fopdoodle
Friday 24th June 2016 9:53am [Edited]
Edinburgh
623 posts
Because not everyone may have been up and following all night . . . and I'm still trying to take it all in (& Cameron resigning - wtf?!) but want to be proved wrong in what the initial fallout might be for us.
The 'city' in London was also up all night poised for the pound and markets to crash if 'leave' won, along with traders on trade floor saying that overseas buyers would stall/hold off on normal trading until they saw what happened to our currency (so they could buy for less) - which compounded my fear that our economy could crash.
There was a lead by 'leave' by around 6% at around 2am which was a surprising margin, but they said that Scotland was always going to be 60/40 against (Edinburgh actual: 74.4% to remain - wow) - no idea how they knew that before votes counted, but who thought it would remain at roughly 1% as a margin for rest of night, with a win that tight? (and still don't understand how results come in city by city over 9 hours, as surely they are all counted at same time?!)
I figured that if 'leave' won it would be purely down to immigration (which makes me uncomfortable as the one statement I really want to be true is that our current legal immigrants have contributed more than they've taken out) and there is talk of a points system to qualify for entry like Australia which makes sense, but redundant if no-one wants to come here anymore anyway because our economy is on the bloody floor!
I am all for cosmopolitan and was one of the great things about living in London - integration, as it feels right - modern. Segregation only leads to conflict and resentment, and independence comes at a great cost to whole nation, and I even predict riots as there will be years of arguing going on while we are in limbo as no-one has put any plan or even contingency in place for independent vote. It could just be chaos.
I love this country but I don't want to live somewhere that shuns our neighbours, which is in effect, what we're doing. Established independent countries don't have this stigma, but an island that has just snubbed its brothers and sisters will never be seen the same way again which is sad . . . and I still maintain that the 'leavers' are mostly smug little slimeballs only really interested in themselves and power (Boris, Farage etc.) and I have a whole new respect for Gary Lineker since he called Farage a total dick.
Yes - I understand that it costs a lot to be a member of the EU, but who knows how much it will cost us in both short and long term by leaving. That was just one of my arguments for remaining.
We will now see more racism, with morons feeling they have more right now to hound existing immigrants out, and we may even have an even bigger immigrant crisis before new laws on border control are discussed, agreed & implemented - but some voters didn't think about that, did they?
It was proved that this vote was based on immigration given the coastal cities that overwhelmingly voted 'leave', and I don't really see what geography has to do with it as once on the island, one can go anywhere, but I guess there is a problem with people entering this way.
I just need to accept and respect that this is a democracy and collective opinion won - though I still maintain that it was probably a lot of patriotic halfwits (the sorts with Scottish/English flags in their windows) who probably tipped it, and it's the existing immigrants that don't know whether they'll be kicked out later or not, the ex-pats, and small businesses that may not weather the storm that I really feel for. National security is now compromised along with having to re-establish deals with other countries, but that's not my immediate concern as we are already reeling from this in many negative ways because it was a huge gamble, after which many of us who voted 'remain' will have to pay.