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In the Aftermath Of Brexit, Brits Google About Irish Passport, Meaning Of EU, and Why it All Happened

As the world makes peace with the news that the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union, people in the UK are increasingly trying to figure out what this means. Google noted on Twitter late Thursday that "What is the EU?" was the second top UK question on the EU since the news broke, with "Why did Britain leave the EU?" being the first. The questions also speak volume about the awareness of the issue among them. Understandably, some people also resorted to the search engine to look for Irish passports. "Getting an Irish passport" keywords saw a 100% surge.

24 of 693 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Of course the spin is people are... by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm sure after the Super Bowl there are plenty of people googling "Super Bowl". It doesn't mean they know nothing about football.

  2. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by dejitaru · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Judging by the stats it's not the "average people" but scared old people who cares nothing of the younger generation.

  3. Re:Control by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    rule-making body a thousand miles away
    Cough cough ... look on a Map? Bruessels and Strassbourg are not thousands of miles away from London.

    same about the World Trade Organization. Why are THEY making decisions for Americans?
    Erm? Because they are basically run by American Mega Corporations and their cronies?

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  4. Re:BBC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Negotiations have already started. Not Article 50 negotiations, of course. Only the UK can invoke those. But as far as the 27 EU member states are concerned, the UK is overstaying its welcome from today onwards. They UK can legally stay as long as it wants, but politically it will be treated like a stranger.

    It is already clear that if the UK wants continued access to the single market, it will basically have to accept all the things that voters hoped to get rid off with their "leave" vote, and get no say in the future decisions of the EU. Pay dues to the EU? Check. Grant foreigners freedom of movement? Check. Follow EU rules on marketability of products? Check. Get to vote on any of those rules? Nope. Some people are still delusional about this. They think the UK will get special treatment because at the moment it imports more from the EU than it exports to the EU, implying that the EU needs the UK market more than the UK needs the EU market. But that's a flawed argument. Almost half the exports of the UK are sold on the European market, but only 14% of the EU exports are sold in the UK.

  5. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Aside from all the nonsense this election cycle, the sentiment in the world is the same among working-class people in the west - that the political elites have abandoned them. They are angry about immigration depressing wages, and they are angry about globalism wiping out jobs altogether.

    These two things have been ignored by politicians for so long now, that people angry enough to elect idiots like Johnson and Trump in order to effect change.

    They've made their own bed.

  6. Re:Of course the spin is people are... by NotDrWho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Also notice how the news reports are dancing around the fact that Brits (and a lot of other EU citizens) are getting fed up with the ultra-liberal "open arms" immigration policies of the EU. Everyone wants to help refugees in need. But that decency and generosity begins to wane fast when those refugees start trying to enforce Sharia, rape women, shoot up malls, traffic children, etc.

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  7. WTBH? by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From TFA:

    "What is the EU?" and "What happens if we leave the EU?" The former was the second top UK question on the EU after the results were officially announced.

    Seriously, shouldn't they have been asking this before they voted?

    1. Re:WTBH? by Jahta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      From TFA:

      "What is the EU?" and "What happens if we leave the EU?" The former was the second top UK question on the EU after the results were officially announced.

      Seriously, shouldn't they have been asking this before they voted?

      If you think that's bad, read this and weep; "Leave voter regrets voting Leave when he realises it means we're now Leaving"

      Yes, people who voted Leave have been on British television saying how shocked and worried they are that Britain is actually leaving the EU. "I just assumed we would stay in and my vote wouldn't matter!", they said. You couldn't make it up.

  8. Re:Of course the spin is people are... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't eat every thing the media feeds you

  9. Re:Control by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I feel the same about the World Trade Organization. Why are THEY making decisions for Americans?

    The WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This was an attempt to set international institutions in place to regulate international trade in order to make it easier to get trade moving. It was an attempt to provide an international framework in which countries could sort out their differences on trade matters peacefully without resorting to trade wars, protectionism, and to prevent a repeat of the same economic conditions that ultimately led to two world wars.

    Does that answer your question?

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  10. Re:Control by swillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Voters rightfully want to control their country's own destiny without having to cater to some international rule-making body a thousand miles away. I feel the same about the World Trade Organization. Why are THEY making decisions for Americans?

    People rightfully want to control their own destiny without having to cater to some rule-making body 10 miles away. Why is CITY HALL making decisions for me?

    The answer is: Because it's a good idea to give up some control in exchange for better relations with your neighbors, and a neutral third party who can adjudicate disputes and define structures that pre-emptively eliminate them.

    Obviously, it's important that you have a say in the rule-making body, but the UK did have a say in the EU's operations, and Americans do have a say in the WTO. And clearly, if the association with the rulemaking body in question is doing you more harm than good, then leave. But leaving just because you want to feel empowered is stupid, as is arbitrarily drawing the necessary boundary of control at the national level.

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  11. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by CaptainLard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are angry about immigration depressing wages, and they are angry about globalism wiping out jobs altogether.

    And sadly because they are "too tired of listening to experts", they'll never know there is very little truth to that.

  12. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by CaptainLard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, this is great information for America. We get to observe what happens when a stable western country with a large economy makes a drastic change driven mainly by xenophobia. Maybe the British economy crashes, maybe its all roses. All we have to do is watch...

