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UK votes to leave EU

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK votes to leave EU

#201

Post by iainmerrick »

lettergram wrote: post #51

I still have severe doubts this will happen. It will take many years to renegotiate and most treaties will be in effect until then. My guess is very little changes, it's more of a sign that people want their country sovereign as opposed to being ruled by a committee in another country.

One longer-term risk is that it will destabilize the whole EU. If the UK doesn't collapse, other countries will ask for the same deal, and the EU will just fall apart bit by bit.

To extend your argument, maybe that wouldn't actually change much in the grand scheme of things! But EU regulations have a pretty big impact, so I think the breakup of the EU would actually be a big deal.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#202

Post by chubs »

The country that gave us the Magna Carta, literally the manuscript for limited-government liberty, has done it again, on (almost) its 800th anniversary! Super interesting days ahead.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#203

Post by cisstrd »

dangjc wrote: post #95

It's amazing that such deep constitutional change will be achieved with such a slim majority. 48% of British people will be ejected out of the EU essentially against their will. The UK has always embraced first past the post voting, but it really shows here how it creates very discontinuous inflection points.

That's what a democracy is all about, isn't it?

Isn't it insane how close the race between G.W. Bush and Al Gore was in 2000? Consider the consequences of that decision for a moment. And the voter turnout was only 51.2% in that election, not ~70%. Saying that in the end a small amount of voters make all the difference, that's true in so many cases...

At least regarding the Brexit-vote no one can complain that there wasn't a discussion about the issues, everyone spoke out, politicians, musicians, actors, companies, banks, ... and the people were bombarded with information and arguments for months. And the people have spoken.

(Others have pointed out that this is not legally binding, true, but it's certainly going to happen. There is no other viable way at this point)

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#204

Post by smegel »

beninvalencia wrote: post #122

As other comments have noted, the point is that the EU will not want to give the UK a good deal on leaving, because the EU does not want to give any encouragement to the other countries which want to leave the EU (some of which want to leave more strongly than the UK do - apparently). Secondly, why would the UK end up with a Norway or Switzerland deal, when the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world? This is unpr…

The UK will also still carry a lot of influence over Europe through NATO.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#205

Post by labrador »

sandworm101 wrote: post #136

But you assume that people in the UK have an alternative to those German cars. They don't. Germany makes better cars than anyone else. Brits will still buy them, they will just now be more expensive. Two words: British Leyland

This is the stupidest comment I've ever seen on HN. Really? Britain will beg to reverse this decision because they need German cars?

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#206

Post by rdtsc »

martythemaniak wrote: post #13

Is Scotland going to be exiting the UK next? Guess we'll see in a few years. Hard to know what will happen here, but I suspect once the UK (or what's left of it) signs a trade deal with the EU, they'll get the same deal as Norway - all the compliance with EU regulations, with none of the say. I suppose people may be happy with that deal, as long as they can get to say they're "free". I'm hoping this somehow leave the…

I think what was interesting was that in regional charts, I saw Scotland strongly favor staying with EU. I found that interesting. It probably played as a factor when they chose to stay with UK, because as such they also stayed as part of EU. Now that UK is not part of the EU, Scotland might think again about its decision to stay.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#207

Post by ubernostrum »

Gatsky wrote: post #121

Yet another example that immigration policy trumps pretty well all other concerns. This has played out several times in Australia. 5% of the population suddenly voted for a nationalist candidate Pauline Hanson who came from nowhere, had no policies, no credibility and no clue just because she was against immigration. Major political parties took note that day, and since then they have in various roundabout ways adopt…

Of course it raises the question of what happens down the road.

The problem with advocating extreme anti-immigration policies is you have to take great care to never actually succeed, since if you ever do and things go badly you're left without a nebulous external boogeyman to blame.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#208

Post by meowface »

In my opinion, the chances of any sort of war at this point remain pretty low.

However, it's possible a Trump presidency and fractured EU might lead to a perfect storm for some kind of global conflict in a few years. I think still a low chance, but it does almost sound like the beginning chapter of a history book.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#210

Post by dang »

mudil wrote: post #40

Doom and gloom, doom and gloom! In your world, in order to survive England needs to kneel before the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.

Please don't do the flamewar thing here.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11966234 and marked it off-topic.

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