The time is 5:30 am and the results of the British vote to leave or remain in the European Union are coming through on the radio. At the time of dictating this the vote is 51.6% to leave. This makes me incredibly happy. If this small majority to leave remains stable up until the end of the count I will be opening the champagne later on today. This is our Independence Day!
The majority of the people of Great Britain want to leave the European Union. We know there will be some negative consequences, at least initially, but we are prepared to accept those for the long term benefits and well-being that will arise out of our departure from the European Union.
We don’t know exactly what will happen next but the pound will fall in value. The Treasury and the government of the UK have no plans in place for leaving the European Union. This shows us their arrogance and incompetence.
“The EU cannot survive. It is too undemocratic, corruption is too high, the Eurocrats’ ambition is too much, there is too much money in the gravy train. ‘It makes ordinary people raving mad.” (Peter Lundgren, an MEP speaking after the Brexit vote)
“….[Brexit is a] revolt against the elites.” (Brian Appleyard writing in the Times)
To vote to leave the EU is like a bloodless revolution of the masses against the monied elite and big business. This time the elite have not got away with it. The average man/woman of middle England have demanded to be free of the EU out of frustration that those that run it never change their ways and never listen to the citizens of Europe.
There will be shocks because the markets will be jittery. But who cares about the markets? This is just the establishment becoming anxious who have over the centuries made money out of “ordinary” people and they want the status quo to remain but the people have spoken.
The average, decent Brit wants to be out of the European Union and away from the smug Eurocrats who have so badly mismanaged Europe and in a manner which is against the wishes of the majority of the people of Europe. The European Union is essentially undemocratic. For me, immigration is not the major issue. Some immigration is good for the UK. However, there has been uncontrolled immigration which has placed services under too much strain.
So what about domestic cats? Well, in a simple formula, if the majority of the people of Britain are happier as a result of voting to leave the European Union, then their cats will be happier as well! We will be hugging our cats today. We will be kissing them. We will buy them treats. Our mood will be lifted. A burr in our collective psyche will have been removed.
There will be some negatives. There are bound to be. The British government has made no plans in the event of a vote to leave the European Union. This shows us their arrogance and incompetence. The current government is distanced from the people. They are part of the establishment.
I believe that the negatives will be short lived. The British vote to leave the European Union is based upon long-term benefits. It will mean a restoration of democracy in Great Britain which has been so smuggly and arrogantly taken away from us by the distant machinery of the Eurocrats. This vote is about the average British person who sees how the dream of a European Union has been tainted and degraded by mismanagement.
Update: At 5:46 am I have just heard on the radio that the leave vote has reached a threshold whereby it is impossible for it to be overturned.
Therefore, at this time Britain has voted to leave the European Union. This is a great day for British people.
So if the value of the pound falls dramatically and if the cost of some cat products go up in the short term, who cares? I certainly don’t. This is a big, long-term decision and it is the right one.
We have to thank Boris Johnson who legitimised a Brexit vote and made it a viable adventure and not something to be feared.
Leaving the EU won’t affect our membership of the Pet Travel Scheme and we’ll no longer have to contribute towards agricultural subsidies which are used to used to support bull fighting in Spain.
Really confusing for me. But, it seems that leaving the Union will benefit many.
Sort of an Independence Day.
Freedom is the best gift in the world.
Bless all of you.
Yes, it really is about freedoms and democracy. It is in our DNA to be independent and I know Americans feel the same way. Perhaps that is why we are very close in our relationship.
“But who cares about the markets? ” Actually, a lot of people should worry about the markets. When the markets crash, businesses have less money and end up getting read of people. A crash in the markets often spreads to the whole economy. Remember the crash of 1929 which caused global depression? How about 2008? Think about it when you talk about who cares about the market. Anybody who knows anything about the economy does whether or not one has money in the markets.
Fair point. I guess the point I was making is that the markets are very fickle and within a few weeks they’ll be back to somewhere near normal so we shouldn’t be too engrossed or concerned by them. This is not like the crash 2008. I see this as the beginning of a new age of faster progress economically. Let’s see if I am correct.
This might be true, but another side of it is that markets behave the way they do is because the feeling it that this will be bad for both the UK and the world economy. Incidentally, seems like some of your compatriots are having second thoughts and feel like they were lied to:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/im-full-of-regret—extraordinary-moment-brexit-voter-changes-he/
Given how close the vote was, these people who regret their vote may have made a difference. At any rate, I hope the economy doesn’t suffer as a result. I do hope you are right.
