CONGRATULATIONS, BRITAIN

The fact the west is lining up to support the current fascist government of the Ukraine is certainly fascinating.

Don't get me wrong, Daryk, I am not 'pro-Russian' or pro-Putin (I think he's a bully to put it mildly). But I don't buy into the, "we have to have an enemy - look, there's Russia!" mentality of foreign affairs.

I'm just mindful of what happened the last time Russia asserted itself in the Crimea and the rest of Europe couldn't stomach that. Over 200 000 dead - just military casualties - and no-one today can even agree why it happened. Next time it won't be purely military casualties.

 

As a British voter, and follower of the voting trend in London, where I live as a voter for the Remain campaign, the last 2 days have been something of a wakeup call.

I did vote Conservative in the last general election (even though doing so did not switch my local constituency from Labour to my choice of ruling party) specifically to improve our chances of getting the Referendum vote on EU membership.

On hearing the result of the referendum on Friday morning, I felt numb.

I had hoped that the result would be a slim victory for remain as the polls had suggested would be the likely outcome, because while I wished to put the wind up the EU (I like many others was sitting on the fence as to which way to vote until practically the last minute) and make the EU sit up and listen to the masses of unsatisfied British voters, and the many other voters from other European countries in the EU. I would also rather be able to assist reform from the inside. And I suspect many Out voters did so expecting that In would win regardless. A landslide victory for remain would see our complaints brushed under the carpet.

Now we face the prospects of Scotland, and Northern Ireland leaving the UK via their own referendums, and England and Wales going it alone in the big bad world alone.

While it's not the result I wanted, it may still be good for the UK to go it alone, time will tell.

I hope once both Conservative and Labour parties have had new leadership contests resolved, we will have a general election with one party opting for the leave EU policies, and another opting to ignore the non-legally binding referendum results, and offer an In EU alternative manifesto. How the country votes then may be different.

Either way, we will find a way to advance forward. Time will tell.

 

I can't really comment on Greek politics as I must confess, I don't know enough about the situation to make an informed comment.

In the case of this EU question in Britain at this moment in time, we currently have Scotland poised to either leave the UK and apply to join the EU as a separate sovereign nation as current EU legislation seems to require, or as their first minister hopes - remain in the EU but leave the UK, whether that would be the best for Scotland, the EU or the remainder of the UK, who knows.

As far as a General Election goes, it need not be as simple as a In/Out question as we have many political parties who will no doubt put their own visions into whatever manifesto they come up with.

Already the Liberal Democrats have stated that they would remain in the EU regardless of the referendum result if they were to win a general election before the article 50 was sought by the UK government official in charge. Which could be political suicide, or a massive coup for the 3rd largest party in the UK depending on the outcome of course.

Labour and Conservative parties would first have to appoint new leadership, decide on policy and Conservatives would no doubt then call for a General Election to get the peoples vote on their choice of a way forward.

While I personally did vote to remain, I do consider myself still very Eurosceptic, Leaving the EU is a huge risk, but it may not be worst thing in the world to happen, we'll see.