Victory for Britain!

[AeolianHarp]

OMG! Brexit won!!! Britain is leaving the EU!!! Can I be dreaming?! This is one of the biggest surprises I've had in my entire life.

An historic moment and one I am very pleased about!!!

[Sorrano]

So what is next for the EU and for Britain?

[Chris]

Congratulations to the UK.

[Peter]

So what is next for the EU and for Britain?

Precisely Sorrano - uncertainty is the answer and already the currency and stock market are in free fall, the opposite would have happened with remain. Some views from the classical music world here:
http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/...4cxv1EFgG1j.97

[AeolianHarp]

Congratulations to the UK.

Thanks Chris! It's been heartening to see the congrats across the Atlantic ( USA and Canada) to us over here. The EU is a sinking ship and we are doing the right thing. Now other European countries are talking about their own exits- I reckon France might be next!

[AeolianHarp]

Precisely Sorrano - uncertainty is the answer and already the currency and stock market are in free fall, the opposite would have happened with remain. Some views from the classical music world here:
http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/...4cxv1EFgG1j.97

All that talk over visas and trade is just scare mongering. There was trade and travel before the EU! Plenty of musicians travelled before the EU- look at the 1960s.

We will find new ways, a new beginning.

[Peter]

All that talk over visas and trade is just scare mongering. There was trade and travel before the EU! Plenty of musicians travelled before the EU- look at the 1960s.

We will find new ways, a new beginning.

I'm glad you're so certain.

[Humoresque]

Thanks Chris! It's been heartening to see the congrats across the Atlantic ( USA and Canada) to us over here. The EU is a sinking ship and we are doing the right thing. Now other European countries are talking about their own exits- I reckon France might be next!

France of course is a major part of the problem, they are horrendously in debt and have a workforce that feels entitled to more pay rises and will continue going on strike till they get it, just dumb beyond belief.

The Brexit vote was a backlash against the so-called 'elites', oh and it feels just so good!!

[AeolianHarp]

I'm glad you're so certain.

Er yeah- we were independent for centuries! Why would we need the EU? They are a sinking ship and it's best to leave them...( the fact that they begged us to stay says a lot).

Don't fall for the scare mongering!

[AeolianHarp]

France of course is a major part of the problem, they are horrendously in debt and have a workforce that feels entitled to more pay rises and will continue going on strike till they get it, just dumb beyond belief.

The Brexit vote was a backlash against the so-called 'elites', oh and it feels just so good!!

It does- the elites and all their celeb luvvies hate it when the ordinary people rebel against their control freakery. They can do one!

[Peter]

Er yeah- we were independent for centuries! Why would we need the EU? They are a sinking ship and it's best to leave them...( the fact that they begged us to stay says a lot).

Don't fall for the scare mongering!

I respect your views and I hope you will respect those of the 48% who voted to remain. The fact is that the country is divided, there are all sorts of unknowns, not least the real possibility of the break up of the UK with the likelihood of a Scottish referendum. Who knows what will happen with the Northern Ireland border?

The first impact is going to be felt by holidaymakers who will find things much more expensive with a lower pound, petrol is likely to cost more, inflation is likely to rise.

Most economic analysts are predicting lower growth, already we have been downgraded by Moodys from stable to negative. It said that the unpredictability of UK decision-making factored into its move, as did the likelihood of lower economic growth.

"During the several years in which the UK will have to renegotiate its trade relations with the EU, Moody's expects heightened uncertainty, diminished confidence and lower spending and investment to result in weaker growth," the agency said. Rival ratings agency Standard & Poor's said before Thursday's referendum that Britain stood to lose its AAA credit rating, and Fitch Ratings said on Friday that the vote would be "moderately negative".

I hope you're right, I certainly understand the frustrations with the EU, but it is a huge gamble - you mention how Europe wanted us to stay (so did the US), well look at those who wanted us to leave, amongst them a certain Putin.

[Humoresque]

I've just come across this disturbing observation about Brexit in a publication I won't name -

I don’t want to be a party-pooper but the celebrations have to be kept short. What does this mean? It means that the Brexit vote, far from necessarily being “seismic” in its implications (the favoured description, so far as I can tell) could, potentially, become a damp squib. The political elite have already started to backslide. My fear is that a formula will be found which will pay only lip service to the Leave campaign victory.

The likes of UKIP’s Nigel Farage will not call the tune. The likes of longstanding Euro-sceptic Daniel Hannan will. He already has the exit process elongated. He conceives of an agreement which will preserve the common market for goods allied with free movement of labour. By the latter he means the free movement of people who can show they have jobs waiting; but, if that is your opening gambit, it doesn’t take much imagination to see where negotiations will end up. Listening to him, when frequently interviewed on the BBC, brought the Stockholm syndrome to fresh life in my mind.

