Brexit

I've been following the commentaries on what is likely to happen now a slim majority has voted to have Great Britain leave the EU.

There are several things that have surprised me The first is that this referendum has no force in law unless Parliament votes it in but it would, of course, be a foolhardy government that decided to ignore it especially given that around 72% of the electorate voted. This is a high voter turnout given that, in recent years the percentage of voters in General Elections has ranged from as low as 59.4% in 2001 to 66.1% in 2015. 

The second is that people are coming out and saying they didn't realise what the consequences of voting to leave would be. Apparently they went and voted without looking seriously at what they were voting for and only now they are facing up to the reality.  Yes, really.  This is something that will have enormous repercussions both internally in Great Britain and worldwide and many seem to have not really understood exactly what they were voting for if the sudden rush of Google searches on the subject is any indication.

Thirdly, this is much bigger than what will happen in Great Britain which goes way beyond national economic consequences and where there are already calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence and where Northern Ireland is also talking about other options. It is already creating huge uncertainty on money markets world wide because it changes so much.

And finally there is the alarming prospect of other countries possibly pulling out of the EU as well given Greece, France, the Netherlands and no doubt others already have parties advocating just that. What the consequences of that would be on the EU and the rest of the world who knows.

I guess we just have to wait and see how things develop but I, for one, am not expecting this to settle quickly and without painful collateral damage throughout the world.