That sort of thinking in the distant past of your country has resulted in the mess you find yourselves in today. Totally dysfunctional isolationists.

Oink

I believe there are lessons to be learned. A group of sovereign states agreed to consolidate within a federalist framework and as such there has been tension between the exercise of state and national power. As you point out, this also led to some terrible consequences. One can also look at Canadian federalism and see to lesser degree similar tensions between the entities of provincial and federal power. I'm not saying they are exactly the same, of course historical context must be taken into account, but human interaction has faced many of these similar issues regarding power throughout the history of civil society.

Shard

If you do a full tally on politicians and business leaders, the majority are for Remain. Corbyn is being unhelpful, but it's clear that he is indeed lukewarm, no issue with that, he has his own informed opinion. In fact, it's a poorly organised debate from both sides, multiple campaign leaders, erroneous statistics, personal politicking.

If you can catch Hesseltine on Hardtalk he makes some good Remain arguments.

dave_j

Whooosshhh... what was that you said? Straight over my head it went.

I'm afraid that informed arguments are the last thing voters will consider when they cast their votes. What they'll do is listen to what their mates say in the pub, to what that alien planted in your memory, to the dog next door, to the dead budgie in the cage and even the news in german even though they don't speak the language.. in fact they'll take everything into account except anything that makes sense.

It's why the outcome will be a toss up.

Novocastrian

The Gruaniad today reprinted an article that Hugo Young wrote in 1999.

This bit says it all really...

"the anti-Europe cave is claustrophobic. It is also being refilled (for we have been here before) with futile arrogance, making it obligatory not merely to criticise Brussels but abominate the Germans, laugh about the French, find nothing good to say about another European country, lest this betray our beleaguered sense of Britishness. A smart-ass headline writer in the Sun can get attention when the BBC finds an item of punning xenophobia so funny as to be worth a mention in the news.

At the heart of this is an impenetrable contradiction in the anti-Europe British mind. It cannot decide between terror and disdain. Britain is apparently so great, as well as so different, a place that she can afford to do without her continental hinterland. But she is so puny, so endangered, so destined to lose every argument with the continentals, that she must fear for her identity if and when she makes the final commitment to belong among them."

Pulaski

Both sides seem to have started with a decision, then collected "evidence" to support that decision. This is no less true of Hesseltine, who has been obsessed with integrating the UK with Europe for at least the past thirty years. No matter how persuasive his arguments, I would take them with a very large pinch of salt.