Brexit vote, the zombie apocalypse and other fallout.

[Fritz]

Everyone seemed bright and cheerful. Very strange! A foretaste of the impending apocalypse, perhaps...

Everyone is choosing their food...

[ClymAngus]

'Twas the night before Brexit
The whole world shook in fear
Would those crazy Brits risk it
And draw the apocalypse near?

Brexiteers unfurled their UJ's with great care.
With the hope that the battle bus soon would be there.

[Astrobe]

Dangerous indeed... but as you say, not impossible.

If it's near 50/50 I think it's ok if they have the final word on this. Actually not the current MPs but a fully renewed parliament.

[kanthoney]

I think I hear the shuffling of zombie feet outside the door...

[Cody]

Hmm... neck and neck just now, but there's a long way to go.

[Dr Beeb]

Everyone seemed bright and cheerful.

And then they joined the queue to buy Euros and Dollars. We are half-way and Milton Keynes was the first surprise for me.

[Amah]

*sigh* according to BCC Britons seem to have voted to leave the EU... Bad news indeed.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Should us yanks be happy or sad that the Brits finally showed some hutzpah?

[Rxke]

Sigh. They just called it. Now take a bag of crisps and watch the markets go haywire.

[Smivs]

<Groans in despair>

[Cody]

Should us yanks be happy or sad that the Brits finally showed some hutzpah?

That depends on your point of view, sky-brother!

[Disembodied]

Via Simon Pegg:

’Twas Brexit, and the slithy Goves
Did lie and grumble in the Mail,
All Menschy were the Boris droves,
And Nigel Farage is a fascist.

Things to expect in the near-term: inflation (falling £ = rising fuel prices, which will feed into everything), and an increase in racially motivated violence (the Far Right, although very much a minority, will likely see this as evidence that people share their poisonous world-view).

In the longer term: five years of negotiation to get out, along with acres of new legislation to fill in gaps currently covered by EU legislation. Also, even if this doesn't immediately trigger another Scottish referendum (Scotland voted 62% in favour of staying in), Scotland is likely to begin negotiations to remain part of the EU. There are semi-precedents for this: Denmark is an EU member, the Faroes and Greenland are not.

I've been looking at the idea that the WTO might provide a future forum for international trade. WTO talks stalled in 2008, and didn't recommence until late 2015, after a majority of countries decided to abandon everything that had been agreed up to 2008 ... don't hold your breath, is my advice.

[Rxke]

In the longer term: five years of negotiation to get out, along with acres of new legislation to fill in gaps currently covered by EU legislation.

Ah? I thought it was a 2 yrs deadline.

[Disembodied]

Ah? I thought it was a 2 yrs deadline.

To formally leave, yes, I think you're right, but the negotiations over how it will all work will burble on interminably. Plus we'll need separate negotiations with other trading blocs and nations, too. Five years may be ambitious.

[Cody]

<nods>

A small island in the top right corner of the Atlantic Ocean.

<grins> It's actually quite a large island - the ninth-largest in the world, apparently.