Brexit

The UK has left the EU -- and the implications for the world are huge

Brexit has happened. After 1,316 days of political turmoil, the UK now stands alone as the first nation to have ever left the European Union.

It has ended the careers of two Prime Ministers and left the very future of the United Kingdom in question. Scotland's case for independence is becoming harder to ignore while Britain's perceived selling out of Northern Ireland has played into the hands of those wishing to see Irish unification.

That's just the politics: Britain's economic future and place in the world have not been this uncertain since the end of the World War II.

Speaking to the nation an hour before Brexit finally happened, Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged that the country was divided: "For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come. And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss ... I understand all those feelings, and our job as the government -- my job -- is to bring this country together now and take us forward."

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Have UK voters changed their minds on Brexit?

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes in the coming days to strike a deal that takes the UK out of the EU.

Doing so would implement the result of the referendum of June 2016, in which 52% of voters backed Leave and 48% Remain.

But where do voters stand on Brexit now, after more than three years of debate and negotiation?
There is no majority for any course of action

First, no single course of action is preferred by a majority of voters.

For example, polling firm Kantar has asked voters on a number of occasions which of four possible outcomes they prefer.

The most popular choice has been to remain in the EU. However, this secured the support of only about one in three.

The next most popular, leaving without a deal, is preferred by slightly less than a quarter.

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Now for the Lords! As Brexit fight clears the Commons, peers are told: Don't you dare block it 

The House of Lords was last night warned it could be abolished if it tries to block Brexit after a landmark bill cleared the Commons by a thumping majority.

Theresa May crushed attempts by pro-Remain MPs to thwart Britain's EU exit by tabling dozens of amendments designed to tie her hands in negotiations with Brussels.

MPs voted by 494 to 122 to pass the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill – a majority of 372. The legislation now moves to the Lords, where pro-EU peers are threatening to hijack it.

Brexit

EU shouldn't mete out trade punishment over Brexit: Johnson

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday compared any attempt to punish Britain for leaving the European Union to a World War Two escape movie, saying both sides would do better to strike a mutually beneficial trade deal.

Speaking in New Delhi a day after Prime Minister Theresa May laid out the case for a "hard Brexit", in which Britain leaves the European single market, Johnson said attempts to curb free trade cut both ways.

He was answering a question on comments made earlier by an aide to French President Francois Hollande who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe once it was outside the common market of 500 million people.

"If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings that anyone chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don't think that's the way forward," Johnson answered.

Brexit

Cutting corporation tax will make Theresa May's Brexit talks 'more difficult', European leaders warn

Theresa May's Brexit negotiations with the European Union will be "more difficult" if she cuts corporation tax, European leaders have warned.

Stefan Loefven, the Swedish Prime Minister, said that any "aggressive" tax cuts by Britain will damage relations with the European Union.

It comes as Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, prepares to "reset" Britain's fiscal policy in his Autumn Statement by cutting taxes and borrowing to invest in infrastructure.

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Inside The Royal Family Split Over Brexit

As the Daily Beast revealed, the Queen had been a proponent of Brexit in private conversations, asking her dinner guests in the run up to the vote to give her ‘three good reasons’ why Britain should have remained part of Europe.

Brexit is a far from unwelcome political development in the UK as far as the Queen is concerned; earlier this week she told Northern Ireland’s First Minister Martin McGuinness that she was ‘still alive’ although there had been ‘a lot going on.’ 

She implied she was talking about her 90th birthday celebrations but she was undoubtedly seeking to also convey a message that post-Brexit, we should all keep calm and carry on.

Although there was a brief panic that Scotland might seek to break away from the United Kingdom as the result of the vote, this possibility has existed more strongly in the mind of Nicola Sturgeon, the nationalist first minister of Scotland, and in media scare stories, than it has in reality.  

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BREXIT Signals the End of the New World Order

But Brits don’t want to be multi-cultural, they want to be the same Brits that changed the world from an island off the coast of France. They want to be the Brits who had the confidence to lead the world for the better. They want to be the Brits who were respected, not pitied.

Whether the protectors of the NWO admit it or not, the world is changing. Brexit won, the Scots – though defeated – will be rejuvenated in their quest for independence, Venice wants to break away from Italy, and Catalonia is giddy to secede from Spain. The old tribes of the West are getting together for a reunion.

And, yes, America has Trump.

Just last week Trump became the first major presidential candidate in decades to reject the NWO. Quoting Lincoln on tariffs and declaring he will place “America First”, Trump is making it known that under his watch America will be first, second, and third; NWO be damned.

Brexit

A Blow for Peace and Democracy: Why the British Said No to Europe

The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media.

This was, in great part, a vote by those angered and demoralised by the sheer arrogance of the apologists for the “Remain” campaign and the dismemberment of a socially just civil life in Britain.  The last bastion of the historic reforms of 1945, the National Health Service, has been so subverted by Tory and Labour-supported privateers it is fighting for its life.

A forewarning came when the Treasurer, George Osborne, the embodiment of both Britain’s ancient regime and the banking mafia in Europe, threatened to cut £30 billion from public services if people voted the wrong way; it was blackmail on a shocking scale.

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Overwhelmed by ‘Brexit’? Here Are the Basics

The broader impact

• Britain would leave the world’s largest common market, with 508 million residents, including 65 million Britons. That would free them from the bloc’s commitment to the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services. But it would also bring complications.

• Little will change for at least two years, but the vote sets off a series of negotiations as the country separatesfrom the union’s remaining 27 members.

Britain, which has the second-largest economy in the bloc after Germany, would have to come up with new trading agreements. Almost half of its exports are sold on Europe’s common market.

• London’s role as a financial center could be imperiled,particularly if the trade in euro-denominated securities moves to rival cities like Paris and Frankfurt.

• The immediate impact on travel will be limited, especially as Britain was not a member of the passport-free Schengen zone, which came under heavy pressure last year from the refugee crisis.

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Brexit: David Cameron to quit after UK votes to leave EU

German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed "great regret" at the outcome, and EU chiefs said they expected the UK to begin negotiations to leave "as soon as possible, however painful that process may be".

But Boris Johnson, the ex-London mayor and public face of Vote Leave who is now a front-runner to be next prime minister, said there was "no need for haste" about severing the UK's ties.

He said voters had "searched in their hearts" and the UK now had a "glorious opportunity" to pass its own laws, set its own taxes and control its own borders.

Another leading Leave campaigner, Labour's Gisela Stuart, said the UK would be a "good neighbour" when it left the EU.

The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 as the markets reacted to the results.