The whole world is reeling after a milestone referendum in Britain to leave the European Union. And although leaders of the campaign to exit Europe are crowing over their victory, it seems many Britons may not even know what they had actually voted for.
Awakening to a stock market plunge and a precipitous decline in the value of the pound that Britain hasn’t seen in more than 30 years, voters now face a series of economic shocks that analysts say will only worsen before they improve. The consequences of the leave vote will be felt worldwide, even here in the United States, and some British voters say they now regret casting a ballot in favor of Brexit.
“Even though I voted to leave, this morning I woke up and I just — the reality did actually hit me,” one woman told the news channel ITV News. “If I’d had the opportunity to vote again, it would be to stay.”
Apparently many Brits who voted to leave really didn’t think it through. The financial implications of leaving the European Union are going to be disastrous for them. Great Britain had its own currency. They were allowed to secure their own borders. Now their currency is devalued, their stock markets have plummeted and no one knows what the future holds.
I fear many Americans will jump on this feel good bandwagon also. How many have fallen for Trump’s bullshit? How many people will wake up the next morning with severe voter’s regret in November? How many voters are beguiled by big mouthes’ stupidity?
I really wish the Brits hadn’t been dumb asses. I lost 5 figures today…that’s 5 figures in one day. I would hope that things will straighten themselves out in the next few weeks but we have no way of knowing what the future holds as more countries are emboldened to leave the EU. In a global world, issues ricochet right off each other.
We live in uncertain times. Meanwhile, Scotland voted to remain with the EU. Where do they go from here?
Good. We will see over the next several months just Trumpism looks like in practice, not just hypotheticals. After only a day, stocks have tanked, the pound is in the toilet, and businesses are leaving the UK. That’s what Trumpism will look like.
I guess my faith was misplaced that the yeomen of England would exercise their franchise with a view to how it affects my investment portfolio. Limey Bastards. They burn our capital, lie back for a couple of centuries, lull us into a false sense of security, and then come back and burn my capital.
More seriously, it is a very grave moment for the entire post-WWII security and economic architecture. It is one of those huge historic inflection points that has no positive possible outcomes, particularly for the United States.
@Scout
One normally thinks of Scots as being fiercely independent, yet Scotland voted to remain in the EU. It will be interesting to see if Scotland secedes from the UK only to rejoin the EU.
Would they be allowed to rejoin?
I heard that if UK bails out, there is no turning back.
Already there are more than enough votes to revisit the issue.
The Washington Post has article after article decrying Brexit and its long-term impact on the global economy. However, if you look elsewhere, there are “expert” opinions saying the impact is likely to be temporary and the markets could normalize in a couple of weeks.
I think there is tremendous spin going on here. Politicians that favor integration are making dire predictions that cannot have a positive impact on skittish markets. Their predictions become self-fulfilling prophecy.
Long term is more difficult than near term. Over the long term (say 30 years), there may be work-arounds and new ideas that will dampen the near term ill effects. But there is no question that the near term effects on England, Europe, and the USA (although all for slightly differing reasons) are virtually all negative. The Scotland break-off seems fairly likely now, after having been put back in the box in 2014.
I can’t imagine that there were enough people in England willing to inflict these wounds on themselves, but I’m not English, so my opinion on that is not particularly valuable. However, as an American, I have to be absolutely appalled and wonder whether we were assertive enough in our councils with the Cameron government going back over the past year to have either forestalled this or to have influenced it once it got started.
Near or medium term (by that I mean 5 to 10 years out) all impacts on US are extremely negative and have dire implications for our global security posture. If you want a little thought exercise to understand what this means for the post WWII security apparatus of the Western World, ask yourself how Mr. Putin views this. I can assure you he was absolutely thrilled by the Brexit vote. It’s Russia’s turnabout on the Wall coming down in 1989. Everything is in motion for a complete re-set.
Shudder!!! Scary!!
This Brexit vote reminds me of a passage from Mark Anthony’s funeral oration in “Julius Caesar.”
“Oh judgment thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason!”
Or maybe a Board of County Supervisors meeting in Prince William County. Or maybe a Donald Trump rally. All Shakespearian tragedies.
A very apt quotation for a variety of modern situations, RT.
Brexit particularly. I am somewhat amazed that one finds a few Americans trying to rationalize the Brexit vote. As mentioned above, a confused, non-empirical Briton might have thought it a good idea, but there’s no way that the result was in the interests of the United States.
