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United Kingdom EU Government

Brexit Happens (bbc.com) 556

"The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership," reports the BBC. The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests. Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU, while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square... Brexit parties were held in pubs and social clubs across the UK as the country counted down to its official departure.

Hundreds gathered in Parliament Square to celebrate Brexit, singing patriotic songs and cheering speeches from leading Brexiteers, including Nigel Farage... In Northern Ireland, the campaign group Border Communities Against Brexit staged a series of protests in Armagh, near to the border with the Republic of Ireland.

At 2300 GMT, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted a picture of the EU flag, adding: "Scotland will return to the heart of Europe as an independent country."


The U.K. flag was removed from European Union institutions in Brussels, the BBC notes. And they also quote U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson as saying "For all its strengths and for all its admirable qualities, the EU has evolved over 50 years in a direction that no longer suits this country."

"The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but a beginning..."
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Brexit Happens

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  • by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @07:58PM (#59677048)
    The UK is off of my list of places I'd like to live and work. The decision between 1. the UK or 2. all of the EU is a no-brainer.
    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:00PM (#59677054)
      Why would you have considered it in the first place? The weather sucks, the food is awful, and they can't speak proper English.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:02PM (#59677060)

        So, Boston?

          • by quenda ( 644621 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @02:47AM (#59678008)

            Explanation for non-Americans. To most Yanks, that Boston accent sounds weird, because it is non-rhotic. [wikipedia.org]
            But to Australian's or most British, it just sounds like a milder American accent, and we don't notice the different "R" sound in car and park.

            • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01, 2020 @08:17PM (#59680250)
              United Kingdom will die MISERABLY now that they are no longer under our great Deutschland!

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        • Boston's known for awful food? The fuck are you babbling about?
      • by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:45PM (#59677210)

        The weather sucks

        Well, that's not entirely accurate. Sometimes there's wind. Then it blows.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:03PM (#59677268)
        otherwise we'd all be speaking English.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cygnusvis ( 6168614 )
      By your logic any nation that is smaller than the full EU is off your list too. Better not go to Japan or russia or canada etc...
    • Just remember to register for your absentee ballots.

      I forgot until it was too late the first time I tried to vote while overseas

    • by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:38PM (#59677388)

      The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership,

      Slashdot math at work.

      The EU was created in 1993. 27 years ago.

      Prior to that, the UK did just fine. When there was no EU, travel all over Europe was not all that terribly difficult. Conducting business was not all that terribly difficult, and London was a major center of business and finance for all of Europe. The idea that leaving the EU is suddenly the end of the world is complete nonsense.

      • by orlanz ( 882574 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:31PM (#59677598)

        Prior to that were various stages of the EU.

        After WWII, the US & the UK (Churchill) spearheaded a movement to unify Europe. The concept being that a unified Europe would settle escalations behind closed doors than in open fields. And although most were very disappointed in the progress it was a spectacular success in that regard.

        The Council of Europe still exists and the UK is an active & founding member. France became a key player. And their goal was to level the playing field on human rights and democracy. Some of which the UK doesn't like right now.

        After this, but still in the 1950s, they started focusing on the economics. And the UK helped create the customs union! Something it wants without the foundational human elements from before.

        The EU was just a obvious and progressive step forward, built on a strong foundation and many floors. This was when Germany finally joined as a whole first class nation.

        When even Mr Farage or the PM reference "over 50 years of this experiment"... they are talking about all that. Not the last step it took.

      • by Cederic ( 9623 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @05:37AM (#59678252) Journal

        Actually the BBC themselves spouted this masterfully inaccurate idiocy. You're entirely right, the EU came about through the Maastricht Treaty. Which was the first time the EU forced a second referendum on a country that dared to vote against it, Denmark on this occasion.

        The EU took a different approach in 2005 and instead of trying to force through adoption of a constitution they rewrote it as the Lisbon Treaty, sidestepping national laws and imposing the constitution through other means. Even then they had to force Ireland to hold a re-run after its people dared to disagree in the first referendum.

        So the BBC, various Europhile politicians and many senior civil servants collaborated with the EU to try and force a second referendum on the UK to prevent us leaving.

        They're still in shock that we've left, partly because they actually believe some of the shit that they come out with.

