NELG

Next week there will be a referendum whether Great Britain should leave the European Union or stay in it. The outcome might be pretty close. Opinions or thoughts?

The campaigning's been pretty fierce. From the Remain crowd implying that young people don't believe in the letter G to a standoff on the Thames between Farage and Bob Geldoff, the latter singing while the former's team squirted him with water.

It's difficult though. The Leave campaign can make promises of good things to come. The Remain campaign can only make threats of what will happen if we leave.

Think I'm voting to remain. The only good thing I can see from leaving is a potential end to tampon tax, and as compelling as that may be, the security issues, economic implications, NHS, etc. seem to be much better reasons to stay in.

How do you think the outcome will be? Does everybody need to register to be able to vote? If this is the case, participation won't be that high.

You do have to register to vote, but if you're on the electoral register (which most people are) you are automatically registered to vote.

The outcome is pretty uncertain at the moment. I think it'll be to stay, but a lot of people voting out don't fully understand the reasoning behind their decision. There have been several interviews where people have assumed that leaving the EU will reduce all migration and therefore they will be able to get the jobs they believe immigrants are stealing from them. So many things wrong with that. It's understandable why people are getting confused though (about the migration bit, not the stealing jobs - if they're not going to try to get a job, they can't complain when others do). Earlier today I saw two statements, one from Remain and one from Leave. According to Remain, staying in the EU means that everyday goods are cheaper. According to Leave, everyday goods are inflated in price because of the EU and would be cheaper if we left.

Compared to other EU states everyday goods are more expensive in Great Britain because a lot needs to be imported. What the EU grants are subsidies for agriculture, without them prices might increase, who knows.
Might Wales and Scotland be able to decide whether they want to remain or leave?

Many people in Scotland are pushing for independence from the UK anyway. I'm not sure what their opinion of staying in is, or whether they'd be allowed to stay in without the rest of the UK. Wales, as far as I know, have no plans to split.

Another thing being debated is the NHS. There are theories that the NHS will fall apart if it is left as it is now, and that if we vote to leave the money saved can go towards funding the NHS. But many doctors and nurses come from European countries to work for the NHS. If we no longer take as many European medics, the NHS will still be understaffed. It's true that the NHS is in trouble (have you heard about the junior doctor strikes?), but I don't see that leaving will change that.

I read a bit about it but didn't know it was that bad.

If Great Britain leaves, there will be a border again in Ireland.

My area is fairly left wing and studenty so I've only really seen remain campaigns which often makes it feel like we're pretty much set to stay. But the older you are, the more likely you are to vote leave and I'm worried that actually when it comes to it this might swing us towards that direction. I'm voting Remain because (in brief) I think it's lower risk in terms of the economy and there are benefits in trade, legislation, the environment, crime issues and many other things. As for the NHS, I completely agree with Cho - I don't really think leaving would benefit it at all.

It's worrying really. I'll be gutted if we leave the EU - aside from all the economic reasons, from a cultural/personal point of view I like being able to travel easily to the continent; I like how we're part of something bigger.

Even if the vote is to leave, Britain will still have to trade with the EU, which means they will still have to follow a bunch of the rules still anyways.

Would prices really change that much? If anything wouldn't they go up if you left? Not being part of the EU and still needing to trade with the EU would be more expensive than trading with them while being a part of them wouldn't it?

Trade would definitely become more expensive due to tariffs.
Some farmers would lose their jobs because it wouldn't be profitable anymore without the support from Brussels.
Economics aside, it would be sad to see GB leave and it would be an irreversible move.

shazam!.

Well done gb, we've well and truly been smurf over now!

Very uncertain as to how things will be in the long run. I'm desperately hoping that things will eventually even out economically, but the fact remains that it's so sad that we're not a part of the EU anymore. In the short term, our economy is messed up (the whole stock market has gone down), the £ has plummeted, prices of imports will rise, cameron is standing down in october and as much as I can't stand him, if we end up with boris or gove we're screwed. The tories are going to be pushed further towards the right. I'm gutted.

But I like you crazy Brits.


The majority was so thin, normally you would have said, ok lets call it uneven. If you're undecided just think about it for a bit longer. Now half of the population is unhappy. I now have a cup of tea (Earl Grey), use my British flag tea cup from my last visit to London and have some Walker biscuits. Out of protest.

There was an interesting picture on Twitter:

The baby boomers have screwed us over yet again.

Farage made a reference to the murder of an MP in his victory speech.

The petition to have a second referendum was so popular that the website crashed from people trying to sign it.

Less than half of 18-24 year olds bothered to vote. They could have made the difference.

Scotland is pushing to leave us.

Northern Ireland might reunite with Ireland.

Farage admitted that his big idea, the £350 million saved from staying in the EU going towards the NHS, wasn't true.

This was not a good decision.

In France first demands for a referendum are heard. The Turkish president wants a referendum if talks about joining the EU should be stopped because the Europeans don't want Muslims to join. These were his words.

Apparently the Netherlands may be looking to leave too.

Reactions to the vote:


Farage:




The Channel Tunnel post-Brexit and the cost of Freddo's:

Hmm, I didn't think about the tunnel. Travelling will become much more difficult now.

One post from a woman on facebook I read yesterday was "It was an insult to be called a European. I am English". No, it's not an isult, it's something to be proud of. Economics and regulations set aside, what the Roman treaties 60 years ago are based on is freedom, after years of bloodshed and wars. It's important to keep that spirit, to show solidarity, compassion and understanding in these weird times.

Intelligent people usually are full of doubts, stupid ones often have too much confidence.

I'm actually ashamed to be British at the moment. People have been using the vote as a way of getting at migrants. They're telling people to go back to their own countries now and some people are calling to "make Britain white again". It's outrageous. One thing I've always loved about this country is how accepting it is of people. This isn't on. A vote to leave the EU shouldn't have been about racist views.

There have been petitions for London to declare independence already. People are already regretting their votes. Nobody thought this would actually happen, and many people used their out vote as a vote against the government rather than a vote against the EU. The most asked question on Google from the UK yesterday was 'what is the EU'? What does that say?

Canada looks nice.