The British EU Referendum

[Pentagathus]

My friend's ex was really pissed off with her nan for voting leave (she's one of these cretins that thinks older people don't have a future so shouldn't be voting or some armadillo like that) and wrote a massive rant to her nan about why she shouldn't have voted no. Her nans reply was
"Just proud to be British". portugal I love old people.

But it's sounding like we might just be ending up in the eea with no legislative powers, which is what pretty much nobody voted for (or at least I'd hope not.) I guess only time will tell though.

[Jubal]

I think the thing is, it's quite possible that if there'd been a specific leave deal on the ballot paper that there's no one deal that would have beaten remain, which makes it really difficult now - all the Leavers seem to want different things. Some of them are still claiming they can do some kind of impossible super-deal, but the EU are making it quite clear that we're not going to get a better deal than member states get. Being in the EEA with no legislative powers sucks, but I think it's probably our best worst option at this stage, a more full economic crash-out would be really, really painful for us as a country.

And yeah, the "old people shouldn't vote" is nonsense, though I do wish young people had turned out better and there's definitely been a lot of "young people don't know what they're talking about" crap being thrown which is equally bad.

[comrade_general]

I think you guys just secretly want to join the US.

[Gmd]

I'd join the USA if all your presidential candidates weren't so horrible.

[Jubal]

I mean, Britain joining could rectify that of course. Certainly no GOP candidate would ever be elected again without an utterly massive swing to the left. England alone (which might I guess end up divided into states by region) is vastly bigger than even California, and about as solidly to the left on social and economic issues; there aren't that many of our Conservatives who oppose things like the NHS and marriage equality. Also we could run Boris for the presidency, which would be hilarious and, as much as I increasingly loathe the man, could still potentially be the best option on the ballot paper.

Not sure whether we'd just join as England, or as some regional collection like Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Kent, London, Cornwall (the latter would bring us closer to a collection of US states in population terms; Mercia would be a fairly sizeable state in population terms, Cornwall would be the new baby, being about the same population as Wyoming). Would make a lot of difference to the Senate which one we did.

[Glaurung]

Though of course the voters who wanted to "take back control" and close our borders would might not be too keen on submitting the UK Parliament to the US federal system, or allowing free movement for 250 million US citizens...

[Clockwork]

Being the next American state would be hella better than staying in the EU. Become American citizen, fewer disputes on when to use the letter 'u', people from Norfolk might become hillbillies and we'd have sent a man to the moon! 'Murica!

[Jubal]

Surely more disputes on when to use the letter u? We'd have to argue with the (other) Americans about which spellings to use on official documentation! At least the +man on the moon would be an OK trade off for the loss of our joint nobel prize on leaving the EU...

I also want it on record that Norfolk people are peasants not hillbillies, on account of having been that way a lot longer and having precisely bugger all in the way of hills.

[Pentagathus]

We're marshbillies.

[Clockwork]

I think if we joined the states we'd have to accept their spelling, as wrong as it is.

A new subtype of hillbilles! Your guys up for that cg? XD

Edit' we'd have to learn to apologise less, shout more, use the horn when driving, mutual contempt of Canada. The queen would get a wing of the white house. The tea would be dredged from the harbour. So much positivity, sounds better the more I think about it in loose, improbable terms!

[Son of the King]

Maybe we could somehow amalgamate the new US and the old EU to have one giant United States of Everywhere.

[comrade_general]

It would be the states of England, Scotland, and Wales. NI is out unless Ireland reunifies. The Queen is gone. You know we don't do that monarchy armadillo.

[Jubal]

I'm not to fussed about the monarchy either, it's cool. What would NI count as then? It's not as if it's too small, like 12 or 13 actual states have fewer people.

Also England would have around 106 electoral votes.

[comrade_general]

NI is just left by itself. If it wants to be a state then it's all Ireland or nothing. Also we will grant you 1 electoral vote because you burned our capital.

[Jubal]

No taxation without (adequate) representation!