Britons Vote to Leave European Union

You may have noticed that I haven’t commented on the Britons’ decision as to whether the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Union or leave it, “Brexit” as that’s been dubbed, a portmanteau of “Britain” and “exit”, a peculiar neologism since to the best of my recollection in the UK exits are frequently labelled “Way Out”. Britons have voted for Brexit. The BBC reports:

Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, he said “fresh leadership” was needed.

The PM had urged the country to vote Remain but was defeated by 52% to 48% despite London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backing staying in.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK’s “independence day”, while Boris Johnson said the result would not mean “pulling up the drawbridge”.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was “absolutely determined” to keep Scotland in the EU so a second Scottish independence referendum was now “highly likely”.

A regional and demographic analysis of the patterns of voting would be interesting and there are maps of the regional results here. My off-hand guess, supported by the maps, is that native English voted to leave. Note that in the north of England 70% or more voted to leave, in the Midlands, the west of England, Cornwall, and Wales majorities voted to leave, while in Scotland, the home counties, and areas surrounding other major cities majorities voted to remain.

On the merits of leaving or remaining, I really have no view. I think that a European free trade zone makes sense, the European Union, essentially a government without a country run by unelected bureaucrats, makes less sense, and the euro makes no sense at all.

For the last century and a half if not longer the Germans have had a persistent project to Germanize Europe. In the 20th century two world wars were the outgrowth of that project; in the 21st century its primary engine has been the European Union. The Germans are not philanthropists. Their idea of a European Union will inevitably be run according to German preferences and to benefit Germans. It seems to me that, sensibly, ordinary Britons recognize that.

I have pointed out repeatedly that our European cousins have a choice to make. They can be the ethnic states they’ve always been or become multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. They can’t straddle, at least not effectively. I suspect there was a tinge of a desire to remain British in the Britons’ vote to leave the EU.

Note that the polls that predicted as some did that Britons would vote to remain were gigantically wrong. I think that increasingly respondents are telling pollsters what they think the pollsters want to hear and that phenomenon isn’t limited to the United Kingdom.

34 comments… add one
  • ... Link

    When you know the government monitors every damned thing you do, lying about what you think is only natural. It becomes a habit.

    Incidentally, I caught my phone spying on me the other day. I’d heard of it, and had half suspected it at times, but I caught it dead to rights the other day. Lying to pollsters won’t be enough before long.

  • ... Link

    As for Brexit, I’m seeing lots of English people today bemoaning the fact that England is a little less civilised today. I’m wondering how more Rotherhams and more Chinese and Russian billionaires driving up property values in Londonistan (not to mention all the mosques and FGM and head chopping) made England MORE civilised, but whatever. I’m sure they’ll all be welcome in more civilised internationalist locals such as the IS Caliphate.

  • ... Link

    Incidentally, I was at my chess club last night, and one of our English members was unexpectedly there. He splits his time between exurban Florida and northern England, and we all thought he’d be in England until sometime in the fall. Anyway, he seemed pretty clear that he favored the Brexit, and we were all wondering why everyone was in a panic. Nothing really changed from yesterday to today, other than that we know that the people getting screwed by the globalists have finally had enough. You’d think they’d already started chopping heads.

  • Actually, I’ll be greatly surprised if much of anything comes of the vote. It was an advisory referendum. Even then it will take years actually to separate. They’re saying two but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if two didn’t stretch into five and five didn’t stretch into ten.

    Never underestimate bureaucrats’ ability to prolong the agony.

  • ... Link

    I’m also failing to see why trans-nationalism is so appealing. It’s not like it hasn’t been tried before. Prior examples: The Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Austria-Hungary Empire, the British Empire, Bonaparte’s Empire, the French Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Soviet Union & the Soviet Empire, the Empire of the Rising Sun, the Nazi Empire, etc.

    Oh well, I guess if they try REALLY REALLY HARD they’ll get it right this time!

  • ... Link

    It was an advisory referendum. Even then it will take years actually to separate. They’re saying two but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if two didn’t stretch into five and five didn’t stretch into ten.

