Wow! This whole Brexit thing has me absolutely gobsmacked. I can't believe how the vote went.The final results were 52% for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union vs 48% to remain. Again, absolutely gobsmacked.
I've heard arguments that a post-Brexit UK could leave the EU and still retain benefits like the four countries in the European Economic Area. To me, this just sounds dumb because the UK would then still have all of the obligations it currently does but it would lose its vote. Staying the same without having a say doesn't seem too bright to me. Just saying...
The overall vote was close but it wasn't close across the entire UK. The majority of England and Wales (except for their capitals of London and Cardiff) voted to leave. The majority of Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Could this lead to another independence referendum in Scotland? Does this mean that the Common Travel Area will be impacted and border checks will have to be reintroduced between Ireland and Northern Ireland? Could there be a referendum for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join the Republic? Residents of the British Territory of Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. Brexit could have serious political and economic consequences and who knows, perhaps Spain will try to leverage this for control of the Rock.
While older voters wanted to leave, the majority of younger voters all wanted to remain. This whole referendum thing was basically supposed to be an opinion poll but it hasn't been marketed that way to UK voters. It will be interesting to see what happens next but it looks like the United Kingdom is less united than ever.
We have elections coming up in November in the USA. Let's hope that these are the only crazy election results this year.
Update: Here's another interesting CGP Grey video I found out on YouTube. It gives a nice, quick overview of last month's Brexit vote.
©CGP Grey