  • 1776 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:12PM (#59677082) Journal
    Its their 1776.
    Now they understand how the USA feels about freedom.
    • Re:1776 (Score:5, Informative)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:21PM (#59677122) Journal

      And soon it will be Scotland's, and then Northern Ireland will rejoin Ireland, and Westminster will rule a kingdom as small as Henry VIII's realm.

      • But it will be theirs.

        • Well, it will be somebody's.

        • Re:1776 (Score:5, Informative)

          by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @01:02AM (#59677836)
          And to sell still into the EU, they will have to comply with all those EU regulations.
          Worse, they will have ZERO input into any changes or new regulations.

          There is now the spectre of the UK having to rebuild immigration/customs.

          Also lots of UK Sales tax refunds had been handled from various EU countries, this will need to be recreated inside the UK.

          The UK universities etc also get significant funds from the EU, this will stop because they are no longer part of the EU.
          • Re:1776 (Score:4, Informative)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @05:56AM (#59678308) Homepage Journal

            The loss of EU funding is a major problem. The UK government won't replicate it and what they do hand out is all time limited. Farmers are fucked, regional development is fucked, scientific research is fucked, universities are fucked.

            It's a proper cluster-fuck, as the Americans would say.

        • Sure. Like Palestine, but on Thames.
          I wonder if it will be the Irish setting up the boms again, like in the good ole times?

          But probably the best part is that they'll be buying their electricity from the Scots, paying for their own stupidity and racism yet again.
          It truly is a gift that keeps on giving.

          That's unless queeny croaks AFTER the Scottish independence and Irish secession.
          Cause boy will it be comical to watch that sack of bones giving up parts of its title and flag one by one, ending up the last quee

      • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
        Scotland already voted. They voted to stay. Nicola Sturgeon might think she can keep doing it over until she gets the answer she wants but it certainly isn't binding. Why would Scots give up being 1st class citizens in the UK to become 2nd class citizens in the EU?
        • and leaving the UK would mean a major mess rejoining the EU. Brittan just torched that reason. Scotland's gone. Anyone who told you Scotland would stay post Brexit was lying to you, just like when they lied about those NHS funds.

          You'd think voters would get tired of being told sweet lies at some point, but they never do.
          • by rl117 ( 110595 )

            When more people in Scotland voted for Brexit than voted for the SNP, I'd have to say I'm really very sceptical.

            True independence I could see being something people might very well want. But the "independence" Scotland would have as an EU vassal is no independence at all. It would be less independent and less influential as an EU member than it is as a UK member, where it's both very influential at all levels of government as well as increasingly independent through devolution.

        • Re:1776 (Score:5, Informative)

          by Sesostris III ( 730910 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @02:42AM (#59677996)
          In the EU, the Scottish Government would have a veto on the big constitutional decisions that the EU makes (like all the other member states).

          In the UK, the Scottish Government does not have a veto on the big constitutional decisions that the Westminster Government makes.

          I would say (as someone living in Scotland) that one is a 1st class citizen when your government has a veto, rather than when it does not.
    • Re:1776 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by caseih ( 160668 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:38PM (#59677180)

      It will have the positive outcome of forcing the UK to deal with their own problems instead of blaming Brussels. Poverty, class strife, racism, the lack of technical manufacturing and engineering capability (why can't a British company do it's own 5G?), etc. Brexit is a fine example of pining for a past that didn't truly exist (imperialism is out of favor these days anyway), and for things they sold off long before they ever joined the EU, such as the advanced engineering and scientific development of the Victorian era. Interesting to see Johnson and others promise there will be no hard border with Ireland. They could indeed be right... it's not inconceivable Northern Ireland would be more comfortable with Ireland than with the UK.

      Yes Brexit does bring freedom to a few. It will be interesting to see what happens as the implications and consequence trickle down (or bubble up) through society.

      • Well said and insightful

      • In Japan where they didn't have foreigners to blame they created an underclass out of whole cloth [wikipedia.org]

        As long as the working class lets themselves be divided they will lose. Doesn't matter how they let it happen.
      • by Cederic ( 9623 )

        It won't just force the UK to deal with its own problems, it'll actually also allow us to. No more hiding behind "but the EU" for the politicians, so they're going to have to actually listen to the populace again.

        Poverty

        There is almost nobody in poverty in the UK, and a strong social safety net exists for those that are. There does need to be work done on homelessness and it's a constant challenge to assure that all people have an acceptable standard of living but all the people bleating about poverty are using a

    • Don't forget that Bojo expects a "wonderful" deal with The Donald, that will establish strong links between the 2 countries. So, it's a kind of 1776... reversed.
    • The Declaration of Independence was undone in 1787 and freedom hasn't been known in the USA since.

