If the Leave side start saying they think Remain has won, even before the first results start to emerge, then when Remain officially wins, people will think it must have been a fix. Some people will see straight through such shenanigans, but there are enough gullible people to create a real stink if they they think they've been shafted.
What a shock Hasten to add it's not done and dusted yet, but if the result is confirmed, many many ramifications and the politicians now need to pull together to respect the people's decision and do whatever is required.
Well, the result is what I thought would happen, as I said on here yesterday. The next few days are going to be full of stupid crowing and laments but behind the scenes they need to pick up the pieces and work things out. I'm not too concerned about the apparent/actual result on the financial markets as it's almost always a massive over-reaction to the pundits' complacency. We've dropped massively against the dollar so far and it will hurt British holiday makers who haven't had the foresight to buy their currency in advance, but will make exports to the U.S. much more advantageous. I reckon that by next week it will start rising again as the normal checks and balances will happen. The pound will have weakened against the Euro when the European markets open but nowhere near as much as the dollar (they'll have had more time to think about things). I expect the stock markets will also have their usual volatile reaction to the situation as the players jostle for position and try to make quick profits. I've watched closely for the last 50 years as these things happen and the doom and gloom merchants are always the first to come out. Although only a hairdresser, one of my major hobbies for the last 50 years has been the stock market and world trade (boring!! ) and my first words to most people has always been Our first problem is going to be who should negotiate our Article 50 exit. Although Cameron made a complete balls up of the referendum I think he's still the best person to negotiate it. He knows the players and he will have a slight moral advantage because he won't really need to say 'I told you to give us a better deal' as they now know that. Johnson or Gove would be starting with an antagonistic disadvantage. Our other problems are Scotland and Northern Ireland. We will now have an Irish border with the EU. I suppose we could ask Trump to build a wall for us . Sturgeon will now be agitating for another Scottish referendum but I think that she is still wearing blinkers about the viability of the Scottish economy. I think that Junker, President of the EU, swung votes towards Leave by his crass statements about us being given a worse deal if we leave. Unless the EU shows willing towards a fair negotiation with Britain I think that the EU economy will take a big hit - especially on the financial markets. The trouble will be that if we do get reasonable deals then other countries may want to pull out of the EU. So there's going to be problems either way. The threat of big businesses pulling out of the UK is not too big a one (although Remain made it appear massive) as most of them would want to remain in Europe, and the EU is not going to be a particularly good prospect. Although Cameron should have had contingency plans of what to do in the case of a Leave victory I think his complacency may have got the better of him. I think that he will now say that although he thought it best that we should remain in the EU he is still the best person for negotiating the deal for a smooth exit. His position, in the eyes of the public, may pivot around how he proposes to deal with immigration. None of the politicians have been saying anything about how they would deal with the housing problem (or schools or the NHS). Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, spouted on about building fifty thousand houses in London but the mayors office doesn't have anything to do with building houses! Whoops! I think I've spouted on more than enough.
P.S. I don't think that Farage comes into the equation - apart from keeping things stirred up a bit (not necessarily a bad thing).
Just reviewing the results map on the BBC , surprisingly the 3 main northern cities Leeds , Liverpool and Manchester ( not greater Manchester ) voted to remain. I think the vote is a clear mandate to leave at 48% to 52% . Not sure what would have happened if it was 49.9 to 51.1. One good thing may arise from the vote . As the Labour party 99% supported remain , and Corbyn's leadership on this was confusing/bewildering to say the least. Hopefully it will be good-bye Jeremy.
