United Kingdom as we know it is over

[NIrishGuy]

We haven't quite split apart just yet abang, I think you'll find that's the prospective Prime Minister of the UK or Great Britain and Northern Ireland if you prefer, but definitely not just England ( much to some Scottish peoples annoyance still it seems  

[firecat69]

What do you think N Ireland will do. With little knowledge I would guess they'd love to leave GB and join European Union.

 

I don't even know if that is possible??

[Alexx]

The Celtic Union will be a member of the EU, easy.

[NIrishGuy]

Well the official answer is that N.Ireland is part of the U.K. And so it will do just the same as the rest of the U.K. In implementing the break away from the EU ( assuming it happens).

 

As to what others ( including some politicians and even "some" of the public here might like to think what might happen such as in the drawing above well they can all think it but as things stand the official answer above is what's going to happen.

 

As to what might happen in the future sometime I honestly have no idea just now but my guessing is the first option is the one that will stick. ( for now) as I can't see any other ( peaceful) way of changing that here just yet - but who knows maybe that'll change some day and who knows maybe this event will cause the shift that could change perceptions in N.Ireland re the rest of Ireland - but my best guess is not - certainly for now anyway, but who knows what the future holds I guess.

[Guest abang1961]

After listening to BBC reports, I really pity the people in UK.

Two of the staunchest Brexit figures have decided to quit the race to be the next PM.

They did all the stir-ups and leave UK in bits and pieces. leaving the matter to the next PM.

Good thing came from Theresa May.  

She said the papers and the quitting won't be signed/commenced this year.

 

Now as of today, the English pound is worth $1.75 SGD, a very far cry than what it was a month ago.

When I was a kid, I use to pay $4.50 per English pound for those C & G books...

Yes, those were the days.

 

Song dedication time.  Today, it's another Mary Hopkins.

Aptly entitled "Goodbye" 

 

[Guest]

After listening to BBC reports, I really pity the people in UK.

 

The BBC are a bunch of hopelessly biased pro EU lefties. Listening to them is not recommended.

[KhorTose]

The BBC are a bunch of hopelessly biased pro EU lefties. Listening to them is not recommended.

I usually agree with you.  Yes, it is your country, but Brexit was as dumb as our election of George W. Bush.  Come on Z you can't trust the BBC as they are all pro union and biased,.  You can;'t trust the press for the same reason, and reporters only pick out the dumb Brexit supporters to interview. You really believe this?  You do recognize how this sounds like it is coming from our Donald Trump. It should be obvious that the people who you cannot trust are people like Farage and Johnson who walk away from the problem they were instrumental in creating.

  I like Irish's map above, but recent anthropology has call the Celts, "people joined together by culture and tradition", rather then a distinct genetic grouping.  Ireland would gain much by getting Northern  Ireland but I do not see the advantage in either Ireland or Scotland to join together, when they can remain separate states in the Union.  Would love to hear more from Irish and Scotty on this.  Forget Gibraltar, no way is she going back to the border hassles Spain would and could re-impose on her.  Soon you will get a request to kindly remove that airbase.   Where are your new markets coming from without the Union.  You are now going alone against predatory countries like China and the USA.  Good Luck.  

[Guest]

The Gibraltar situation is easily fixed.  If Spain blocks the border to Gibraltar, we should apply the same restrictions to people moving between the UK and Spain. So Spain will lose a lot of tourist trade.   They will wise up fast enough.

For what it's worth, directly on the other side of the med, The Spanish have a piece of African territory called Cueta & there is another one along the coast called Melilla.   I don't see them rushing to hand that over to Morocco.  

They have the hypocrisy to keep raising the Gibraltar situation, whilst holding similar territories in Morocco. 

Our government should remind everyone of that and kindly tell them to sod off.    Had UK governments over the last 40 years defended our own interests as much as their French & Spanish counterparts, I expect we would have had a a more satisfactory situation within the EU Remain vote.  

Obviously what I have in mind there is more substantial issues issues like the net £8 billion contribution.  I've never understood why we should subsidise other countries, when out money is already flowing to them fast enough via a trade deficit.

 

As for the BBC, well there are an awful lot of educated and/or successful people who voted Leave.   Yet the BBC search out some losers & interview them as representative leave voters.  If they choose to go to some council estate in Dudley, the proportion of high fliers will be low. There will be plenty of candidates to interview, as they will not be tied down by any inconvenience such as work.  Then they can select the interviews that fit the story they wish to portray.

[KhorTose]

Well we can agree to disagree, soon all will be reviled and I really do hope I am incorrect in my assumption.  Right now I see a long hard haul for Merry olde.  Mty apology to Alex.  That is his map and not Irish's.  Still would like to hear more from Irish and maybe scotty on where they think Northern Ireland and Scotland will end up, and whether there is any real talk about a union within the union.

 

By the way, now is a very good time to visit England.  I do not think there will ever be a better exchange rate, or should I say I hope the pound does not tank much more then it has already. 

[Bob]

Have to generally agree with KhorTose.

