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What Happens Brex’t?
Global financial panic, Sterling collapsing, and Scotland — possibly Northern Ireland, too — apt to break away. Quite a day’s work.
A striking aspect of the results is the extent to which the vote represents a victory of the old over the young. “Young voters wanted Brexit the least,” as the Mirror put it, “and will have to live with it the longest.”
The final YouGov poll before the referendum showed 72% of 18 to 24-year-olds backed a Remain vote – with just 19% backing Brexit.
Brexiters were led to victory in the referendum overnight by triumphing in Tory shires and Old Labour heartlands in Wales and the north of England.
But the Kingdom is no longer United after London, Scotland and Northern Ireland all backed Remain.
The more damaging legacy, however, could be the staggering difference in how people of different ages [voted].
The final YouGov poll before the referendum showed 72% of 18 to 24-year-olds backed a Remain vote – with just 19% backing Brexit.
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “Young people voted to remain by a considerable margin, but were outvoted. They were voting for their future, yet it has been taken from them.”
I hope that the optimists are proven right and that this is the first day of a bright new future for Britain and Europe. But unless it is — and unless the gain that justifies the pain comes sooner, rather than later — Britain (or what’s left of it) will experience an unprecedented generational war. Or at least, I’m racking my mind, and I can’t think of a precedent, can you?
Adam Newman@NewmanDipFa I’m so angry. A generation given everything: Free education, golden pensions, social mobility have voted to strip my generation’s future.
The pain will certainly be acute in the immediate term.
Now we’ll watch Europe’s biggest divorce case since Henry VIII. I posted this a few months ago, but it’s worth dusting off and watching again. This is from Open Europe’s simulation post-Brexit negotiations. Former Chancellor Norman Lamont is playing the role of the UK:
As someone who wishes Britain and Europe well, I hope very much that Britain withdraws in an orderly way and recovers as quickly as possible, leaving behind a Europe that’s better for the experience. I hope the rest of the EU learns and benefits from crisis and failure. And if it neither learns nor survives, I hope Europe’s reversion to a gaggle of fractious, quarreling states goes better than history would indicate.
Whatever happens, I’ll report. If you make a contribution this week, it will be earmarked for a chapter of Brave New World about Brexit and its consequences. Please contribute! This story is getting more and more interesting by the day — but I’m still well away from the goal.
Maybe. They wouldn’t be the first to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Edit: Oh, wait–Kozak beat me to this.
Eric Hines
Don’t say stuff like that too loud, plenty around here seem to believe the government own the people, not the other way around.
That, and perhaps a recognition–at least by the Scottish government–that they need to be part of something bigger than themselves so they can access that bigger thing’s supply of OPM to support their own welfare state and national debt.
Eric Hines
The principles preceded the founding and they do not apply to to the world, but the fact remains that we are a propositional nation. Chesterton noticed it a century ago when he visited. We were founded on a creed, and that creed was able to unite the Puritans, Quakers, Protestants, Anglicans, Pennsylvania Dutch, Catholics, etc. That we were founded on a creed and not on an ethnicity or “type” is what has allowed us to so successfully assimilate waves of immigrants for centuries, though big waves make us uneasy. It is also why Europe is having such trouble integrating right now- their countries are based on “types” instead of creeds, and struggle to integrate anyone who doesn’t fit the type.
Since when is the EU synonymous with the western alliance?
We are a nation founded on an idea,one purpose built, with a Government crafted to stave off tyranny. It has worked pretty well, actually.
We need to work on it though. It was not meant for a people this able to get rich or be this rich.
Dead wrong. They said that all men are created equal, and endowed with rights from the creator. They were not restricting rights to their posterity. The United States was founded on the basis of the doctrine of universal human equality and Liberty, not blood and soil.
Sadly, this isn’t satire:
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/10/eu-to-launch-kettle-and-toaster-crackdown-after-brexit-vote2/
Yes. We are the City on the Hill, and the example to all Mankind. No nation has ever existed like America.
Dead Wrong
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
There are no accidental, extra, or unnecessary words in the Constitution. Posterity is where it is with great purpose.
Wow. They dodged a bullet there. Will Germany use U-Boats to stop America from sending toasters to our ally across the ocean now?
