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Brexit: Do-Over!!! by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on June 27, 2016

Brexit: Do-Over!!!
by Tom Sullivan

On Friday, global markets had their biggest daily loss ever. Larger than the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the Black Monday Crash of 1987. There have since been lots of stories of regret among Brexit ‘Leave’ voters, many of whom seem not to have understood what they were voting for.

Having seen what has happened to the Pound and to the value of pensions, they’re calling for a do-over:

LONDON — An online petition calling for a second referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union surpassed 3 million signatures Sunday, highlighting the tumult sweeping the country in the wake of the shock decision.

The petition calls on the government to implement a rule stating that if the “Remain” or “Leave” camps won less than 60 percent of the vote with less than a 75 percent turnout, “there should be another referendum.”

The referendum has been deeply divisive for the United Kingdom. The “Leave” campaign had racked up 17.4 million votes — compared to 16.1 million backing the status quo — giving “Leave” 51.9 percent of the ballot.

Ironically, the pro-Leave maker of the petition created it weeks ago for another purpose entirely and wants to distance himself from it now that it has
been “hijacked by the remain campaign”:

In addition, the petition may have been manipulated from outside the country. During auditing, 77,000 signatures have been removed:

The request for another referendum on the parliament’s official petitions website should have been signed only by British citizens and UK residents.

However, the petition’s data showed signatories from countries around the world, including Iceland, the Cayman Islands and Tunisia, and in some cases there are more signatures than total population.

Despite Vatican City, a tiny city state, having a total population of just 800, over 39,000 residents of Vatican City appeared to have signed the petition.

Helen Jones, the chair of the petitions committee, said that those signatures discovered to be fake would be “removed” and said such fraud “undermines the process of parliamentary democracy”.

Even so, while the EU is saying hurry up and go already, many among the original “Leave” voters have reconsidered. What a mess:

“The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered,” a choking Cameron said in his resignation speech, which marked the most tumultuous end to a British premiership since Anthony Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez crisis.

Still, the upswell of chatter – #regrexit is trending big on twitter – over whether Britain might be able to reconsider speaks to the disbelief gripping this continent in the wake of a vote that has unleashed financial and political mayhem.

Sterling has plunged, and Britain’s political parties are both crippled. Cameron is a lameduck leader, and the main opposition Labour party on Sunday attempted a coup against its leader, with nine top officials resigning.

The UK has “silly walked” itself off a cliff, according to the next New Yorker cover:

If only Donald Trump had been there to show them how to do it right.

Published inUncategorized