Fear of being overrun by immigrants was a driving concern for “Leave” voters. But globalization concerns and a desire to wrest Britain from under Brussels’ thumb were also key factors.
.. Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who backed leaving the E.U., is considered a front-runner to succeed Mr. Cameron.
.. Investors fled to the American dollar and the yen.
.. London’s role as a financial center could be imperiled, particularly if the trade in euro-denominated securities moves to rival cities like Paris and Frankfurt.
.. Scotland and Northern Ireland could go their own way. Both voted overwhelmingly to stay in the E.U. But prominent political leaders in Scotland and Northern Ireland called on Friday for new moves toward separating from Britain.
.. Northern Ireland has an open border with the Republic of Ireland, a member of the bloc. Border crossings could now be tightened, and pressure could increase for unification, prompting instability in both places.
.. Donald J. Trump: “I said this was going to happen, and I think that it’s a great thing.”
The British people “have declared their independence from the European Union, and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy,” Mr. Trump said. “A Trump administration pledges to strengthen our ties with a free and independent Britain.”
My rough calculations, which are in line with other estimates, suggest that Britain would end up about two percent poorer than it would otherwise be, essentially forever. That’s a big hit.
.. impacts of Brexit would be uneven: London and southeast England would be hit hard, but Brexit would probably mean a weakerpound, which might actually help some of the old manufacturing regions of the north.
.. For that is the most frustrating thing about the E.U.: Nobody ever seems to acknowledge or learn from mistakes.
.. The E.U.’s failures have produced a frightening rise in reactionary, racist nationalism — but Brexit would, all too probably, empower those forces even more, both in Britain and all across the Continent.
Stripped of distractions, it comes down to an elemental choice: whether to restore the full self-government of this nation, or to continue living under a higher supranational regime, ruled by a European Council that we do not elect in any meaningful sense, and that the British people can never remove, even when it persists in error.
.. We are deciding whether to be guided by a Commission with quasi-executive powers that operates more like the priesthood of the 13th Century papacy than a modern civil service; and whether to submit to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) that claims sweeping supremacy, with no right of appeal.
.. The banking union belies its name. Germany and the creditor states have dug in their heels.
.. The Project bleeds the lifeblood of the national institutions, but fails to replace them with anything lovable or legitimate at a European level. It draws away charisma, and destroys it. This is how democracies die.
.. Nobody has ever been held to account for the design faults and hubris of the euro, or for the monetary and fiscal contraction that turned recession into depression, and led to levels of youth unemployment across a large arc of Europe that nobody would have thought possible or tolerable in a modern civilized society.
.. Has there ever been a proper airing of how the elected leaders of Greece and Italy were forced out of power and replaced by EU technocrats, perhaps not by coups d’etat in a strict legal sense but certainly by skulduggery?
.. On what authority did the European Central Bank write secret letters to the leaders of Spain and Italy in 2011 ordering detailed changes to labour and social law, and fiscal policy, holding a gun to their head on bond purchases?
.. You can argue too that the accession of thirteen new countries since 2004 – mostly from Eastern Europe – has changed the chemistry of the EU beyond recognition, making it ever less plausible to think of a centralized, close-knit, political union.
.. We require constant inflows of foreign capital to keep the game going, and are therefore vulnerable to a sterling crisis if foreigners lose confidence.
.. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has ripped up the post-War rule book and is testing Nato every day in the Baltics; China’s construction of airfields along international shipping routes off the Philippines is leading to a superpower showdown with the US.
.. Americans of all people should understand why a nation may wish to assert its independence.
That is because, as we all know, Cornwallis was a coward, and it was just like him to find such a fittingly ignominious hole wherein to snivel and whimper while, in the defenses around the town, his troops were destroyed.
Because we have learned that is what British generals did in the war. They ponced about in their splendid red uniforms, dipped snuff, and looked down their snooty noses as the silly-billy Americans dared take on the Most Powerful Army in the History of the World. And the moment the cannons burped, they abandoned their troops to be slaughtered while they stayed safely out of harm’s way, lest their wigs get mussed.
It’s part of our national mythology that does not serve us well. By belittling the enemy, we diminish the magnitude of our American achievement. While well intended, this “History Channel” fairytale about Cornwallis, the other British generals, the troops they led, and the conduct of the war is counterproductive.