Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 396 posts

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#161

Post by anexprogrammer »

jacalata wrote: post #108
anexprogrammer wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard on the news earlier that already large numbers have sought Eire citizenship by applying for an Irish (hence EU) passport. (All northern Ireland citizens are entitled to dual nationality). So it may end up helping the United Ireland opinion by proxy if large numbers continue to seek Irish passports.

Hmm, would it? A lot of people might be ok with sitting back and letting it play out if they had the escape valve of still being an EU citizen.

Perhaps, but it may also weaken the strength of ties to the mainland as views diverge.

Only time can tell. None of us have much idea how this is going to play out! Even those leading the Leave group.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#162

Post by volatilitish »

dave_sullivan wrote: post #38
coderdude wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for the grandmother country to break out on its own. I've never had a high opinion of the EU. Mostly because of their ridiculous laws about the internet. I'm happy about this and I hope it works out well.

I've never had a high opinion of a divided Europe, mostly because of the two world wars that started there. The problems driving the brexit will not suddenly get better now. I'll put it this way: has economic isolationism ever made a country better off in the history of history? I can't think of a time.

Do you think the breakup of the USSR was a good thing?

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#163

Post by mywittyname »

tomp wrote: post #97
vonnik wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Independence is a mirage, as is control. No individual nor country in the world is independent. We are all interdependent on one another, and ever more so as the movement of data, goods and people accelerates. The EU is a framework is facilitate that interdependence, and while it has many faults, it was created to prevent another world war and in that it has succeeded. Great Britain's future is very dependent on the…

> The EU will make the UK pay a price for Brexit, and rightly so, otherwise all member states would leave and still enjoy the free movement of goods and people. I really hate this sentiment. This is just about the worst EU can do, it would damage its legitimacy in the eyes of us, EU citizens, even more than the handling of the Greek crisis already did. I don't see any reason to punish a country for voting to leave th…

It's not about punishment, but fairness and self-preservation. There's no point to the EU if countries can leave and enjoy the perks of membership at the same time. If the EU is going to come out of this in one piece, they will need to demonstrate that the perks of membership go hand-and-hand with the sacrifices needed to make things work.

Unfortunately for Britain, they've shown their hand early and they have no real leverage. I think the EU will demonstrate good will because they understand that those most directly affected by this vote did not agree with it. So I won't be surprised to see visa waivers and the like for expats.

I also think future trade agreements will be "fair." Which is to say, I don't think they will be punitive, but I doubt it will be as favorable to "independent" England as it was to "member" England.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#164

Post by jhou2 »

illumin8 wrote: post #7
volatilitish wrote: post #2

As a brit, it's strange to see how it's being spun here. The majority of people voted to leave the EU and to regain independence. There will be a little volatility until some facts about how that divorce happens, emerge. Long term, we now have control of our future. In terms of startups though, the EU is there to serve big businesses and powerful establishment. It's there to hinder startups and small businesses. If y…

If you think the full on collapse of the UK banking system, and the mass exodus of financial jobs isn't going to instantly dry up any startup funding in the UK, you're kidding yourself. Large companies in the UK are already announcing their intention to move thousands of jobs to Germany or Ireland.

To some extent, I think this is what Brexit supporters want. With fewer jobs in London and rest of UK, and more border controls, the attraction of the UK for migrants decreases significantly. The ultra heated real estate market can finally cool down a bit.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#165

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

mjevans wrote: post #116
mioelnir wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the EU give such a favorable deal to a country as unimportant as UK? The EU-member UK leaving is an important signal; but non-EU-member Uk is an irrelevant tiny market. The Brexit camps idea that they could leave so they could finally pick whatever they like, as they have been trying to do for the last 40 years, is cute but laughably naive. They will not continue to receive the free travel, trade access and…

That is what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping that in a few weeks, after the international wake up call has finally reached the ears of those who voted with emotion instead of logic, there will actually be a full election in the UK. I then hope that with the backing of the people's vote getting new officials in to office that they resist the call to invoke Article 50, and instead bring grievances to the EU along with some…

I'd hope that too.

I'm not optimistic. If mature world class leadership were likely, we wouldn't be here.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#166

Post by dragonwriter »

volatilitish wrote: post #154
dragonwriter wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We will now be free to negotiate trade deals with countries outside the EU (Which we currently are not able to do. The EU has been absolutely awful at trying to negotiate trade deals with other countries). We will negotiate a trade deal with the EU as a whole. The second sentence of the parenthetical, if taken to be true, casts significant doubt on the claim in the final sentence. I don't doubt that the requirement…

I don't understand. The EU has been extremely ineffective at negotiating trade deals between the 28 EU countries, and non EU countries. We (UK) will be far more effective at negotiating our own trade deals with non EU countries. It's far simpler for a start.

> The EU has been extremely ineffective at negotiating trade deals between the 28 EU countries, and non EU countries.

Exactly, which casts strong doubts on the this claim from your earlier post: "We will negotiate a trade deal with the EU as a whole."

Because, you know, that is a trade deal between the 27 remaining EU countries and a non-(or soon to be non-)EU country, the exact thing you say that the EU isn't successful at doing.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#167

Post by rayiner »

hsitz wrote: post #159
rayiner wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope that word doesn't stick. All EU countries are independent, as is the UK. For the sake of all 27 EU countries , please stop using divisive and wrong rhetoric. Lesson from the US: You can't have sovereigns with superior sovereigns. Individual US states are on paper sovereign, but in reality have been relegated to being administrative districts of the federal government with little meaningful right to self-dete…

The EU is not some sort of sovereign. It's an organization staffed by bureaucrats (i.e., unelected officials) for the purpose of furthering the agreed upon goals of the member sovereign states. Comparison with U.S. is ridiculous.

There is an EU Parliament, and it can make binding law. So it's pretty disingenuous to make it seem like the UN or WTO.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#168

Post by ommunist »

ori_b wrote: post #144
ommunist wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are gaining one! Swiss banking privacy rules down under EU pressure. The UK now have freedom to keep large money more private than Swiss can do from now.

Switzerland is not part of the EU. Why do you think that the UK have more freedom in this case?

Switzerland already bent its traditional legislation to comply with new EU ruling about banks secrets snd reporting. The UK banking just got its chance.

Re: Doom, Gloom and Unease: London's Tech Scene Reacts to Brexit

#170

Post by vox_mollis »

mc32 wrote: post #117
jacalata wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an even faster growing trend of people who campaign on really explicit "stop immigration, prevent foreigners from ruining our culture" platforms turning around and saying 'how dare you call me racist!'

Do people call Japan's immigration policy racist? Or do people not bemoan China controlling Tibet because, among other things, Tibet'd lose their cultural identity (this is separate from the valid argument about annexation and human rights issues). What about Bhutan, should we propose they go full globalization and either take on western culture, or Japanese or Korean culture? Fundamentally countries have a right to…

Predominantly white countries are not permitted self-determination due to innumerable arguments referencing Hitler and slavery. Protection of cultural integrity is permitted for everyone else.
Post reply on HN