Britain Sets Date for EU Referendum -- Brexit

Derek 2.0 · June 25, 2016

EU financial business in London is very substantial. Actually, it was substantial, because 100% of the business that the EU members did via London will be reduced to something approaching zero.

There is no way to pretend otherwise: the UK financial services sector took a very heavy blow today. Lots of jobs are gone and they will not be back.

Gone to where? The future of the British economy is now a given.......the same can't be said of the European Union and its future.

dre · June 25, 2016

The Euro is an evil little project that robs Europeans of representation, and results in laws being made by unelected professional bureaucrats, technocrats and bankers.

These projects all start out innocent enough... "Free trade man!". But the devil is in the details and trade agreements today end up being more about harmonizing laws, etc, and take away power from voters.

At least Britain actually gave its citizens a choice... Canada should have a similar referendum on the TPP.

kactus · June 25, 2016

Talk about farsical...The smear campaign by UKIP leader.

This one from Nigel Farage with his promises to help NHS....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-result-nigel-farage-nhs-pledge-disowns-350-million-pounds-a7099906.html

?Impact · June 25, 2016

Talk about farsical...

£350 million a week lie, that is over £18 billion ($32 billion) a year lie by the LEAVE campaign. Put another way, they bought individual votes at the cost of £1034 ($1840) a year.

Edited June 25, 2016 by ?Impact

Derek 2.0 · June 25, 2016

The irony is most of scots were in the remain camp.

What's ironic? Scotland (or the Six Counties) aren't relevant.......Scotland and Ulster threatening their own exit (what else is new) is akin to two street people out front of McDonalds threatening to go to the next town over if you don't give them some change......Scotland won't go anywhere (I doubt a fracturing EU would have them) and Northern Ireland has been at it for over a century.......Gerry Adams needs the Catholics to spit out more babies in Ulster before Ireland proper realizes they themselves are broke and couldn't afford them.....

TimG · June 25, 2016

£350 million a week

It is not a lie since that is what the UK pays. But it was dishonest in the sense that it did not take into account money returned to the UK via EU programs. The net outflow is still $160 million pounds a week.

jbg · June 25, 2016

I wake to the sound of music - UK speaking words of wisdom - let us be. This land is my land.

I love the tunefulness of your post. My ringtone happens to be the opening of Let it Be. This vote was a bridge over troubled waters. And to quote Blue Rodeo, it's most important to trust yourself, and as "what am I doing here?"

jbg · June 25, 2016

Yes, I sold off half my stocks over the past week or so, and am now looking for bargains.

I did some sales on Wednesday; not nearly enough as it turned out. I will be repurchasing on Monday what I sold Wednesday.

G Huxley · June 25, 2016

massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of peaceful civilians by British troops

Not "benevolent".

I didn't say the whole of British rule was benevolent, of course not. It was naked imperialism. I said their leaving in the late 40s was benevolent.

Edited June 25, 2016 by G Huxley

G Huxley · June 25, 2016

Really? The bloodbath in the Middle East is because of the left.

Its a combination of the left and the right, both of which belong to the same paradigm going back to the Cold War and continuing under Blair (center left), Hollande (center left) etc.

The left and right act as two sides of the same coin leaving the Middle East in tatters have both have historically sought to exploit it.

jbg · June 25, 2016

In other words, anti-immigrant voters will vote for a "complete moron" and their own economic demise just to keep immigrants out.

Funny how you think it somehow redeems their argument. I think it makes the correlation between (lack of) intelligence and xenophobia.

And hte problem is that the moron won't even keep the immigrants out. It is a demagogic appeal to the worst in America.

msj · June 25, 2016

I love how one elite has been traded for another.

No, don't allow the UK public to give a funny name to a boat but allow them to vote on an exit.

Brilliant.

England deserves to become the small backwater it was prior to industrialization.

TimG · June 25, 2016

England deserves to become the small backwater it was prior to industrialization.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/colby-cosh-britain-voted-for-brexit-because-it-wants-to-be-canada-and-we-hate-the-idea

here is very little sympathy here among an intelligentsia that is heavily Anglo being expressed for Euroskepticism and the various motivations behind the Leave campaigns victory.

...

Basically, the Leave campaigners didnt put it this way or incorporate it into a slogan, but they want the U.K.s relationship with Europe a polyglot kaleidoscope of radically dissimilar nation states, some of them failing to be the same friendly, wary relationship Canada has with the United States.

