What are your thoughts on it?

****ing idiots.

As far as I can tell in my ignorance, this is Britain's version of "build the wall ten feet higher". Accurate?

Those concerns rarely matter in the end. I haven't spent a lot of time looking into it, but I'd expect it to be like any other similar movement: national sovereignty as dog whistle for wanting to unilaterally do things that will profit the rich of that country while damaging other signatories, like race to the bottom corporate taxation, IP, anti competition, anti money laundering, or pollution laws. All of which practically screams "business as usual for the UK".

Well, that and covering up child rape.

Every wealthy despot in the world has a London flat, an Oxford educated kid, and a "close friend" in the Virgin Isles. Nope, nothing unseemly going on there.

While Jon is probably right, I don't think the average Andy Capp pays mind to such matters. So from their perspective, you have to give it for ISIL and the like, though - their fear-mongering actually worked in the UK.

Also, the majority in Scotland voted to remain so I assume - or hope, actually - that they're going to have round two at voting for independence.

Still trying to process what's happened/going to happen.

• The pound dropped to levels not seen since 1985.
• David Cameron just resigned
• My city voted 74% for remain and Scotland as a whole voted for remain as well
• I'm already seeing talk of IndyRef2 in my Facebook feed if that's anything to go by.
• This referendum was partly decided by the over-50s and I have no idea why they're so anti-EU.
• Again, looking my Facebook feed this morning of largely university educated sub-40 year olds most of them are very upset.

Seeing as these results did completely surprise everyone, it's safe to say that Round Two for collective human idiocy will take place in November 2016.

One of my European friends posted an image to Whatsapp with the votes grouped by age range, along with "average lifespan they have left to deal with the consequences". Goes from resounding Remain to Leave as the ranges get older.

Headline of a German news outlet:
"Punishment for Brexit: EU banned British to dreary, rainy island in the North Atlantic"

But it's already rearing its ugly face. A radio station will only play songs from country in the EU during the next hour. Nothing British.

Better tune out for that hour then.

Yeah voting correlated with age well, which I don't understand the reasons for. Saw the David Cameron resignation as well. 2016 is becoming a wild year, only a Trump presidency could make it wilder.

Of course, the people who will actually benefit from Brexit aren't voicing their reasons. The pro/anti-immigration debate seems to distract people enough from who pushed for Brexit and why.

My guess would be: They remember better days.

I doubt it goes any further than that, even if logically going back isn't possible and if this change ultimately makes things worse, atleast it's an attempt to return to what they knew.

We should note that, staying in the EU was the apathetic vote, leavers from all accounts I'be heard were more passionate. Most American voters are apathetic towards Hillary and Trump's supporters are very passionate...

Hey, 75 years ago Germans were pretty interested in the place


But seriously, I feel pretty ashamed of the xenophobia that propelled much of the "leave" vote.


There's some reasonably interesting analysis available here which shows the correlation between education/social class and likelihood to vote to leave: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-live-results-and-analysis


Much of the leave campaign was driven by faulty economic arguments and fear of immigration. Young, urban, educated people familiar with other cultures and for whom immigration didn't pose a threat to their jobs were unlikely to vote out. The leave majority is being blamed on lower socioeconomic status voters and the elderly (who turn out in much greater numbers at election time and are greater in number anyway because baby boomers). The media here has been whipping up hate against immigrants and the EU for decades now and even though most people you meet will tell you they know the tabloids are full of ****, most of them won't actually try to find other sources of information. Couple that with politicians so supine that they haven't defended immigration for fear of losing political standing and you have a population continuously urged into xenophobia. People are also tired of mainstream politics - feeling it's elitist and has done nothing for them, therefore breaking away from such an important political union is seen by many as a protest vote (plus the papers have been telling them that we'll be able to do whatever we like after exiting the EU).

Sorry for the stream of consciousness writing - tl;dr Brits are idiots

Also, environmental issues literally never came up throughout the whole run up to the referendum even though given our history it's probably one of the areas that will be most affected given how much of it comes top down from the EU. As a natural history recorder and a bit of an outdoorsy person this has me really depressed.

I don't know much about Britain, but I've heard some of the rhetoric, including Gove's "people are sick of experts" line. I've been living in France for a bit now & this sort of anti-intellectualism is very similar to what we hear from the Front National & is reminiscent of the things that U.S. Republicans have been saying for quite some time. Nostalgia is a helluva drug & every old here in France has a collection of francs that they enjoy reminiscing about at every opportunity. Tradition is very important for olds & they'd rather go vegetarian than eat halal. As someone that's left of Ghandi, I'd have to agree with people like Sam Harris, that the left has truly failed at producing satisfactory rhetoric regarding Islamism, & since the differences are night & day, it's making the right appear somewhat reasonable in comparison (they're not just ignoring the issue until it goes away). In a world where economics isn't mandatory, & where significant numbers of people don't like experts (facts no longer matter, folks--assuming they ever did), is it any wonder that this sort of thing would occur? I'm honestly surprised that it has taken this long.

This is something I know nothing about and have no opinion on.

Same, but I'll throw my poops 'round anyhow.

Hey Britain, you can't out-America America. Trump '16.

But the past was ****. And these are people that lived through the *seventies*.

I'm going to remind you that you said this in 5 months.

Everything looks better in hindsight. I have fond memories of the MSN Gaming Zone, for ****'s sake.

When employers rewarded loyalty, and every working class person could buy a house and raise a family on a single income. They are absolutely right to want it back.

And they're on the right track, too, what with the fascists invading England.

Seeing as Northern Ireland and Scotland want to remain in the EU, how long before the entire UK will fall apart?

Ok?

why would you have fond memories of that pile of crap... i even felt it was ****ty when it was the only way to find active games

The EU freed up some memory. Exactly 1 GB.

I don't see us seceding for a few years yet as least; there's been too little time since the last referendum on it and people are a bit fatigued from the whole thing.

Irish reunification is an interesting idea but I can't see it happening. I don't think support for it in Northern Ireland has ever polled higher than about 30%.

Meanwhile your first minister is saying this sort of thing.

I was young and stupid.

if i hire a mentally challenged hooker to give you gonorrhea does that qualify as giving you a slow clap?

You only get a slow clap if you made up the joke.

but it's the first time i heard it so he can have that slow clap

I'd settle for a slow clap with one hand.

Eh, what? The rich were all against this. It's totally screwing most of them over.

I think what he means is there are factions of wealthy people for it. "The rich" are also against Donald Trump. Because, while rich people are more likely to work together in conspiracies against people like us, they do eat each other from time to time.