    • Most historically ignorant comment ever

    • Now they understand how the USA feels about freedom.

      Really? I was unaware that half of American's felt far less free after independence, thought the whole idea utterly insane and wanted to reverse it and rejoin the British Empire as soon as possible. If you want an American equivalent think about how free, let's say, Texas would be if it left the USA and became independent. That's how fucking stupid Brexit is.

      • by dryeo ( 100693 )

        A lot of colonists headed north to Canada when the Americans started their war of secession, and then fought like hell when the Americans showed up trying to spread their "freedom". Its not like they had a referendum, just a bunch of real estate people wanting the freedom to steal the natives land and others wanting the freedom to keep slaves using taxes and such to convince the average person that the King was a tyrant (He said all his subjects were equal) while ignoring Parliament, which even then was Sup

  • Ireland? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:13PM (#59677086)

    So honest question, did they figure out the whole Ireland thing or are they just going to let that slide back into the troubles?

    • Re:Ireland? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:14PM (#59677092) Homepage

      "Let that slide?"

      No, they greased the bottom and gave it a hard shove.

    • Re:Ireland? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:26PM (#59677148) Homepage Journal
      I don't think they've figured out the "where is our toilet paper going to come from," thing, much less the Ireland thing. Sounds like Scottland and some part of Ireland might do their own exit and go hang out with the EU maybe? Should be some fun times ahead for the UK, hope live doesn't suck too much for those guys for the next few years while they sort all this out.
      • the only reason they didn't was it was going to be a pain to re-join the EU. They're gone. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Ireland. If I remember correctly one of the two Irelands is pretty important to the British economy. It'll be fun to watch them use violence in 2020 to keep them in line. I could be getting that wrong though, maybe it's Scottland that the Brits need to keep their economy afloat. I do remember reading that the UK breaking up was bad news for Britain.
    • They haven't figured it out, and it is up to the EU to decide if the EU has borders or not first.

      If the EU decides that they do want to have borders, and they don't want Ireland to be a "duty-free import zone," then we're back at the Troubles.

      It seems likely that the EU will prioritize the rest of the EU over a tiny slice of a non-EU country, and so Troubles.

      The only thing you have to watch for in the news is if they're going back to a hard border. (which is required under EU law, but we don't know when)

      The

      • They have figured it out. Unless there is an trade agreement at the end of the transition period, there will be a border in the Irish Sea. This is why the DUP really don't like the Withdrawal Agreement.
  • by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:16PM (#59677102)

    Look up Bruges Speech from 1988, she warned against unbridled immigration resulting in extremism and the eventual rise of populists that will doom the EU experiment.

    The EU experiment clearly failed, France's Macron admitted he is too afraid to put it to a vote, and the rise of populist parties across the rest of the EU indicate that it may be the end within a decade, maybe two.

    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:02PM (#59677264)
      Thatcher didn't predict this, she made it happen. Her and her entire class. They played a long, long game with the goal of breaking up the working class and setting it against each other.

      Worked too. I guess in that way the whole thing failed. But I wouldn't call it an experiment. Folks knew exactly what the EU was and what it as for.

      Also, the Baby Boomers that made this happen (the UK and France had one too) will die in 20 years. Expect to see this undone by Gen X & the Millennials. The damage will take a while though to fix.
    • by Dorianny ( 1847922 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:05PM (#59677276) Journal
      The Economy is not a zero-sum game and population growth is necessary to keep the economy growing and to pay for benefits to retirees. Xenophobic Japan and its "lost decade" which is now extending to several is a good example of what happens when you have a aging population and no population growth. If it weren't for immigration nearly all Industrialized nations, including the UK and the US, would have a negative population growth. Unfortunately blaming "those strangers" is much easier then taking a hard look at ourselves and making some tough choices.
      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:50PM (#59677666)
        is controlled by 1% of the population. Their power then is based on their ability to decide who gets food, medicine and water. The ruling class _makes_ the economy a Zero Sum Game because it benefits them. The need it to be so that you and me will fight over that last slice of pie. If we ever stopped fighting we'd take away their unearned power and privilege.