    It’s two years from the time a member state makes the formal request to the appropriate bureaucratic body, unless member states agree to make it quicker by unanimous consent.

    So the only thing that has changed is that the rulers are realized the ruled are growing restless, and that height reduction surgery for a select few may become compulsory some point soon.

    Never underestimate bureaucrats’ ability to prolong the agony.

    Job security. I only ever met one bureaucrat who willingly eliminated the need for his own job. He was a man of great personal character, as well.

  • PD Shaw Link

    I heard this AM that the Germans have a working paper for how to treat the vote, and it is basically to negotiate an associated membership agreement with the UK, but with terms that don’t encourage France and Italy to leave.

  • The EU president’s reaction was to muse out loud on how the Brits should be punished. That’s precisely the sort of rhetoric that will convince the Brexiteers that they were right and make other countries wonder if they shouldn’t be thinking along the same lines.

    The louder the Germans squeal about other countries accepting their fair share of Middle Eastern and North African immigrants, the shakier the EU will become. Hungary, Serbia, and Greece just got rid of their Ottoman occupiers a century and a half or so ago. Hungary in particular is in a difficult position. There’s no where else they can go to be Hungarian. They’re a small country that speaks a language spoken nowhere else in the world. If they want anything resembling their culture to exist, they can’t accept a lot of immigrants.

  • with terms that don’t encourage France and Italy to leave.

    For decades including on this blog I’ve been saying that the purposes of the EU were to provide subsidies for French farmers and markets for German manufacturers. I’ve also pointed out that French farm subsidies can’t survive the admission of Romania (Ukraine would be even worse). The more that Germany impoverishes its neighbors the worse for the EU.

    And Italy? It’s on the brink of economic collapse from a combination of mismanagement and immigration. Basically, it’s Greece except ten times as large. Talk about too big to be allowed to fail!

  • PD Shaw Link

    I think Italy and France were mentioned because the EU is not any more popular with the people in those countries than in the UK. The key question is whether they are allowed to vote on it.

  • TastyBits Link

    The elites of the Republican party in the US and the elites of the Remain supporters in the UK are throwing a temper tantrum because they are not getting their way. They have decided to burn down their respective establishments, but nobody seems to find this objectionable.

    For #NeverTrump and #NotMyVote, we get “Elites Gone Wild”, but for the Trump and Brexit supporters, we get “Cops”.

  • CStanley Link

    I caught a short interview with a very peeved looking Tony Blair on Fox this morning (cut short because the Fox friends had to cut to the breaking news of Trump visiting his newly renovated golf course.) Blair was going on about the Brexiteers being wrong about immigration, and seemed to imply that EU wasn’t mandating immigration policy. Is that true or will the British have greater ability to strengthen their borders now?

  • Blair was going on about the Brexiteers being wrong about immigration, and seemed to imply that EU wasn’t mandating immigration policy. Is that true or will the British have greater ability to strengthen their borders now?

    The present situation in the UK is that as a member of the EU people from other EU countries have a right to come there without visas. They can work in the UK without getting a work visa.

    So the UK has two classes of immigrants. One class is the Middle Eastern and North African migrants who are piled up in Calais right now trying to get in. The other class is other EU citizens.

    The economies of Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and France have been weak for years. Their people are moving to the UK to work because the UK’s economy has been stronger.

    If the UK leaves the EU, unless there are separate treaties governing the situation, there’s no automatic ability for EU citizens to travel to the UK or work there.

  • ... Link

    Given that Blair was the one that decided to make England Not English anymore, I don’t think I’d trust him on the topic.

    The EU president’s reaction was to muse out loud on how the Brits should be punished. That’s precisely the sort of rhetoric that will convince the Brexiteers that they were right and make other countries wonder if they shouldn’t be thinking along the same lines.

    The chaos in the markets is the first punishment to be meted out to Old Blighty. I suspect that somehow George Soros just doubled his fortune wrecking the pound. Again.

  • The chaos in the markets is the first punishment to be meted out to Old Blighty.

