Brexit live: David Cameron to step down over EU referendum result

The Guardian ^ | 24 June 2016 | Andrew Sparrow, Matthew Weaver

[Cronos]

Quote from Cameron

I was absolutely clear [in the referendum] about my belief that Britain is stronger, safer and better off inside the European Union. And I made clear the referendum was about this and this alone, not the future of any single politician, including myself.

But the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path and as such I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction.

I will do everthing I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months. But I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination.

This is not a decision I have taken lightly. But I do believe it’s in the national interest to have a period of stability and then the new leadership required.

There is no need for a precise timetable today. But in my view we should aim to have a new prime minister in place by the start of the Conservative party conference in October.

[little jeremiah]

Boris is from NY?

[little jeremiah]

Some people are delusional.

[DoughtyOne]

With all due respect, you’ve missed the mark wildly here.

Trump was in Scotland to highlight the work his children had done to get that golf course renovated. By showing up there, he increased their stature, the course’s stature, and his international stature.

He highlighted Obama’s and Mrs. Clinton’s policy preferences, and how wrong and misguided they were.

Doesn’t it give you pause to realize how much Hillary favored the E. U., when it comes to topics like the N. A. U.?

This was a classic teachable moment.

Britain rejected membership in the E. U., and U. S. Citizens are going to reject membership in an N. A. U., at least to the extent they reject globalism and international overlords, and I believe the treat is much more than that.

Thank God!

[dragonblustar]

Boris is from NY?

From what I heard on Fox Business last night...

[little jeremiah]

New York City. So is a dual citizen, or what? Was he raised here?

[SGNA]

Exit poll questions on political ideology say it all:

[TomasUSMC]

The Euro may have prevented war....by surrendering to its enemy....ISLUM.

The Brits have never been big on surrendering their little island.

[TomasUSMC]

The English people have shown the Americans that extreme action is not impossible, is not something to be afraid of and something that can result in FREEDOM INDEPENDENCE AND LIBERTY.

Americans who were afraid of voting for Trump will now be not afraid or timid to....... MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

[BillyBoy]

I have to admit I was dead wrong on this one. My gut feeling from the start was that the UK wouldn't have the guts to withdraw because the "world opinion" of other "world leaders" would look down on them and UK citizens want to be seen as "forward thinking" and in the popular kids club.

After that 11th hour assassination of the pro-remain MP, I was absolutely certain that it would generate so much "sympathy" towards the EU bootlickers that there was no way they would lose.

And yet it DID pass, albeit narrowly (around 52%-48%). Still, this was a BIG upset given what the polls showed last week. I'm pleasantly surprised that douchebag Cameron resigned so quickly. UK politicians at least see the writing on the wall when they've failed their party. If it was America, Obama would just sneer at the outcome and claim the poll question was worded poorly and demand another vote in a few months, and keep on having referendums until the vote goes his way (and once that happened, they'd declare the results are set in stone and "Settled law")

Agree that Boris Johnson might be an even bigger CINO than Cameron, even though Johnson was on the right side on this one. I figured Johnson was ineligible to be PM since he was the Mayor of London, but I googled it and discovered he was just elected to parliament last month. Darn. That clown (especially with his goofy hair) reminds me of a British "Harry Dunne" from Dumb & Dumber.

I actually had no dog in this fight, but seeing Obama was pushing the Remain option so hard, I had to hope the Leave campaign would humiliate him. Had Obama taken the opposite view and DEMANDED the UK leave the EU, I would have probably sided with the Remain camp just to spite him.

[Impy]

Polls were tight as drum down the stretch actually, which surprised me, initially I thought there was no way this would pass. For a while it looked like leave had the edge. But after that false flag murder, I was also pessimistic. Bookmakers, it seemed, never thought it would pass for a minute. What’s interesting is Wales voted leave, and a majority of Labour-controlled local councils in England. Labour voters were very divided over this, in contrast to party officials. All the highest areas of unemployment (outside of Scotland) voted leave.

Their certainly are benefits to staying in the EU, trade and travel are easier. But I have to say the negatives seem to far outweigh any positives. There are several UK freepers here and I believe they unanimously feel strongly that leaving is necessary to have any chance of Britian remaining a free country, just imagine if socialists in Canada and Mexico got a say in how we run the US. Possible Turkish entry into the EU was a prime concern. The EU seems more likely than not to fail entirely in the long term. Drawbacks to leaving were vastly blown out of proportion as an election tactic. I hate to agree with something Boris Johnson said (London has a new Muslim Labour Mayor BTW) but calling it a “noble idea” that isn’t working is spot on. If there were no socialist idiots and throngs of third worlders looking to invade the west, I’m sure it would work great, but there are, so it doesn’t.

Of course Obama was for them staying, the entire global elite was, there was no chance it would be otherwise.