        There's an old joke: Two workers and an Aristocrat are around a table with 12 cookies. The Aristocrat grabs 11 cookies and gobbles them up, then turns to one of the workers and says, "Hey, better watch out, that guy's gonna eat your cookie".

        That's the whole system in a nut shell. It's been 2000 years. We have the internet. We know what bigotry and class divides are. We shouldn't be falling for this and we still are. Jesus, what a timeline.
  • It'll be interesting to see how they fare under the new economy, and negotiating the new internal rules with the nations within it.

    I do wonder at what point they'll have to potentially change the name though - is it still a "United Kingdom" at some point?

    Honestly - what do they get out of this? Like, any of them?

    I've tried to see any value to Brexit, and none of it makes sense in the context of losing access to preferred terms with those local markets and regional access.

    It's like if you were playing some

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Yeah, that stupid uninformed public. If only they were as smart as the informed people like you. Brexit is about immigration. The public isn't stupid. They knew what they voted for.

      • It's actually about a lot more than that. A lot of people didn't give a shit about immigration, but did give quite a large shit about regulations imposed by the EU which were arbitrary or stupid.

        • You are right.

        • but did give quite a large shit about regulations imposed by the EU which were arbitrary or stupid

          Regulations like the ability to travel to other EU countries without having to buy medical insurance and being able to afford to use your phone when in another EU country, or regulations like the ability to retire in the sun (Spain), or regulations allowing personal imports of tax paid alcohol, etc.. How about regulations that allow people to buy RHD cars in other EU countries, thus keeping the price of UK-only

    • Poorly (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:56PM (#59677682)
      is the answer. The US is already using Brexit to exert pressure. The main goal is to end the NHS and move in to sell back healthcare services that were once much less costly. This alone will drain trillions from the British economy, but the US will also use the UK's isolation to their advantage. The entire point of the EU was to present a unified trade organization to compete with the US & China. We're going to eat them alive...

      And then there's Scotland, which unless the Brits bring violence to bear will be leaving (the last Scottish leave referendum largely failed because they didn't want to have to re-join the EU). Scotland is a huge part of the UK's economy, and losing her will be devastating.

      Then there's the economic mess that comes from renegotiating the trade deals.

      And then there's the loss of London as financial the entry point for the rest of the EU. This will cost billions and billions. The ruling class will be out that money, sure, but they will take it out of the working class' hide. When the folks at the top lose money they don't say "oh well, shucks" they slash jobs and wages.

      All this for jobs that are never coming back. Even if the factories do come back they'll be 99% automated.

      Brexit is just a power play by the aristocracy. And they won. The every day Brit is going to hurt. When their Baby Boomers die off it'll fall to Gen X & the Millennials to pick up the pieces, but it's going to be an awful 30-40 years. A lost generation.
  • Idiots (Score:4, Insightful)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:21PM (#59677126) Journal

    1. Idiots whose jobs depend on the EU (like the Nissan employees in Sunderland), what do they think will happen?

    2. Idiots who think that the UK will get a favourable trade deal with the EU: The EU has a vested interest in making countries that leave have their economies fail. The EU negotiators are not going to negotiate a deal that's good for the UK.

    • by hjf ( 703092 )

      Also the EU has a mercantilist, protectonist mindset. They want to sign free trade agreements with "lesser countries", and then regulate the shit out of what those countries can sell to them, while on the other hand dumping their markets with cheap industrial EU products.

      Oh wait, every other "free trade agreement" is like that.

      The Netherlands destroyed some african country's small productions of onions by local farmers. These countries are impoverished further, and their populations flee and end up in the E

  • Good luck with trade negotiations, I predict this will be the start of a global financial slow down

  • by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:40PM (#59677186)

    Now instead of being ruled by two crazy, power hungry, out of control governments, they're ruled by only one.
    It's like 50% less crazies dictating what they can or can't do.

  • since now we can go back to picking the Brits apart in trade deals. That was the point of the EU that everybody seems to forget. Also the Russians will be pleased, since if they ever get on their feet again and want to go to war they don't have a United Front to face off against.

    Oh, and the jobs aren't coming back. Any more than they were for the folks at Carrier. A few factories will be built to skirt import tariffs, manned almost entirely by robots. And the British ruling class will make sure what can
    • by pcaylor ( 648195 )

      Also the Russians will be pleased, since if they ever get on their feet again and want to go to war they don't have a United Front to face off against.