 

While surely some intelligent and educated people voted for Brexit, I'd bet you a few pounds (for what those are worth these days!) that by and large that's not the demographic which supported the exit.  And, of course, none of them (including the "Trumpesque" Boris and others) had any clue whatsoever about the ramifications of the vote.  To the extent their property values or investments have dropped significantly in value, I have no sympathy for them.  For others, though, I do (and that includes a fair number of British expat friends of mine who are currently taking a fairly big hit because of the exchange rate).  I thought the after-the-fact headline of "Regrexit" was rather appropriate.

 

The US/UK alliance and friendship will continue and, if I were in power, I'd fast-track negotiations on a US/UK trade treaty (Obama's off-the-cuff crack a few months ago that the UK would go to the back of the line was inappropriate in my view given our relationship with the UK). 

[Alexx]

Since there are many millions of voters, there can be no doubt whatsoever that some educated and intelligent ones voted for Leave. That doesn't mean that it isn't fair to say that the educated and intelligent overwhelmingly voted for Remain, however.

 

What shocks me is less the result than the banana republic way that referendum was designed and carried out: No clear plan was put to the vote, just an intention, so it was and still is impossible for those who voted Leave to know what exactly they will actually get. The main proponents have the option to simply leave the political stage (get their lives back lol) and let others deal with the consequences. Quite a mess, I think.

[vinapu]

The Gibraltar situation.......

 

 

..........The Spanish have a piece of African territory called Ceuta & there is another one along the coast called Melilla.   I don't see them rushing to hand that over to Morocco.  

They have the hypocrisy to keep raising the Gibraltar situation, whilst holding similar territories in Morocco. 

 

you got it right, hypocrisy is a good word, thank you for bringing that quite often overlooked fact.

[biguyby]

My take on the Brexit saga is:

 

The rich elite will remain the rich elite.

 

The working class will remain the working class.

 

The poor and disadvantaged will remain the poor and disadvantaged.

 

And the guests on The Jeremy Kyle Show will remain just as stupid as ever.

 

Note: Jeremy Kyle Show is the UK equivalent of the US's Jerry Springer Show.

[forky123]

The most interesting thing will be who the Brexit camp find to whine about once they can no longer blame the EU for all their ills.

[firecat69]

Still can't figure out what was so terrible. Only Germany I believe has a lower unemployment rate . Complaining about foreigners taking jobs seems to be strange when GB is near historical lows and better then the overwhelming number of countries in the EU.

 

Sounds to me some people were sold a bill of goods which they never took the time to understand.  Sounds exactly like Trump voters!!

[biguyby]

The scariest thing of all is that nobody from either camp, remain or stay, had a plan in the event of the leave side winning.

[vinapu]

Still can't figure out what was so terrible. Only Germany I believe has a lower unemployment rate . Complaining about foreigners taking jobs seems to be strange when GB is near historical lows and better then the overwhelming number of countries in the EU.

 

Sounds to me some people were sold a bill of goods which they never took the time to understand.  Sounds exactly like Trump voters!!

last The ECONOMIST from July 2nd has excellent article "the politics of anger" on page 9 relating  exactly to questions you raised inculding Trump voters . I just read it this morning

[vinapu]

The scariest thing of all is that nobody from either camp, remain or stay, had a plan in the event of the leave side winning.

waters will calm with time but question 'why'  will remain. All this ' taking country back" BS was sound when colonies were fighting for an independence but certainly not a case here

[forky123]

I blame credit card culture. People don't seem to understand that much as we'd like to afford everything now, constantly running with a £1.5 trillion national debt and a £150 billion deficit wasn't sustainable. The leave campaign, in addition to painting immigration as a huge problem, strongly intimated (OK, lied) that not paying into the EU would allow that money to pay for all the things that austerity has held in check. It's ridiculous and, at least for the foreseeable future, things will be even tighter financially.

 

The bigger problem is that no one actually has any plan on how to do Brexit and with 70%+ of MP's being supporters of remain it will be interesting to see how government even functions over the next few years. Also interesting will be the impact on the EU.

[KhorTose]

The bigger problem is that no one actually has any plan on how to do Brexit and with 70%+ of MP's being supporters of remain it will be interesting to see how government even functions over the next few years. Also interesting will be the impact on the EU.

 

Well they are certainly off to an interesting start.

[steveboy]

Sounds exactly like Trump voters!!

 

Today's polls indicate the same number of Trump voters as Hillary voters.

We are not smarter than people in other countries...

[KhorTose]

Today's polls indicate the same number of Trump voters as Hillary voters.

We are not smarter than people in other countries...

Ouch..........................true.  Hell, we even reelected George W.

[forky123]

Well, at least the US are teaching their children that any misogynist, racist, loud mouthed idiot can become president.

[vinapu]

I guess when Obama 8 years ago was saying  " yes we can" he did not envision  such a choice forky123

[firecat69]

Today's polls indicate the same number of Trump voters as Hillary voters.

We are not smarter than people in other countries...

Polls at this point are meaningless. Dump will not get more then 190 electoral votes and he will swept back to his golf courses. You cannot win an electoral election in the USA with White men only.