Absolutely not!!!
I also heard that GB had the least reason to pull out. They had retained much of their own autonomy to start with.
To a liberal, democracy is great… until things don’t go in their direction. LOL!!
Karla, trolling again, I see.
I would say democracy is great for both liberals, conservatives and moderates.
Obviously, both GB and the United States will suffer from this hasty, ignorant action.
“Karla, trolling again, I see.” LOL!! troll: noun: definition: someone who speaks the truth and for whom you have no valid rebuttal. btw… get worried. This foreshadow’s TRUMP’s election!! LMAO!!
@Karla Homolka
how is this a “liberal”/”conservative” issue? There were Tories and Labor MPs on both sides of this issue
“There were Tories and Labor MPs on both sides of this issue” … LMFAO!!! There are liberals and conservatives on EVERY issue, DOPE!! That doesn’t make all issues non-political! Geezus… the comments on this site leave something to be desired…
If you’re going to call people rude names just because they disagree with you then you’re in the wrong place. This debate is supposed to be civil and we’re supposed to act like adults.
@Karla Homolka
Thanks, Robin Hood!
(and your words just made me go back and correct myself also…sigh…bad language)
Miss Karla, that was just your last post here. I really just don’t have time to deal with your nastiness.
Thank you too!
Now I can go back to Sherwood Forest where I have no fixed address and the Sheriff of Nottingham can’t find me.
@MoonHowler
Nigel Farage: £350 million pledge to fund the NHS was ‘a mistake’
24 JUNE 7:31AM
Nigel Farage has admitted that it was a “mistake” to promise that
£350million a week would be spent on the NHS if the UK backed a Brexit
vote.
Speaking just an hour after the Leave vote was confirmed the Ukip leader
said the money could not be guaranteed and claimed he would never have
made the promise in the first place.
Campaigners promised to use the money the UK reportedly sends to the EU to
fund the health service instead.
Asked by ITV’s Good Morning Britain whether he could guarantee that the
£350m that was sent to the EU would now go the NHS, Mr Farage said: “No I
can’t, I would never have made that claim.
“That was one of the mistakes made by the Leave campaign.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/nigel-farage-350-million-
pledge-to-fund-the-nhs-was-a-mistake/
NHS is their national health care system. The leave campaign lied to the
voters that EU money would go to health care. Hahaha! Suckers!
@Starryflights
It seems like it would have been smart if those voting for Brexit had checked out some of this stuff for themselves.
If the investors devalued American stocks 3% because of fears that a global recession is in store because of Brexit, imagine what it would do if it thought Trump would be elected. At the moment the stock market is still assuming that Clinton will win.
All this doom and gloom, because people want their sovereignty back.
As for security issues…Brexit changes nothing. The exit does not remove them from NATO.
What makes Putin happy is seeing the EU let in millions of “refugees” and being tied up with internal strife. What makes Putin happy is watching the EU dismantle their militaries while giving lip service, AGAIN, to a “European” military force.
The stock market is already recovering.
Good for the Brits.
But it hasn’t recovered. It was a horrible hit.
The problem is, the Brexit caused huge instability. You had all these dumb asses not even knowing what they were voting for or what the repercussions might be from a vote to leave.
If it feels good–do it isn’t working out so well for them.
At a time of a revanchist Russian state led by an autocrat like Putin, Cargo, this is an extremely bad development for the US and for Europe. NATO has been diluted and over-extended by the past three administrations, and by European fecklessness on budgetary commitments. It is not the muscular alliance that it once was. Its very expansion to the east is a significant element of its un-doing, while at the same time being a major irritant (or excuse for irritation) by Russia. Much of the Ukraine conflict has to do both with European integration and with NATO/Russia dynamics.
NATO, as you suggest, surely exists and can continue to exist, with or without the EU or the EU sans Britain. But Britain provided a significant integrative component between the political end of the beast and its military capabilities. There will be economic decline in both Europe and Britain in coming years that will make the politicians less likely to fund military investment. There will be a period of great re-working, uncertainty, and confusion. This is the wrong time for this to be happening from a security standpoint. The move toward a “European” military force, as opposed to a resuscitated NATO, is more rather than less likely,
There is nothing in Brexit that is in the interests of the United States.