      If only people had thought about that after WWII and setup up some kind of Organization, maybe established by a Treaty that covered the North Atlantic region. Maybe we could call it NATO. We could even put its headquarters in Brussels.

      NATO predates the EU. In fact a lot of people think the success of establishing NATO gave credibility to the idea of EU.

  • by Miamicanes ( 730264 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @08:54PM (#59677232)

    Before the UK gets too worried about contraband freely flowing across an open Irish border, it should consider the open border between California & the rest of the US. There are a metric shit-ton of things you can legally buy & sell in Arizona, Nevada, etc. that technically fail to meet California standards. Every year, millions of them get bought by Californians & taken home (or bought online) without enforcement or consequences.

    California knows it can't police the border, so it just polices BUSINESSES. If Joe Angeleno buys a non-CARB lawnmower in Las Vegas... oh well. If Walmart tried selling them in San Diego, it would be punished. If someone in Florida sells a non-CARB chainsaw to a Californian on eBay, it's ignored. If Amazon sells one, it gets fined. In the grand scheme of things, 99.98% of things get sold by big companies that California focuses on... everything else is a rounding error.

    The fact is, someone buying a chocolate bar or ice cream cone from a street vendor or small business doesn't *care* whether it's properly labeled for sale in the UK, EU, or even the US, as long as it's reasonable in a country they think is OK(*).

    (*) Technically, it's impossible to sell a food product containing eggs manufactured to US or UK standards in the other country, because both countries have mutually-conflicting regulations about them that have no middle ground compromise (US requires washing eggs, UK prohibits it. People in both countries survive.)

    • by jiriw ( 444695 )

      About that washing eggs part, there is a little bit more to it. By washing an egg you remove its natural bacteria resistant barrier. As such you can no longer keep the egg unrefrigerated or its content will rapidly spoil. So you either wash your eggs and keep them conditioned (refrigerated as close to freezing as possible, in a microbe resistant container) to prevent spoilage. Or don't wash your eggs and you can keep them in decent shape for several weeks in a mere basket in your cellar.

      Now, the question is

  • what with impeachment here in the states, but how did they sort out the impossible triangle [youtube.com]. I guess Scottland will leave the UK. But the real problem is Ireland. What about the Troubles?

    Also what did they do about trade deals? A Hard Brexit was going to be a disaster. Did they actually do that? Or is this Brexit in Name Only (BINO) to appease folks?

    Here's hoping this isn't what crashes the global economy.
  • by fluke11 ( 1160111 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:08PM (#59677284)

    Now that Brexit has completed, will Boris Johnson be paying National Health Service the 350,000,000 GBP per week via check?

    Or will Boris Johnson pay by cash and deliver it via bus?

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:14PM (#59677308)

    ...got what they wanted because they outnumber everyone else & always vote. That's also how the UK's ended up with such an ignorant, right-wing, incompetent bunch of idiots in charge. The EU has always been unpopular among middle Englanders. Their manifesto is the Daily Mail, which is something like your purse-lipped mother-in-law who disapproves of any kind of change & thinks the past was a much better time than the present, even though just about every bit of evidence you can find points to the contrary.

    This was very much a decision based on affect & emotion.

    Then again, middle Englanders are waaay more socialist than anywhere in the USA, even after 3 decades of Thatcherism (The witch may be dead but the spell lives on).

    • If only "Middle Englanders" were as smart as you. If only!

    • whether they like it or not. The first thing on the Agenda is the US' right wing gov't is going to help the UK dismantle the NHS using Trade deals as a pretext. And without the EU to back them we have more than enough muscle to do it. Especially after Scotland & Ireland leave the UK.

      I hope Bernie Sanders wins. That'll at least buy them some time.
  • Excellent speech by Nigel Farage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • by allcoolnameswheretak ( 1102727 ) on Saturday February 01, 2020 @06:10AM (#59678336)

    In the UK, Farange triumphs. His right-wing populists have won the Brexit with fake news, distorted facts and false promises.
    In the U.S. a self-serving, narcissist president is being protected by his party, because the base likes his mobster style rule.
    Not surprisingly, these entities have dubious connections to Putin's Russia and the ruling oligarchs. The man whose primary goal in life is to dismantle NATO and bring down the west.

    What a fucking mess. I feel like I'm in the alternative reality of Back to the Future, where Biff has taken over the town and things are just wrong and corrupted.

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