I have never seen such whining as over this result. So many tweets from people saying they’re ashamed to be British, “damn you old people, 70% of us under 25 idiots wanted to stay” (a LOT of that, they sound ready to execute anyone over 50) whine, whine, whine, “give us a revote”, “London should secede from England”, ashen faced Tony Blair looking he just lost a child or something. These people are drunk on their own koolaid.

[BloodScarletMinnesota]

Agreed. The Brits should have another referendum on whether Cameron should be hung as a traitor. Congrats to the Brits this morning. This is their Independence Day.

The voters casting their ballots recognized him as less-than-patriotic; I concede that my description of slimy traitor is a bit over the top.

His resignation/concession statement was quite eloquent and conciliatory, I can't imagine a Democrat politician making such a speech as a result of a political defeat by the voters.

[caver]

“When 8 Poles live in the same house, all with jobs”

Does this really happen? Do 8 Polish citizens leave their country and go to the Britain to take jobs there?

[Cronos]

The Euro is a currency. What are you talking about? The Eurozone or the European union or Europe or the currency Euro?

[Cronos]

Let's go through your points 1 by 1:

• You say you hope the political pendulum will swing back to the right -- do you mean right as in
  1. Fiscal policy
  2. Social conservatism (pro-life, pro-sacrament of marriage: man-woman, etc)?
  3. nationalist policy
  
  
  The majority of the "so-called rightist parties" in Europe are only #3. The exception is here in Poland where the current governing party is pro-family, has staunch conservative values etc.
  
  
• you say you will celebrate the death of the EU -- what do you want to replace this with? If you say the EC and a confederation like Switzerland, I'll agree. If you say "nothing" - then I;ll point to Europe's centuries of internecine wars and say you are wrong

So, what is your alternative to the EU? It's heavily flawed, I agree and I would like to see it more conservative - socially and fiscally. But it's better than the alternative

[Cronos]

if people draw the correct conclusions about the over centralisation of power. -- The scots, northern English etc. conclude that power is centralized in London.

If we reduce London's dominance, the SNP can be contained. - I think this would reduce the rumblings in Manchester, but not in Edinburgh. The Scots are too far gone to stay

Is it a bad thing for the British union to end? On the whole yes, the assimilation didn't get completed, and I noticed a lot of anger in Scotland when I lived in the UK in the early 2000s and visited Scotia. It is bad for England's standing in the world, but may be it is better for England as a nation - a smaller, far less influential nation, but more sense of itself

Industry may make only 20%, but most of this is part of the European supply-chain network, so industry will decide to assemble elsewhere. Ditto for banking -- I don't see any need for banks not to move to Dubai or Singapore or Frankfurt. Barclays would probably stay, but RBS may move to Edinburgh to stay in the EU, while HSBC and StanChart would move to Singapore I'd guess

[Cronos]

about centralization of power - People in England, on the other hand, live in one of the most centralised governance systems on earth where London decides for things at near borough-level. France is the closest in terms of this centralization

[Cronos]

Do read the history of Europe since the 50s -- the EEC and then the EU prevented war between Germany and France. This had nothing to do with their relation with Izlam -- the current wave of Moslems to France and Germany will cause war.

Oh and the English have surrendered the southern part of their island to the Moslems from Pakistan and Bangladesh

Btw, the thing about the "Brits surrendering their little island" - you do have to go back a bit in time, but the English invited a German king to come and rule them in the 1700s -- George I, their current queen married a Greek, Queen Victoria married a German (the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is heavily German)

Going further back you see that the English invited a Dutch king (William I) to rule them and earlier invited Scottish kings (Stuarts), Welsh (Tudor) and French (an invitation to the French Dauphin that failed)

[Cronos]

I actually had no dog in this fight, but seeing Obama was pushing the Remain option so hard, I had to hope the Leave campaign would humiliate him. Had Obama taken the opposite view and DEMANDED the UK leave the EU, I would have probably sided with the Remain camp just to spite him.

i'm with you on the "humiliation to OBama" -- it almost made me push to the "Leave" camp just to tweak his nose. Obamalamadingdog has really failed -- every time he draws a red line, it's promptly crossed. Our "Nobel peace prize winner...."

[Cronos]

Quite a few Poles moved to the UK after 2004 — about 1 million+ There are large Polish areas there. Why? The Poles tend to be highly educated and work hard.

[Cronos]

The "Leave" vote was heavily from the poorer people and the lesser educated as they are the most affected by immigration from the EU. This cut across party lines.

just imagine if socialists in Canada and Mexico got a say in how we run the US -- incorrect analogy. The UK has a higher percentage of people in the public sector (26%) compared to Germany (15%) or France. The UK has the free-market and with Germany's and E Europe's support was pushing it against France (the French constantly complaining about the Anglo-Saxon system taking over should give a clue to the British clout)