Saturday, June 25, 2016

 

Brexit!

On Thursday, UK voters decided to leave the European Union. Prime Minister John Cameron immediately announced his resignation, and the EU asked England to leave quickly.

Apparently, John Oliver's warnings before the vote went unheeded:



The next development may well be the breakup of the United Kingdom, which is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Confusingly, the four sometimes operate as one nation (as in this vote) and at other times as four separate countries (as in sports including soccer, where Wales has enjoyed sudden success in the Euro championships this summer). It seems likely that Scotland will secede, at least. And why not? They almost seceded in 2014, and now there is the added incentive of being able to re-join the EU at much lower cost.

What else might happen? Will this affect IPLawGuy's travel plans?

Comments:
Well, I made it through six minutes of John Oliver, which I count as a personal feat of great perseverance.

My hope for all of us is that this upstart island nation will survive all alone in a cold cruel world. Hopefully, their currency will not collapse, their banks will not fail, and their institutions of self government will not devolve into chaos.

My hope also is that the EU and the USA will prove flexible enough to accommodate this new reality, magnanimous enough to make the best out of Britain's decision and eschewing any vindictive attempt to punish the Brits for exercising their right to self determination.

It seems to me that we all ought be able to get along just fine in this new framework.
 
I love the song at 13:30 of this John Oliver segment (which makes the most sense if you can make it through the preceding 13 minutes, Waco Farmer!)

Seriously, I do hope the UK can come through this well. There are a lot of fears, though, and this one seems particularly well-founded:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/northern-irish-peace-sacrificed-english-nationalism
 
Well, Brexit going to be a BONANZA for corporate lawyers like me. All kinds of new contracts must be negotiated. And that's kind of sad. The people that will make money off this are the lawyers and bankers --- exactly the people whom the "LEAVE" voters resent the most.

The LEAVE vote won't stop the flood of immigrants either.

This is a mess on many levels.
 
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