The consequence thread (Brexit)

[L00b]

I've never even realised Luxemburg had an international airport

Up on the Kirchberg, 3-ish miles north east of city centre. Been there decades, I've flown from it a dozen times. But the LU-London flights have long been eye-wateringly expensive. Many £-hundreds, an hour and a bit on a low-flying bumpy ride in an ATR42

 

I never realised easyJet and Flybe were going to open direct routes this year, so far it'd always been Charleroi. Great news

The way the pound is going Tim, we'll have to buy you a pint each!

BTW some additional info (for L00b) from an Englishman abroad POV. My bosses daughter has recently completed a uni course in Maastricht and loved it. With plans to get a job in Amsterdam, she is actually looking at living in Utrecht (one of Tim's thoughts). Apparently it's vey nice.

Thx DnAuK, much appreciated

[tzijlstra]

Not a direct consequence but may impact on negotiations. The Austrian election has been annulled due to postal voting fraud and will be rerun.

 

It could have a small influence on the stance the EU takes on free movement of people, but the Austrians are mainly swinging right due to refugees, which is another thorny issue altogether for the EU.

 

 

With regards to Utrecht - I genuinely recommend it. It has the same old worldy town center as Amsterdam has, is smaller but not terribly so, it is cheaper to live and has excellent *horeca*.

 

(Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes - goes much beyond the idea of 'nightlife')

[unbeliever]

Not a direct consequence but may impact on negotiations. The Austrian election has been annulled due to postal voting fraud and will be rerun.

 

Does that mean that they may end up with Norbert Hofer after all?

[Quik]

Does that mean that they may end up with Norbert Hofer after all?

 

If that's who they vote for yes. Given how close it was you would expect a bigger turnout from the other parties voters to block him without resorting to postal voting fraud this time so we will have to wait and see.

[unbeliever]

If that's who they vote for yes. Given how close it was you would expect a bigger turnout from the other parties voters to block him without resorting to postal voting fraud this time so we will have to wait and see.

 

Okay that's pretty scary. Any chance we can get this Brexit thing done before the inauguration?

[tzijlstra]

I'd say that the working class Leave vote was very much a cri de cœur against the effects of 40 years of neoliberal policies, for all that it was articulated in terms of immigration or "taking back control". It would have been better if a mainstream non-neoliberal option had been available at general elections in the last 20 years, but unfortunately the electoral system precludes that, for reasons I outlined earlier in the thread. That is, in order to win an election in the FPTP system, you need to appeal first and foremost to a relatively small number of voters in a relatively small number of marginal constituencies. Hence the main parties tend to converge on the same policies, give or take some minor tweaks designed to keep the core voters on side - which, in any case, has patently failed in the case of Labour, which has been losing the backing both of its core supporters and the good people of Nuneaton.

 

It's not just in the UK, of course, e.g. the support for Trump and Sanders in the US.

 

This is an interesting point. I am not sure all policies are driven by impressing the few contested seats, but I do think that statistical analysis of the electorate is driving politics in this country to the mean, in other words, parties are profiling to appeal to the large middle section of voters, particularly the older voters, as they often decide who wins (As I think we can all agree, we have seen in the referendum). FPTP certainly seems to accelerate that race to the mean, in PR systems parties take more extreme points of view in an effort to differentiate from each other, the policies of which are then brought closer to the mean by coalition (which leads to softening of the edges). So that is not perfect either.

 

As a light side-note, I found this website highly amusing.

[Bypassblade]

There are 2,357 responses on this thread & I've not read them all but most seem supposition, nobody knows what the concequences are/will be until we've activated article 50 gone though the motions and left.

 

People are predicting the end of the world, there's far worse things happening out there than us leaving the EU; come on get a grip please.

[tzijlstra]

There are 2,357 responses on this thread & I've not read them all but most seem supposition, nobody knows what the concequences are/will be until we've activated article 50 gone though the motions and left.

 

People are predicting the end of the world, there's far worse things happening out there than us leaving the EU; come on get a grip please.

 

Sorry Pete, but the Pound is down, the economy is affected and a lot of people depend on the way this is going to pan out for their careers and futures. Discussing the consequences is a fine thing to do on a forum, that is what forums are for after all!

[Jeffrey Shaw]

But the FTSE100 is up.

[Radan]

But the FTSE100 is up.

 

And the 250?

 

Don't focus entirely on the 100. Those are multinational companies. The 250 gives a better indication.