Brexit: Should the UK stay or go?

Here's a Guardian article on the "Brexit fallout and what it means for the UK consumer":
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/brexit-fallout-what-it-means-for-the-uk-consumer

Interestingly, the Brexit referendum result seems to have swung the opinion in other EU sceptic countries in the EU against referendums of their own about an exit, and not the other way round as many leavers assumed.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/08/brexit-causes-resurgence-in-pro-eu-leanings-across-continent

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Oh, and for something completely different... It looks like Brexit will have quite some influence on the UK energy market which will likely increase the price for electricity in the future. The EU has been fast-tracking and funding U.K. interconnection projects to reduce a historic investment deficit, and one is left to wonder if the UK government will be able and/or willing to cover this investment from their own funds.

Then there are potential impacts to U.K. utility customers. In March, a study commissioned by National Grid predicted that leaving the EU energy market could cost U.K. utilities up to half a billion pounds per year -- likely to yield sharp electric bill hikes for consumers.

Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-brexit-will-complicate-uk-electricity-markets

funny that seeing as we have our own wind farms and our own gas and oil fields.

Do you even know how the energy market works?

Wind plants can not reliably produce energy, so you need to have back-up plants. On the other hand, if the wind plants suddenly produce much more energy than needed, there is a danger of over capacities that crash the lines and make the energy net break down.

So you need to have the opportunity to get rid of the surplus energy at high time (currently this is done by exporting this into the nets of the neighbouring states), while you also need to have sufficient standby capacities of conventional power plants for sudden low times.

So if the UK gets out of the European energy market, you need to figure out how to distribute the capacities within the UK alone, and you are currently lacking the infrastructure for that. The EU was about to put a lot of money into improving this infrastructure of yours (as there is currently a huge investment deficit), but with Brexit this money won't appear.

so what you are saying is if the wind farms make to much power we can ship it off to Poland. mate seriously this is not the end of the world.

Well, the point is that you can *not* ship it off to Poland if you are out of the EU energy market....

(Oh, and how would you ship the energy to Poland anyway? In nice bottles or plastic jars?)

I'm not sure you can bottle it and ship it anywhere. man you need to stop wasting your time looking for anything you can find to show how bad us leaving the EU is. tell you what though. if we could pay the same prices for gas electric and petrol as they do in Poland I would vote back in tomorrow

Pound Sterling overtakes Argentine Peso as worst performing currency of 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-08/pound-overtakes-argentine-peso-to-become-2016-s-worst-performer

Forever second

@Unique

Well, some pages before certain people were so adamant that everything would be so much better and easier and cheaper when out of the EU and every warning was either a "threat", a "lie" or "Project Fear".

As I was not so fond to be talked down as "fearmonger", I'd say it is just fair to show what now happens as "Project Reality" sets in...

lets face it the only people that got shafted was rich people.

Actually the rich people usually have their money and assets elsewhere and are usually not really affected. (Okay, that guy from Virgin lost quite some money - but who do you think will suffer from that? Only the "little people" who work for him as he will certainly see to maximize his profits again, which usually means laying off surplus personnel. The guy himself has enough money for himself, so he doesn't have tor worry for himself).

What about the structural weak regions in the North East of the UK that currently live on EU subsidies - do you really think the UK government will jump in and pay the same money to support them? What about the fishermen who get EU subsidies to improve their ships?

What about the rising prices for imported goods like food and fuel due to the weakness of the Pound?

What about the loss of work places when companies decide not to invest anymore (like Siemens) or move their business out of the UK (like several banks) which leads to loos of work there?

And if you want to say "But the bankers are the rich people" - then think about who pays the taxes that are needed to fund whatever the UK has to fund - and if they are out of work, they do not only pay no taxes anymore, but they will need money from the state, thus diminishing the available money for social stuff for the rest even more.

you are talking like the UK will be a 3rd world country in 2 years. it wont happen. the pound will clime back up. people will still invest in the country because the country for its size is a very rich country. look how well a small country like Switzerland do and they are not in the EU. its like people are panic buying because we have a snow storm coming.

I'm not considering the UK as 3rd world country - the things I mentioned are just logical conclusions from the events that were set into motion.

As for Switzerland - Switzerland is bound by a wealth of bilateral treaties to the EU which took several years to put in place. Thus so far Switzerland belongs to the EU in most things but in name.

Although this might be over soon as Switzerland wants to go against one of the four freedoms that are mandatory to uphold to stay in the single market. The SVP initiated a referendum in 2014 to block free movement, and the EU told the Swiss that they will be out of the EEA if they really go through with it, and then things will get difficult for Switzerland, too.

I reckon that many people who voted for Brexit are willing to pay the economic price if it reduces immigration.

But it won't reduce immigration.

We have 55k staff working for the NHS who are EU citizens.

And they don't feel safe working for the UK anymore

https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/jul/06/eu-workers-nhs-faced-racial-abuse-head-home?CMP=share_btn_tw

Wasn't there something that Commonwealth members (that is, people from the 53 other states of the former Commonwealth) can easily immigrate into the UK anyway?

And AFAIK there are quite some poor countries among them, of which people certainly would jump onto the chance to try their luck in the UK.

RealGunner wrote:We have 55k staff working for the NHS who are EU citizens.

And they don't feel safe working for the UK anymore

https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/jul/06/eu-workers-nhs-faced-racial-abuse-head-home?CMP=share_btn_tw

Not to mention the EU drug approval agency. Most folks don't realize that the drug approval agency (equilvalent to FDA in USA) is setup in London. If the UK does leave the EU, that agency and it's EU employees will leave for a EU location and The UK has to establish a new agency using presumeably the few UK citzens that currently work for the UK agency. This has a huge effect on not only pharma companies but health in general. it takes years to establish such an agency.

This is just another example of the financial / job losses that will occur (primarily in London) if UK does leave EU, plus I don't imagine several of these will put up with the uncertainty and likely start moving / transitioning soon.

#EUref turnout, by age group:
18-24: 64%
25-39: 65%
40-54: 66%
55-64: 74%
65+: 90%
(via Opinium for LSE)

Those damn 25 year olds, ruining the future for 24 year olds

Leadsom quit

Theresa may to be our next PM unless something drastic happens. Like general election.

Opinions from the Brits on this one?

My opinion is that I wish I was a politician because it's never been so easy to climb up the ladder with all of this uncertainty and confusion.

I'd sort this P.O.S country out.

CBarca wrote:Opinions from the Brits on this one?

It was never happening for her. Right from the start she had no backing by the party and her resume consisted of her being a homophobic and a liar. When the media started bringing out her past, she couldn't cope with it and gave one of the worst interviews in recent memory where she said "As a mother, I am more qualified than theresa may who doesn't have any children".

She got eaten alive.

she quit.

Although it was very much an inside job because Tories wanted a leader asap. They decided to back May instead and wanted Leadsome out of the race. Now may could be the PM as early as this week. Politics for you.

Theresa May is as bad as her though. But probably has a thicker skin.

It's a mess out there. Labour are demanding a general election despite their party divided. Even if there is a general election, labour will have to hold a party election first lol.

Will May becoming PM mean a quicker triggering of article 50? Or is the expectation still that the UK will wait until later in the year?

TheresaMay ruled out an general election until 2020 and no Article 50 until end of 2016.

So most likely she will try to play hardball with Brussels regarding the EU and won't trigger Article 50 till 2017 or 2018