Don’t Take Your Eyes Off Britain. Watch it Burn, and Take Heed
Photo by Mary Turner/Getty
(Note: For more Brexit coverage, check out Michael Howard on why it was a good result, and Ben Gran on what it means for America.)
Nigel Farage says June 23rd will now for all Britons come to be regarded as ‘independence day’. Most likely, however, we’ll come to remember that date better as the day we deliberately fucked our own economy, shut the door on Europe and broke Great Britain for good. It’s not that we weren’t warned this would happen — we were, repeatedly. Only the campaign in favour of a Brexit — the Leave campaign, headed up by Tory clown prince Boris Johnson and UKIP panjandrum Farage — told us to ignore the experts. Another core Conservative proponent of Vote Leave, MP Michael Gove, compared any economists warning of post-Brexit recession to scientists paid by Hitler and at one stage went on television to declare the people of Britain had “had enough of experts.”
So, on Thursday, fueled by xenophobia and anti-elite sentiment, and in a display of defiance against Michael Gove’s hated ‘experts’, Britain by a nudge voted to exit the European Union. The majority of voters chose to trust Vote Leave — vaguely promising a glorious Britain, a Britain prospering on its own as in the days of Empire — rather than concern themselves with what any economists or other assorted boffins had to say. What, after all, did they know?
Within minutes of the first Brexit results being released, the pound was plummeting faster and further than it had at any time since 1985. In two hours $350 billion, or the equivalent of 40 years of EU membership payment, was wiped off the UK economy. After five hours, Britain had stopped being the fifth-largest economy in the world. Before the day was even half over, Standard and Poor’s announced Britain was set to lose its AAA credit rating and there were rumors that Morgan Stanley was getting ready to move staff out of London. The UK’s film and TV industry looked shot, and science and technology research spending appeared likely to drop significantly.
Meanwhile, pro-EU Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister confirmed he would seek a poll on a reunified Ireland; a second referendum on independence for the similarly pro-EU Scotland appeared certain; Spain called for joint control of Gibraltar; and there were even quite serious propositions that EU-friendly London, the UK’s and arguably Europe’s capital, should break away from the rest of Euro-sceptic Britain. For all its talk of the glory of Great Britain, the Leave campaign within a day of getting the result it wanted ironically looked to have permanently shattered the nation it so idolized. Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, leaving the ruling Conservative party in turmoil and a snap general election before the end of the year looking probable. This, dear friends on the other side of the Atlantic, has been day one.