Norway and a few others will hopefully take the plunge

[lifestooshortowearuglyshoes]

Hopefully some of the other main contributors of the EU will now have their own referendum.

There are a lot of disillusioned people in Europe.
People who like us, didn't expect the EU to get so big, and have to support so many poorer recent members.

Hopefully the whole flawed sorry mess will now collapse.

my fave quote so far

Feels like the alternative 1985 where Biff became Mayor in back to the future

I take it that the OP has run away to name change and won't be back?

The leavers have just voted to drag the whole of Europe into chaos, and probably trigger a wordlwide recession.

Why wouldn't the rest of us think they're thick as pigshit?

Why wouldn't the rest of us think they're thick as pigshit?

Because that thinking probably skewed the entire vote and pushed Brexit over the finish line, perhaps?

OMFG- have we really allowed the vote to be swayed by people who are too fucking stupid or ignorant to understand that Norway isn't even in the EU.

Sadly there is no way this was a joke thread- I despair.

I really really hope this is a joke..........

Please don't give the op the life line of pretending it was a joke. Apart from the Norway bit it doesn't sound like a joke at all. I'm assuming it's a huge own goal by someone not prepared to do their research.

Oh FFS.

Yes we know Norway is not in the EU. Get a grip! Lots of people type crap and don't check facts, doesn't mean that every Outer doesn't know the difference between Norway and Sweden.

I get why some posters are despairing, but that's the thing with democracy - there's no intelligence or personality test required. It's a downside, but the alternatives are worse.

My prediction: war in Europe within ten years.
Countries splitting off, huge movement of peoples, massive inequality and financial austerity. The parallels between now and 1914 are astounding.

BTW Jens Stoltenberg (he is a Norwegian politician BTW) There was I thinking that he was no longer a Norwegian politician but the Secretary-General of NATO and had been since October 2014.

Norway and Switzerland have their own agreements to allow trade within the Euro bloc. However they are awash with money - Norway particularly being a sovereign economy ie they are v.v.rich. Switzerland is of course a law unto itself (and has Nazi gold)

Yup Formalhaut.

My mum was born during WW2, my granma just before WW1. They were both immensely happy because they thought I would never have to send a father/brother/husband/son off to war in Europe.

I know people from the UK do still go off to war- but a professional, volunteer army is different from an army of conscripts. (I also realise joining the forces is the best of slim options for people in some areas).

Now we are plunging back into that so fast.

Reminds me of a colleague who told me quite solemnly in 1995 that if Quebec voted to become independent from Canada, Montreal would surely be next.

He didn't have a vote in it, however.

raar I think people forget how recently we were at war. I shared a house with a girl from Sarajevo when I was doing my PhD. She'd gone from living in a reasonably cosmopolitan diverse city to having her neighbours kill one another, her family imprisoned and her block of flats shelled within a few months.
We spent many evenings chatting - from that I have no illusions at all that people won't turn on each other at the drop of a hat. We are already seeing a rise in antisemitism, ghettos in many cities, religious and cultural clashes.
We are already on the road to serious civil disturbance at the very least.

I think they also forget how horrible it is Formalhaut.

A friend of mine from university specialised in the situation in Kosovo in 1998-99. A few years later he got a job at the Foreign office, and ended up training alongside the Royal Marines, before going out there in advisory role. He came back a totally changed man from what he saw. He was only there for a few months, and in a non-combat role (although he was in an area of unrest).

Okay should maybe have said JS is a Norwegian and a politician!! Neither version is wrong though. Or does NATO invlovement assume neutrality? I don't think I care enough to check this!