    That’s the thing. Market chaos doesn’t punish most Brits just the elite few. Unrestricted immigration punishes most Brits but not the elite few.

  • ... Link

    CStanley, did they (Fox & Friends) cover the Nazi golf balls at the Trump presser?

  • ... Link

    That’s the thing. Market chaos doesn’t punish most Brits just the elite few. Unrestricted immigration punishes most Brits but not the elite few.

    Are you kidding? Market chaos will used as justification for giving the extremely wealthy more money from the middle class. That’s what 2008 & 2009 were about, evil fucktards like Soros & Buffett getting toadies like Bush and Obama to rob the public so they could get richer and everyone else would get poorer. It’ll be the same thing this time.

  • walt moffett Link

    Always thought the idea of the EU/ECC/ESCS et al was to ensure that among equals, France was always the first.

    Moving on, now to see if the UK actually follows through. Some interesting polling data via the Telegraph. In short the margin of victory was in the blue collar, retiree groups.

  • steve Link

    I agree that the EU emerged largely because of WWII. I think they were willing to pay a price to avoid another war. Unfortunately Thatcher was right. A reunited Germany is so big it dominates everything. Throw in the idea of a common currency without a true common government and it was doomed to fail. The EU has been dead since 2008-2009. It is just going to twitch a bit longer. Have to wonder who goes next, and when.

    Steve

  • PD Shaw Link

    @CStanley, its a little confusing because the UK is not a member of the Schengen Agreement, which is the main arrangement that makes the EU a one-border state. Ireland is not a member of Schengen as well.

    I believe the European Economic Area is the association by which free trade and movement occurs within the EU, but also non-EU countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) are members. So its not exactly the same as the EU, and its not clear if the referendum involved this or not.

  • PD Shaw Link

    From today’s Guardian:

    “A senior EU leader has confirmed the bloc wants Britain out as soon as possible, warning that David Cameron’s decision to delay the start of Brexit negotiations until his successor is in place may not be fast enough.

    Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, told the Guardian that EU lawyers were studying whether it was possible to speed up the triggering of article 50 – the untested procedure for leaving the European Union.

    “Uncertainty is the opposite of what we need,” Schulz said, adding that it was difficult to accept that “a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party”.”

    * * *

    The other confusing thing, I was paraphrasing something attributed to the elected leader of Germany about negotiating an association membership, like Norway’s. I suspect Merkel’s instincts are incremental and would prefer not to make the break irreparable.

    The non-elected permanent bureaucracy may have other plans.

  • CStanley Link

    Thanks for the explanations. I figured that the immigration issue was complex and was curious but didn’t have time to research it.

    @icepick- lol, don’t know, I just landed briefly on Fox while flipping channels.

  • PD:

    Schulz is completely wrong. What happened wasn’t due to “an internal fight in the Tory party”. Look at the maps I linked to again. The northeast of England isn’t Tory. It’s solidly Labour. What happened was a realignment. Labour’s leaders have become disconnected from the party’s rank and file as the Conservative Party’s leaders have.

    Labour has split into Leave and Remain and Conservatives have also split into Leave and Remain.

  • PD Shaw Link

    @Dave, I agree with that, and thought to mention it.

    The other thing that caught my eye is that it appears that in Northern Ireland it was the Protestant areas that were majority leave and the Catholic areas were stay. What that portends, I have no idea. But others seem certain.

  • Class. The Protestants are middle class and the Catholics are working class.

  • Guarneri Link

    “The EU president’s reaction was to muse out loud on how the Brits should be punished. That’s precisely the sort of rhetoric that will convince the Brexiteers that they were right and make other countries wonder if they shouldn’t be thinking along the same lines.”

    I think some of the same dynamics apply here (immigration, elite conceit, disillusionment with institutions) and Obama and Clinton’s scorn could backfire.

  • ... Link

    I think some of the same dynamics apply here (immigration, elite conceit, disillusionment with institutions) and Obama and Clinton’s scorn could backfire.

    They think they’ve already made America Third World enough to get away with it. They probably have, given that they’ve had help from three Republican Presidents and several Republican Congresses.

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