I am convinced that it will be fine and that in the long term we will do much better. The problem is that the bureaucrats in Brussels became fat cats! They became arrogant. They became distant. They were overpaid. They dictated terms to the UK. They were rude to our Prime Minister. They would not listen. They do not understand the feelings of the people. It is not just a problem in the UK. It is now believed that other countries will have referendums that they too will leave.
It was the city traders and banks who caused the crash in 2008. They are high-stake gamblers, betting on which stocks will rise and fall. Yesterday they gambled on a win for the Remain campaign. They were wrong and have probably lost a lot of other people’s money in the process.
Personally I’m glad we voted to leave the EU. I think Britain will be stronger for it in the long run.
It’s a big decisions and I’m sure there will be hardships incurred. I doubt anyone voting to leave was not aware of some of the consequences.
It is terrible to vote to in essence be liberated from your own country.
Have you thrown any tea in the harbor yet ? 😉
Yes, well said Michele. I’m so pleased that you have said that. I’m very pleased that we think similarly on the subject. Ultimately, I do not think it is in the DNA of the British people to be part of the European Union. If the European Union was genuinely a free-trade zone we would have stayed. But the Eurocrats wanted to turn it into a United States of Europe and that just does not suit us and they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t change their ways. And they wasted our money. There’s never been a proper financial audit of the European Union accounts because it was never auditable due to the waste. This is taxpayers money and it is a disgrace.
There were a lot of causes for 2008 crash, and it had absolutely nothing to do with betting on stocks to rise and fall, it was a housing crisis, more specifically subprime lending. The fact that you don’t understand it shows your lack of knowledge of the economy. Yes, mortgage companies and investment banks’ employees came up with the idea of packaging the mortgages together in securities and reselling them was bad in that it separated those who’d lose money in case of foreclosure from those who sell these mortgages, so human nature took hold – you don’t lose if someone doesn’t pay, so you want to sell as many mortgages as possible and who cares if someone can pay. But the government that wanted people to be able to buy properties is to blame too, even if they meant well.
But people who bought properties they knew they couldn’t afford, people who lied on mortgage applications are to blame as well. Bankers didn’t force people to buy properties they couldn’t afford. One didn’t need to be a genius to know that if your income is 60,000 a year, you cannot buy a 500,000 home – and this happened over and over. It also pretty immoral not to learn a simple lesson in childhood – that if you borrow money, you have to pay it back. This is something that buyers of properties back then forgot. They are just as responsible as the bankers.
Oh, and stocks fell not because they bet on the UK to stay and the UK decided to leave, it’s because stock markets don’t like uncertainty and risks, and they feel the risks are pretty large. Specifically, all of the trade deals will have to be renegotiated. Your prices will most certainly go up since while the EU would want trade, they’d probably not want to make it too easy or cost-free. People think that tariffs are great and when they are imposed the jobs would magically come back. Instead, the tariffs get passed to consumers and prices go up.
Some international companies will leave, so all the people who worked for them will lose their jobs. Your government may want to raise interest rates to halt the fall of the pound, and this will hurt the economy.
I do hope by the way that all the economists who say it are wrong, and that you are right and everything will just be wonderful. Good luck.
I have many brit friends. I know not one of them that were happy to join the EU in the first place.
Great! I like that. I have learned to hate the EU as I understood more and more about it. It has gone wrong. The original noble idea was a good one post second world war but over 40 years the eurocrats made bad decisions e.g. the eurozone. The eurocrats have failed Europeans.
Denmark and the Netherlands could be next to leave.
Glad to know that the people have voted for more power over their lives. Short term losses will be made up for in long term gains.
Celebrating your independence!
Exactly. There will be a short term jolt but long term we will thrive. Americans like their independence so I hope they understand why we voted to leave. We became fed up with the arrogant and unyielding eurocrats who have made countless mistakes.
Understand completely.
Get out; get out now!
Thank you, Dee, for your support on this. I am pleased that you understand. I think really it is about democracy and self-determination. In addition, the distant elite of the Eurocrats have so irritated the ordinary person in the UK that they just had to go. We had to get rid of them. It is not in the Brit’s DNA to be dictated to by smug, overpaid, fat, dictatorial bureaucrats from Brussels.