Referendum Day
Today has been a very eventful day. First I was up at 6am to get to my local polling station in order to cast my vote in the EU Referendum as soon as the doors opened. I then had to get up to campus and spent all day from 9am until now interviewing for a Lectureship in Probability and Statistics. In between there have been thunderstorms, torrential rain, and flooding. Also, after checking the bookies’ odds on the Referendum result, I decided to place an insurance bet on Leave of £100 at 10/1 against. Given the closeness of the opinion polls I think those odds are far too long.
I’m far too tired to stay up and follow the results coming in, but tomorrow morning I’ll wake up to find that the UK will remain in the European Union or that I’m £1000 richer.
Anyway, for those of you out there who still haven’t voted – perhaps because of the inclement weather – there’s still three hours to get to it!
June 23, 2016 at 7:36 pm
If “remain” wins, will you be getting a tattoo of the EU flag?
June 24, 2016 at 8:26 am
Looks like drinks are on you🙂
June 24, 2016 at 9:20 am
Enjoy the grand… I assume its not taxable?
June 24, 2016 at 9:21 am
No, but it’s now only worth £900 anyway.
June 24, 2016 at 9:46 am
Well done on that insurance bet, Peter. And don’t be despondent about the future.
June 24, 2016 at 10:08 am
I’m more concerned with what will happen to the younger generations.
June 24, 2016 at 1:41 pm
But please also spare a thought for the middle aged who may never work again.
June 24, 2016 at 3:36 pm
If it happens that Brexit causes the situation to become worse for the majority, the UK can rejoin, subject of course to the rules for all new applicants. This assumes, of course, that people realize that it was Brexit which caused things to become worse, assuming that that will be the case.
It appears that in the UK the EU is often used as a scapegoat, even for problems which have nothing to do with the EU. What will assume that role now?
June 24, 2016 at 4:38 pm
Yes, that’s exactly right. The EU has been used as a scapegoat for things like globalisation, reduced wages following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the negative effects of UK government policies and changes in identity (some of which involves immigration, some of which does not). There is considerable anger (most justified) over inequality, house prices and difficult personal circumstances.
Some politicians and many newspapers have constructed a narrative that the European Union was at fault (“uncontrolled immigration”; government inaction in many policy fields “because of Brussels”). This is turn has fed anger against the EU.
This has stoked up a belief that free EU migration is putting severe tension into public services and the availability of homes, and that the UK government is unable to act in the interests of its citizens because of EU legislation and regulations. The reality is that migration from outside and from within the EU is probably unavoidable at some level in the modern world. In reality the UK government does not act to improve the lives of its citizens because it mostly chooses not to do so, or it cannot do so because of financial pressures after the financial crash, or deliberate policies to reduce the state.
People have been promised a land of milk and honey after the UK quits the EU. The reality, as many of us knew and said – and some of us said face to face when campaigning on the streets over the past weeks – is economic crisis and failure.
Where will anger be directed now? I don’t know. I’m worried. It might be against politicians who made impossible promises over leaving, but it might be against foreigners. Newspapers will try to shape public responses. Some of the anger might not be controllable.
It’s a complete disaster, and a self-inflicted British disaster.
June 24, 2016 at 8:09 pm
Here’s a blast from the past: the late former German chancellor and piano player Helmut Schmidt speaking at a Labour Party conference on the occasion of a previous referendum.
I dare say his English is better than that of Tom Shanks! 😀