Canada’s desire for a trade deal with the UK is no surprise, having already inked a deal with the European Free Trade Association.
Germany’s statement, so soon after the vote, is kinda surprising.
As for the USA, what are the odds that President Trump will judge a deal with the UK to be anything less than a “great trade deal”?
Source: http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/683117/US-and-Canada-lead-promises-to-maintain-trade-relations-with-Britain-outside-the-EU
Let them bring it. It’ll be fun.
Eric Hines
but they’re just the type to do it.
My understanding is that Claire is not employed within the French economy. She is not submitting invoices to or receiving payments from any France-based businesses. I’m guessing she writes for and receives payment from companies outside of France (such as Ricochet).
This ^
All the more reason to show the Eurocrats the door.
Try that little trick in the US. The IRS will have the SWAT team at your door. Uncle wants his cut.
So a petty temper tantrum is the verdict. Not a particularly surprising outcome from the cesspool of Brussels.
No doubt such measures will encourage and persuade the remaining members as to the value and worth of the EU.
I’m not sure I’m down with equating fiscal conservatism with globalism. Seems to me the globalist elites have rarely been very fiscally conservative. When globalism goes hand-in-hand with balanced budgets and limited government spending, I’ll reevaluate that impression.
I wager that the ban was already in the works and that the timing is coincidental. I don’t think the bureaucracy in Brussels is nimble enough to rethink the timing of a previously-scheduled press conference.
I agree.
What is this fascination with size? It’s like Xerxes trying to overawe the Greeks. It’s not size that matters, but civil institutions, the rule of law, and respect for property rights that count. That’s why Switzerland and Singapore are so prosperous despite their small size. Switzerland is surrounded by the EU.
Fortunately the British figured out that taking orders from unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels does not make one “competitive.”
The article implies the opposite, that the ban was in the works but they postponed it because they worried that an attack on tea and toast would be seen as anti-British (a fear which seems well founded) and thus drive the Leave vote.
We do have some here on Ricochet who applaud the long-standing effort to abandon and undo the making of America and thus Americans through our beloved Constitution. Obviously, the real Britons, those who cherish the sovereignty of the people and the value of cultural traditions and their preservation, have a substantial dose of the elements that make up the the American ideal. A step has been taken to show an unwillingness to give up. My hope is that Americans can recognize the threats we face and stand up to them. It’s like a disease working from within to destroy.
Indeed, and here are a few more economically-successful countries with populations smaller than the UK (65 million), despite not being members of the EU:
Juncker/Martin Schulz/Farage
Juncker/Merkel
I don’t see the voters – young or old – at fault here, on the contrary, the EU succeeded in alienating a plurality of Europeans and has become itself by far the biggest threat to the European idea. Today, the EU lost 20% of its economic power, 13% of its workforce, 10% of its soldiers, 31% of market capitalization and most important of all its third biggest net payer after Germany and France. The negotiation skills of Merkel and her ilk are really most impressing, Britain out, accession negotiations with Turkey back on. I really don’t know who should be more scared, the Britons or continental Europeans like me.
Can the EU be reformed? Maybe. Britain is the predefined breaking point. If the present political apparatus is not seriously considering changes, the disintegration of the EU will continue. On the bright side, Europeans don’t oppose the idea of economic cooperation, so let’s work on new and intensifying existing bi-/multilateral agreements (e.g. EFTA). For me it doesn’t feel like “Good bye, Britain”, more like “You go ahead, Britain”, “Adieu Jean Claude”,“Leb wohl, Angela und Martin” and “You are not welcome, Erdogan”!
I was watching the BBC last night and they were beating the “educated vs uneducated” drum pretty hard. I had Michael Medved on for a few minutes today and he repeated it.
Infuriating.
It reminded me of something I read – I think Mark Steyn wrote it. About how the average punter was right and the educated elite was wrong back in the day when the UK embraced multiculturalism.
I think the average punter without a degree is not as stupid as those with a degree would like to think.
Are desperate to think–it’s the only way they can validate their own worth. And I say that from the “wisdom” of my three Masters degrees.
Eric Hines
Nigel’s face in that picture is priceless.