What does the rest of the world make of Brexit?

[poshredrose]

As above really. What do you make of Brexit if you're not in the UK?
I don't want this to happen, no one i know (that will admit it anyway) wants this to happen.

Surfer
Do you have an answer for the 100,000 vacancies in the NHS yet?

Was it surferjet who once said 'Not my circus, no my monkeys' about the situation in N Ireland? Apologies to her if it wasn't but I found it a pretty repugnant sentiment.

But then we have had Leavers talk rubbish - We don't do Civil War in the UK, one opined, forgetting the one which was happening only just over 20 years ago.

Here you go surfer, an Irish journalist explaining to Nigel Farage about Ireland and the EU.

Peregrina

No it wasn’t me.

Stop shit stirring.

bellinisurge

Ireland voted overwhelmingly to reject changes to their EU membership.
It wasn’t the answer their government wanted so they made them vote again.

After it was changed by the E.U. @surferjet . After it was changed.

Lots of relatives in Europe who were born and live there. They all without exception think we are nuts....and that includes the Swiss ones.

{Ireland voted overwhelmingly to reject changes to their EU membership.
It wasn’t the answer their government wanted so they made them vote again.}

It's called democracy.

Helpful clip @usuallydormant . And surferjet is just trotting out NF's position. Surely not?

Stop shit stirring.

I had already made my apologies to you, but it's not shit stirring to remind people that these are the views of some Leavers. They really do not care about one part of the UK and the neighbouring country.

Who cares what the rest of the world thinks? I can’t believe the things some people worry about.

That would be people who have to do trade deals with them, and whose lives will be affected by the outcome of those trade deals.

It should never have been put to a vote, but let’s not forget that it wouldn’t have been had the EU not laughed in Cameron’s face when he tired to negotiate!

The EU made several concessions when Cameron negotiated with them.

The US poll was an online poll accessed by clicking through from newspaper articles ie self-selected

As was the British poll, and yet the result;

53% of the 250,000 British readers surveyed voted to remain, which conforms to polls of the general population showing a near tie

was pretty accurate, taking into account that the Independent's demographic is probably slightly younger and better educated than for some newspapers.

Irish here and just feel sad.
I hate to see the deterioration of Irish/UK relations.
I am worried how this will affect the hard won peace on our Island.

This was the New Yorker's July 2016 cover.

I doubt they'd have such an optimistic take now.

As was the British poll

So? You can't draw any conclusions from online self-selecting polls run by newspapers. The results of online polls generally tell you more about which partisan groups have been more active at spreading links to the poll than anything else.

I get so bored of little Englanders telling Irish people about the Irish Lisbon Treaty referendums.

Usual suspects.

Mistigri
I said it was an interesting poll - you are free to draw your own conclusions. An online poll of 30,000 US readers is probably more reliable than, "my brother's best friend in the US thinks we're all mad" or whatever.

I'm in Switzerland - who had a referendum in 1992 about joining the EU - it lost by an even narrower margin than Brexit - 49.7 said Yes, and 50.3 said No. So you'd think that people would be a bit more on the fence over Brexit being good/bad. Everyone I'd spoken to thinks the UK is mad, and has essentially voted itself into a recession . They are also very annoyed over how much of the EUs time it is taking, as there's lots of negotiation they want to do with the EU but everything is on delay because of Brexit. And they are amused by the reports on TV from the House of Commons where everyone is shouting at each other - very different set-up.

Interestingly, there was another referendum here last year on Swiss "Sovereignty" - basically on whether Swiss laws would over-write any other international laws or treaties. Every political party (bar the far right one) was against it as were all the environmental groups, social welfare groups, childrens rights groups etc. as they said it would weaken human rights. The result was 67% against, 34% for.

An online poll of 30,000 US readers is probably more reliable than, "my brother's best friend in the US thinks we're all mad" or whatever.

A poll on Brexit that got 30k responses was most likely shared via alt-right social media networks, so it's grossly misleading to portray it as representative. I don't think anyone on here is making out that their own anecdotal experience is representative.

FWIW my experience here in France is that Brexit is totally off the radar of the ordinary person. In the US I'd put money on many people not even knowing what Brexit is.

I think of those people in the rest of the world who care they think we are totally mad. I am in the UK and voted remain and the month following the referendum we were on holiday in Switzerland and spoke to many Europeans, Australians and americans. They could not believe we had voted out.

I don't want to go round in circles on the same point. I've just looked for another poll, but I came across this one instead:

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-poll-americans-want-post-brexit-uk-us-trade-deal-300763832.html

BOSTON, Dec. 11, 2018 According to a recent poll by Emerson College, a majority of Americans (63%) support a bi-lateral trade deal with the UK upon its departure from the European Union in March 2019 (11% opposed and 26% were undecided). Most Americans (58%) believe the United States' relationship with the United Kingdom is even more important today than it was five years ago, and 56% see the British as the most valuable strategic foreign partner Nearly 2 in 3 Americans say the relationship between the US and the UK is very important.

Whilst on the one hand, it matters not a jot how the rest of the world perceive us, on the other hand, it can have some very interesting and subtle dynamics - for tourists and more engaged visitors.

As a Brit in the US, I noticed (and my US friend did too) that if I was paying, the server added the tip before passing me the machine. Which they didn't when my friends paid. Because Brits in the US have a very long history of being pisspoor tippers.

Conversely, passing though customs with an oversize bottle of spirits (now that's an AIBU in itself) the customs official shrugged and just noted how Brits were trustworthy, and gave us a pass. (Yes it was uncomfortable for a moment).

You'd think for an island that sometimes seems to think in only national sterotypes, the British would be a bit more woke about it all ?

What CantSleep said.

This is all lovely Clavinova but how is that going to get us through the inevitably very bumpy period immediately after leaving if we leave under No Deal terms. Which is likely to be longer than a couple of days otherwise the MoD wouldn't be bothering to do any "forward planning " and the government wouldn't bother publishing any technical notices. There isn't one for consumers yet. I wonder why?

Most of my Australian friends reacted with ‘wtf?’ Followed by ‘meh, they’re all screwed anyway so it doesn’t matter’. I was really surprised by it too. All the media coverage and polling suggested it was a long shot.