petitefrancaise

Are you really so unbelievably naiive? Do you really think this is about Britain anymore? Britain is now an irrelevance. The EU will re-group and go on. To use the divorce metaphor... the marriage has ended, put it out of its misery as quickly as possible. Britain wants a "go slow"? Britain lost the right to dictate anything in the EU last night.

dc koop

You might be glad enough to get back into that club again in five years. The only one I admire in this whole rotten business is David Cameron who also seems to be one of the very few who foresaw the consequences of leaving since the pound now has dropped to around 1.30 against the dollar for s start. There's also the matter of pensions being slashed. jobs lost even a recession created by this whole stupid move.

I listened to Cameron's speech. It was short but dignified and gracious and he did the right thing by resigning. I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

I think the US, Canada and the other Commonwealth countries should offer fast track resident visas to anyone in the UK who is educated enough to be an asset to another country.

As for America it wont take but a year for Washington to just step around the UK and establish close economic ties in a new special relationship with Germany

FlaviusAetius

It seems that the poorer and less-educated areas of the UK - except for Scotland and NI - voted most strongly for Leave: The areas and demographics where the Brexit vote was won | News | The Guardian
The richer and better-educated areas voted Remain.

Does this suggest that the poor, working-class people saw little value in an EU that allowed waves of immigrants to come in and take their jobs and/or drive down wages, or allow their employers to decamp for China - especially when these events never seem to affect the rich? If so, could it be that they at least thought they were voting their own economic interests?

Some here have suggested that they were stupid or idiots and that they didn't know what they were voting for. Perhaps we need to re-institute property ownership, poll taxes and literacy tests to ensure that only well-to-do and well-educated people would be voting and correctly deciding the important issues of the day...oh wait, can't do that anymore!

petitefrancaise

Apparently, if the vote had gone the other way with similar results Farage would have called for another referendum. Strangely enough, he's being quiet on this now.

No, it's not called a dictator - it's called being a leader. I wish with all my heart that the UK had had one that would have gone with this result to Brussels and negotiated like mad to come back with concessions to appease the UK. I loathed Thatcher but she would have used this for the benefit of the UK and not walked away with her tail between her legs.

LondonSquirrel

Whatever, just like what they said about how we were shooting ourselves in the foot to not join the Euro or Schlengen. Anyway I don't think we'll be the only ones to leave. How will they like their precious club when it consists of only Germany and Scotland lol? Seems they were desperate for us to stay but not bothered enough to give Cameron a better deal at the negotiating table.

petitefrancaise

Do you know anything at all about Europe apart from what you've read in the DailyFail?

Schlengen.......

Giantaxe

I agree that the is likely what they were voting on. However, jobs going to China etc has nothing to do with the EU. We see exactly the same debate here, for example. On immigrants, it's not a zero sum game. Most studies indicate that immigrants to the UK have a net positive effect on the economy. That doesn't mean, however, that some are more adversely affected by immigration than others. But perhaps the example of Sunderland is illustrative: there's a place that's benefited from Nissan placing an EU-domiciled factory in its midst - with the knock on effect of suppliers clustering near them - and yet it voted overwhelmingly for Brexit.

I think precisely one person has suggested that and it wasn't me. It is, however, true that people with more education were likely to vote remain, which I presume is closely related to people's economic situation.

Giantaxe

What could they plausibly have given Cameron that would have satisfied the Brexiters?

petitefrancaise

According to eldest...... civics class would have helped stop this madness. The general population is indeed ignorant and it's not their fault. I had several FB rants with friends who had no idea how the EU worked. They were parroting the words of the leave party.

petitefrancaise

Can't wait to see the faces of the anti-immigration mob when the calais refugee camps are moved to the new UK border......Kent.

At the moment, the UK border is Calais. Post-Brexit, it's across the channel.Don't say they weren't warned.....

riversofblood

The parliamentary democracy thing? I'm shocked and stunned ...

petitefrancaise

What are you talking about? Can you write more than one sentence? Can you write a sentence even - you know with all the requisite parts? with verbs?

themadpooper

Smugly calling those who voted leave thick or racist underscores the arrogance of white middle class types who get all their opinions from the Guardian/Independent/BBC. As someone who grew up on a council estate in a 1 parent family, I know all about being poor. I grew up in London so I also know about diversity and the effects of this on traditional communities when white working class people suddenly find themselves at the back of the queue for everything. No wonder people in Labour areas voted out when the only time anyone pays any attention to them is to call them racists when they vote the wrong way in a referendum

petitefrancaise

I just love the irony of an immigrant going on about well, immigrants taking all the jobs. This makes me laugh almost as much as the airbus wives in France (who couldn't speak a word of french) going on about all the bloody immigrants(to the UK) who don't even bother to learn to speak English.

mrken30

The downgrading of the UK by Moody's is probably going to cost the UK more than it saves by not being in the EU.
Also Iceland and Norway may veto membership to EEA after the way the UK treated Iceland and Norway in 2008 during the banking crisis. Also the UK has a lot of debt.
I have a feeling that after a few years of being independent, there will be talk about joining again, 20 years later the UK will rejoin Europe. The world is getting smaller, and people need to get along, creating borders does not help.