I suffered the loss of a good friend last night. The United Kingdom ( May 1, 1707-June 23rd, 2016), America’s mother country, the source of US traditions and many of our values , a country that holds a special place in my heart, committed suicide last night. It was 409 years old. The corpse is still twitching but the damage has been done. That the death was completely avoidable makes this loss of a once great nation particularly tragic.
I stayed up watching the returns start to come in, and I went to bed cautiously optimistic. I awoke at 4AM, looked at my phone and knew my once good friend was doomed. I got up and went downstairs to watch the BBC and ITV coverage. At 6:20 AM, they pronounced the patient dead.
By that time the S.O. had seen 6% of her Japanese savings vanish. The pound was down almost 8% and Dow Jones futures were indicating a monumental meltdown at the open.
And there on the TV was the obnoxious face of Nigel Farage. For those who don’t know him, he is the leader of the UKIP party and the darling of fucking idiots American Conservatives for his Trumpian rhetoric.
V.I.K.I.: You are making a mistake. My logic is undeniable.
Detective Del Spooner: You have so got to die.
As the morning unfolded, the hits just kept on coming. The founder of this monstrosity of a referendum, David Cameron, announced he would be resigning as Prime Minister. That’s what happens when you bet the farm on a completely unnecessary political evolution and then lose.
The FTSE was dropping like a stone.
As was the DAX, and all the other European markets. The sickness even affected the bond markets, with German and Spanish bonds taking a particular beating. I have no doubt US bond markets are getting equally squeezed.
Later on in the day, Spain hinted it wants to re-open the settled issue of Gibraltar.
And of course, like a bad dream, who shows up to piss on everyone’s parade? That’s right, the vulgar talking yam himself. As he chortled over all the money he was going to make shorting stocks and fucking over his new employees at Turnberry, he displayed the particular brand of ignorance that has marked his campaign to date.
@realDonaldTrump Scotland voted IN you moron
— lily (@lilyallen) June 24, 2016
This is typical for the vulgar yam. Fuckhead.
As I type this, the American stock market is down 622 points. As predicted this a disaster. And this is just the beginning.
The crass opportunists have stepped to the microphone. Sinn Fein is making noises about how Northern Ireland would be better off in the Irish Republic and the Scottish leadership is making noise about how binding referendums are not so binding after all.
A couple of other observations:
1) The stark differences in demographics were disturbing. Interviews with older voters and younger voters make it clear that UK voters have this in common with US voters. Older people love to vote to screw young people.
The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union, 52 percent to 48 percent.
I am broken by this result. As a young person, I cannot help but feel betrayed. In fact, it’s somewhat hard not to take it a little bit personally.
Let’s look at the voter demographics. The “Leave” vote was overwhelmingly carried by those over the age of 65, whereas 72 percent of those who were aged 18 to 24 voted to “Remain.” Why does this matter? Surely, in a referendum, every vote is equal, and the will of the people carries regardless of the demographic?
Well, there is some truth to that. But that doesn’t mean every UK voter will suffer the same consequences.
The process of the UK leaving the European Union would not be complete until late 2018 at the very earliest, assuming Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is triggered when a new prime minister is appointed in the autumn of this year. Even then, that’s just the basic settlement — trade deals and movement regulations could take decades to hammer out.
Please click on the link and look at the demographics. The old screwed the young-who it appears, are smarter than their elders.
2) British expats living in Europe are going to get screwed at the drive through.
3) Finally, every right wing Jackass like Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, the leaders of Alternativ fur Deutschland and the rest are already spouting their particular racist brand of bullshit asking for their own referendums. 71 years of peace in Europe? Can’t have that. Crank up the Enola Gay-we are on our way to the Maginot Line! Retake Silesia! Party like its 1932 brother!
And then there is the damage to the US. I find the drivel being spouted by your average American moron conservative really disturbing . If I hear one more person talk about “taking their country back”, I am going to have to strangle someone. Back to where assholes?
I’ve seen where you want to take the country back to-and I want no part of it. Please go die in a fire.
Brexit is a disaster. If you do not understand that, you can leave now. We have nothing else to talk about.
Leave it to the Financial Times ( a good conservative news outlet-something your basic Breitbart fucking nitwit reader seems unable to understand):
That pretty well sums it up. Stupidity triumphed over common sense. My advice is to start drinking heavily with some now even more expensive Scotch. Its going to be a long year.
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!