I agree that leave vote has created chaos that will cause significant harm in the short term (I would have voted remain if I was British). However, I reject the assertion that there was any need for the EU superstate. Canada has survived fine without joining the US and there is absolutely no justification for such a merger. Why is there any more justification for the EU? Why is the UK less because it seeks emulate Canada's way of dealing with close neighbors? Edited June 25, 2016 by TimG

msj · June 25, 2016

They will be less when Scotland leaves and perhaps N Ireland too.

And as London gives up being the banking capital of Europe.

Let's hope this will happen rather than what has happened with grexit: a renegotiation that has done nothing productive.

bush_cheney2004 · June 25, 2016

.... Canada has survived fine without joining the US and there is absolutely no justification for such a merger. Why is there any more justification for the EU? Why is the UK less because it seeks emulate Canada's way of dealing with close neighbors?

True...but Canada really had no choice...the US isn't keen on any such "joining" either.

TimG · June 25, 2016

True...but Canada really had no choice...the US isn't keen on any such "joining" either.

At least not since it got its ass kicked by the Brits in 1812.

G Huxley · June 25, 2016

I love how one elite has been traded for another.

No, don't allow the UK public to give a funny name to a boat but allow them to vote on an exit.

Brilliant.

England deserves to become the small backwater it was prior to industrialization.

More schadenfreude against the British people! Its a good thing they can decide for themselves and not have others decide for them.

bush_cheney2004 · June 25, 2016

At least not since it got its ass kicked by the Brits in 1812.

To that point...."U.K. colonized the world, then complains about immigration."

Derek 2.0 · June 25, 2016

They will be less when Scotland leaves and perhaps N Ireland too.

Scotland and Ulster aren't leaving........simply put, Scotland couldn't afford Independence, absent the price of oil more then doubling (and assuming Scotland got the North Sea oil, which based on how the Orkney's voted during the independence vote is doubtful).......Scotland is not another Norway, and would make the PIGS resemble fiscal well being.

Likewise Ulster........the Irish are in no fiscal state to take on nearly 2 million welfare cases, more than half of which have no intention of joining the Catholic Republic.

jacee · June 25, 2016

I didn't say the whole of British rule was benevolent, of course not. It was naked imperialism. I said their leaving in the late 40s was benevolent.

They didn't have much choice by then.

.

G Huxley · June 25, 2016

They didn't have much choice by then.

.

True they were pretty bankrupt, but they could have been obstinate. Incidentally I would say Britain didn't have much of a choice whether to stay in the EU or not. To remain as in India would have been certain doom.

kactus · June 25, 2016

They showed it once before and that ended with over 12 million innocent people dead. It's interesting watching some Jews cheer on a movement that is packed with a lot of racism and hateful rhetoric.

Indeed very right sir!

Back then jews were considered a threat and were murdered in masses for just being jewish. There was no distinction if colour skin. Today the same sentiment is rising in europe and elsewhere against "brown skinned" people aka moslems....

TimG · June 25, 2016

There was no distinction if colour skin. Today the same sentiment is rising in europe and elsewhere against "brown skinned" people aka moslems....

No one is arguing for mass murder of Muslims (ironically it is Islamists that are arguing for mass murder of non-Muslims). They just don't want Muslims to immigrate from other countries. Edited June 25, 2016 by TimG

eyeball · June 25, 2016

True they were pretty bankrupt, but they could have been obstinate. Incidentally I would say Britain didn't have much of a choice whether to stay in the EU or not. To remain as in India would have been certain doom.

Well that's the sense people have alright but they were doomed decades ago by globalization. That's all this Brexit vote is about, giving vent to an economic angst that's been building around the developed world. The focus and debate around on immigration and refugees masks the larger debate that is apparently absent from the demagogues rhetoric and their constituencies questions - why and how did the world become so beset with refugees and immigrants in the first place?

Edited June 25, 2016 by eyeball

Argus · June 25, 2016

If you don''t have the capacity to be civil in a discussion I can take the same course but I understand tbe mods here may not like it. So I let you off. Besides I refuse to stoop to your level....

Sorry, but you'll need some time on a high speed elevator to work your way up to the sub-basement below my level.

On i migration let me remind you that it was you who suggested that the immigrants work like a dog for a few pennies not me!

Uhm no.

Reality is some of british workers are damn lazy. A pole or someone from eastern european will do the same job at better quality and fraction of the labour charge.

Sound familiar?

Let's get the records straight! it is a known fact the poles and many immigrants in UK deliver many handicraft work at a much lower salary

So you're basically saying the same thing again. Foreigner will work harder for less. And yet, you expect the locals who are pushed aside to welcome this, and call them xenophobes for not doing so. No logic whatsoever behind your words.

Are you a Canadian citizen? What do you do for a living? Assuming you work, would you mind giving up your job so a foreigner could do it for less and the company could make more profit?