Since it appears that yes for Brexit was a big mistake, why not give GB voters a mulligan? In everyday life you go back to your original path if wrong turn is made.
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I believe that I read that 2 million people had already signed a petition asking for a re-vote. Apparently, the House of Commons will debate anything that gets 100,000 signatures, so it should at least be discussed.
I also read that Friday, after the vote, “What is the EU” was very heavily googled in the UK. Sigh.
finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-revote-stop-brexit-08145041.h…
…just noticed this article
…Anthonyms, any hope for this?
…Anthonyms, any hope for this?
Any of these may happen but will not reverse the consequence as the article will probably be invoked or we will be just evicted. What I do expect is that UK will apply for the EEA which will take us right back to where we started - part of an economic union with freedom of movement. FOM will apply to goods and labor. FOM of labor was one of the issues that drove the exit movement. However as an EEA member rather than EU, UK will not have any say in the shaping of the system so basically back to square -1, but in the meantime the city of London will have lost its passport and UK will probably collapse. I hope I’m wrong but I see a distinct possibility that this national union that predates the current US disintegrates.
This referendum has split the country by age, geography, socio-economics and values.
A
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I think it’s a bit early to say that a vote for Brexit was a mistake. We will have to see how things play out over the next couple of years.
As regards the petition to have a democratic vote overturned, many of the signatures have already been shown to be fraudulent.
It would be very dangerous for any government to ignore the results of a fair, democratic referendum. The people have spoken. It’s now time to move on.
Alex
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The constitutional gains (the important factor) will also deliver prosperity, given enlightened government.
The soldiers who left their farms and families and froze over the winter with Washington at Valley Forge knew it was worth it. And we baulk at a little market turbulence upsetting our comfort!
Ask how the UK is doing in a few years time. Twenty if necessary; who cares? It has secured the foundation of civilization. It will be fine. It is surprising how money flows towards freedom. Of course, the UK has to take up the option of good government - that is where risk resides.
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Calling for a second referendum isn’t ignoring the people … it is just giving them a chance for a second opinion … hopefully, with better weather.
If they revote Brexit, why not revote every Parliamentary election. And if the revote doesn’t suite you, revote the revote.
The establishment still doesn’t get it. The English people want to stay English.
re Scotland- it may be more of a drag than a benefit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence…
IMO, certainly a debatable point, the EU needs GB moe than vice versa.
Pre vote opinion in other EU countries
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/swedes-tell-britain-if-…
According to a poll by TNS Sifo, the largest polling firm in Sweden, 36 per cent of the Swedes would wish to leave the EU if Brits vote to leave, and just 32 per cent would stay. Remember, this is a Sweden that voted in defiance of its entire political class in 2003 against adopting the Euro. And, of course, a Sweden that has suffered more than most from the EU’s failure to respond to recent demographic challenges: it has ended up with more asylum seekers, per capita, than any country on earth.
my only non US investment, and a big one, is Swedish
The EU may be loved by the establishment but not necessarily by the people having to pay for it.
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Since it appears that yes for Brexit was a big mistake
And you have proof of that?
Or have we forgotten that Britain was able and formidable long before EU ratification? In fact, this past week’s vote WAS the “mulligan” for Britain, and they chose wisely.
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As regards the petition to have a democratic vote overturned, many of the signatures have already been shown to be fraudulent.
Apparently anyone anywhere with access to the internet can sign the petition. I don’t know if this is fact or not but I would not trust such an important issue to a website poll.
It’s hard to know why people vote the way they do but I assume that the “out” vote is cast by people who feel their freedom threatened (by the Brussel Sprouts or by the immigrants) and the “in” vote is cast by people who feel they get an economic benefit from staying in (like Ant).
While I have no candle in this wake (Spanish version of having a dog in the hunt) I was in favor of “out.” I don’t think the British, or at least the English, like to be ruled from Brussels. Whether it turns out the way they expect it to is an entirely different issue, unintended consequences matter.
Denny Schlesinger
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why not revote every Parliamentary election
But, they do. When an election produces a slim majority, either the leader manages to consolidate their position or there is another election soon. Besides, in a parliamentary election one is voting for one’s local MP … one has a pretty good chance at figuring out what that means. In this referendum, it is clear that a large part of the electorate had a poor understanding of what they were voting for … compounded by the weather interfering with people voting at all. One might question whether it was appropriate for the general populace to vote on such an issue at all, given that it is very, very difficult for even highly educated and informed people to have a well-formed opinion on such a complex topic, so it is clear that there was a lot of poorly informed gut voting, which hardly seems like the way to make such a momentous decision. So, yes, more sensible would be for Commons to take this as advisory and make a more informed decision, but given how little I think of politicians on either side of the pond, I could also see giving the populace a second chance.
I don’t know if this is fact or not but I would not trust such an important issue to a website poll.
Nor is anyone suggesting that it should be. The point is that a couple of days later 3 million people have signed that petition. Even if they aren’t all real, that suggests a very strong public opinion issue. If the threshold for discussion in the Commons is 100,000, we are already 30X that threshold.
The point is that a couple of days later 3 million people have signed that petition.
And 2,950,000 of those voted no the first time.
JT
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I see no evidence that educated and informed people , even brilliant ones, vote any more sensibly than ordinary working people.
Especially once the ordinary working people figure out that the elites care only for themselves and are perfectly happy to get rich at somebody else’s expense Being fascinated with Robert Oppenheimer and the making of thee first atomic bombs I have read several books on the subject, one recently. It is amazing how many of those geniuses working with him were taken in by the Communist line, right at the time Stalin and his communist friends were murdering millions of their own countrymen.
“Gut voting” has little to do with education. Education just allows people to build better rationalizations for their gut voting.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamfb400600.h…
I agree
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I see no evidence that educated and informed people , even brilliant ones, vote any more sensibly than ordinary working people.
I agree mauser. There seems to be an assumption on this board that the exit was so clearly a mistake that no one with an understanding of the implications could support it.
But yet we see the polls that show many of the citizens of the other member countries would like a chance to vote as well. The fact that there was a vote at all, tells me that things are not right with this union. My guess is that the “well informed and well educated” academicians and politicians that cobbled this mess together should have used their well informed and well educated brains to understand the storm they were creating and instead of looking down their noses at the citizens who are dissatisfied they should have understood that there are real, and understandable concerns with cultural changes and national identity. If the leaders in support of the EU do not address those concerns then of course there will be the Le Pen’s that do address them, or promise to address them.
All I know is what I read of the polling data and such, but it seems clear that there is a huge minority, if not a majority of citizens in Europe that don’t think much of the union.
Mike
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All I know is what I read of the polling data and such, but it seems clear that there is a huge minority, if not a majority of citizens in Europe that don’t think much of the union.
Unfortunately, a fair number of those get their position from xenophobia rather than any theoretical notion of elected of unelected officials or questionable regulations.