One conservative chap, with a polished accent, whose name escapes me, said that he thought a general election should be called and that it would be perfectly proper if a party sought a mandate to stay in the EC. When you think you have heard it all, listen to an English public school old boy and no longer wonder why working people in Burnley, Bolton and Bradford feel betrayed.

The problem is not just that a large majority of parliamentarians favour staying in; it is that the popular vote was close. The 52% of those who voted to leave was far short of the two-thirds who voted for staying in the EU in 1975. The mandate for resolute action is far thinner and boon for those who believe they know better than do common folk. A further complication is the strong vote in Scotland (62%) to stay and in Northern Ireland (56%). And more complicated still is the gulf between younger and older voters. According to the BBC, 73% of those aged from 18 to 25 voted to stay.

I heard one younger commentator say that she thought that older people had been selfish. This prompted historian David Starkey to ask whether she thought there should be an upper age limit on voter eligibility. My own view is that people younger than 25, whose brains are still developing, should be excluded from voting. But this is regarded as an eccentric view by most so I better keep quiet about it.

Though Michael Gove (Lord Chancellor) is in the frame and maybe others, it seems likely that Boris Johnson will be the next Prime Minister. It is worth comparing a snippet of his take on the result with that of Nigel Farage. Farage referred to a conversation he’d had with a woman in Burney who had held his arm and pleaded with him to help take her country back. Underlying the concern among common folk is immigration which is now running at a net 330,000 per year. Becoming as strangers in your own land and having to wait longer for basic services, like seeing a doctor, is far from the everyday experience of Old Etonian Johnson and fellow Old Etonian Cameron. It shows.

Johnson said he wanted an immigration policy which is “non-discriminatory” (eh?), “fair and balanced.” And he wants this, as he said, “to take the wind out of the sails of the extremists and those who would play politics with our immigration.” Does he also want this to preserve the cultural integrity and social harmony of the UK? Well, clearly, this was not uppermost in his mind or he would have said so.

In short, as a Brexit supporter, I have no confidence that the wishes of British voters will be carried out. And the longer the process is dragged out, the more the referendum result will be put into a nuanced perspective to suit the views of the political elite. Leave just isn’t going to mean leave; it’s going to mean whatever the elite says it means. Those who led the Leave campaign have most of the work still to do. Let’s hope that they appreciate the long road ahead

It would help if exit movements in France and in Holland and in other European countries gather pace and prevail through popular votes. A disintegrating EU would be far easier for the UK to leave behind and a lot harder for the Scots and Northern Irish to embrace. The UK’s eventually landing place might depend on the success or otherwise of Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and others in Europe who would like to see their national sovereignty restored.

[AeolianHarp]

Don't fall the for the scare mongering online folks-the elite are scared of the plebs now. Onwards and upwards!

We have a long history of standing alone- we did it for centuries, and will do it again. The EU is only 43 years old and a failure. Be courageous! Other EU countries will follow..

We are making history folks.

So what if holiday makers might have to spend a bit more- boo hoo, many of us cant even afford a day out, never mind a holiday.

These things you keep quoting Peter, are what the elite want you to spout- they love stirring it up, making you want to long to be controlled by EU fat cats, that we have to pay for.

Wake up!

p.s Putin said he agreed with us leaving ( after the results came in). But anyway, what's it to do with him? It's our decision.

[Humoresque]

Another viewpoint again this time in line with your own thinking:

So this is what democracy feels like. This is what a ballot-box revolt looks like. Yesterday the people asserted themselves. They made plain their dislike of the EU. And they did so against virtually the entire establishment. The leaders of capitalism, the vast majority of the political class, experts, academics, world leaders, global institutions, the liberal media and the celebrity set united to warn the little people, to hector and lecture them, about the dangers of rejecting the EU. And yet the little people did it anyway. They said No to the EU, and in the process revolted against a political and media establishment that thinks it knows better than us how Britain should be run. This was an uprising, a polite, quiet one, not only against Brussels but against the political class here at home, against those who rule.

Let us dwell for a moment on the failure of the establishment. It pumped an extraordinary amount of energy, money, time and intellectual resources into the campaign to keep Britain in the EU. It deployed the politics of fear, issuing dire warnings about a post-Brexit recession and a possible surge in racism and violence. It sent experts to explain to our tiny minds all the things that would happen if we made the wrong choice. It rallied big business, corporates, its global partners and allies, all of whom insisted that it is in Britain’s interests, and Europe’s interests, for the EU to stay intact. And yet it didn’t work. Even in the face of these fearful overtures from the powerful, a majority of people rejected the EU. The establishment can no longer connect with significant sections of society. The chasm between the elite and the people just went from huge to possibly unbridgeable.

[AeolianHarp]

Yes I saw that! And pay no attention to that referendum petition- they've had people from North Korea and spambots signing it- it's a fake. I kid you not!