    (many probably won't watch)

  13. Re:So.. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    .The United Kingdom has left the European Union.

    No, it hasn't. It's had a referendum on leaving the EU, but there are still some legislative steps that would have to be taken. First, Parliament would have to vote on it, and like in the US, they're a lot of people with varying interests, some of them monetary. They could say, "Let's have another referendum, because the people voted wrong" or they could say, "No you stupid people, we're not going to do what you want".

    This is the UK. They have a long history of ignoring what people want. Throw the cosmopolitan financial interests of the elite into the mix, and there's going to be a lot of pressure to ignore this vote. If they try to do that, though, it's going to get very ugly. Even uglier than it already has.

    The bloodbath in the UK is not over, by a long shot.

    But at least one Scottish lady has a clear head about things:

    https://i.redditmedia.com/7rCc...

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  14. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The great US fraud that is contaminating some EU country is that so-called "liberals" use a few societal values and causes as an empty façade (e.g. gay mariage, abortion, and SJW issues) while adopting centrist/right-wing policies.

    The opposing party then makes a huge fuss about those irresponsible "leftists", "socialists", new incarnation of Castro, Marx, Chavez, Guevara or any other colorful description. Such idiocy is neverending and is found in like a thousand statements from politicians and a million Web 2.0 comments all over the place. Meanwhile the "liberals" that go with the wind (the kind that'll find a job in finance or think tanks etc. not go back to a sociology tenure), their job is to show they don't have "leftist" policies and as far as they go having their left-wing politically murdered is what they want anyway.

    With enough of these cycles, you end up with the US situation : on Trump's "left", you get to vote for George W. Bush with a cunt ("But, wimmen!")

  15. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The creation a low-paying, 16-hours/day, 7-days/week job in Vietnam doesn't mean jack shit to somebody who used to have a moderately well-paying, 8-hours/day, 5-days/week job working at a factory in the UK or the US. There wasn't a net win globally; the third-worlder isn't all that much better off than before, and may actually be much worse off if they went from an agricultural job they had some control over their destiny to a dismal factory job where they have no control at all. Meanwhile, the first-worlders are much worse off, being unemployed and often unable to find employment due to widespread economic destruction affecting entire regions and even countries. The only ones benefiting are a very small ownership class reaping all of the benefits, who thanks to their political connections and ability to bypass taxation systems have tended to avoid contributing back much to society at large. Then there's the spin-off effect from the destruction of middle class jobs. Eliminating one middle-class job may make one ownership-class individual wealthier, but it also makes numerous other middle-class individuals much worse off economically now that they've lost much of the business of the other middle-class employee who lost his job.

    People in the UK and the US are now voting based on their own personal experiences with globalization, with immigration, and with free trade. These experiences have been devastating. It's no wonder they've had enough, and are doing what they can to get some major changes going on.

  16. Re:LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The EU is just enjoying its growing pains. The US had a similar, but far less civilized, debate about the same thing from 1860-1864. The "slavery" thing was a mere sideshow. The issue of states' rights was the main question, and more specifically, whether states had the rights to secede. Apparently the EU allows that without a fight. The US does not, but fought a very bloody war to make that determination.

  17. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or its ignorant propagandized young people people who are still hopeful they are going to get something out of the 'promise of the eu' who don't realize that globalism while makes for nice feel good politics is really the underlying force behind the death of middle class and the expand wealth gap.

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  18. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by mrbester · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Those very same people voted overwhelmingly to remain in EEC in 1975 referendum after UK joined in 1973. Now they want out because they don't think it is still a good idea.

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  19. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by larryjoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the third-worlder isn't all that much better off than before, and may actually be much worse off if they went from an agricultural job they had some control over their destiny to a dismal factory job where they have no control at all

    This is a first world perspective. Control and quality of life are not concerns until subsistence is no longer a concern.

  20. Re:A preview of President Trump's upcoming win. by Pfhorrest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the third-worlder isn't all that much better off than before, and may actually be much worse off if they went from an agricultural job they had some control over their destiny to a dismal factory job where they have no control at all

    Why did they switch from the former to the latter then? (And if it wasn't their own choice, what forced them to do it? Honest question, not rhetorical).

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  21. Re:So.. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm assuming triggering Article 50 just got delayed by his resignation.

    I think it got delayed because Boris Johnson and that other pro-Brexit guy whose name I don't remember say he shouldn't rush into it. "In voting to leave the EU it’s vital to stress that there’s no need for haste, and as the Prime Minister has just said nothing will change in the short term except work will begin on how to extricate this country from the supranational system. As the Prime Minister has said there is no need to invoke Article 50."

    So the pro-Brexit guys are back-pedaling already because they aren't ready for Brexit? That's truly the funniest thing I've heard all day. "We want out. We want out". Holy shit! We won? Now what? Better start planning..... Sounds like the Conservatives just won another round in office.

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  22. Re:Of course the spin is people are... by Xyrus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    *grabs popcorn*

    So the dog finally caught a car. Now we get to watch what happens when a bunch of idiots vote against their own best interests and have to face the consequences. Take this a preview of what's coming in November for the good ol' US.

    I don't know about you guys, but I'm having a ball.

    --
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  23. British equivalant of 1776 US revolution by knorthern+knight · · Score: 2, Insightful

    During the Cold War era there was a joke about a western visitor going through Poland/Hungary/East-Germany looking at the cars and noticing something weird. There were no steering wheels. When he finally asked about it, the answer was "The steering wheels are all in Moscow".

    Similarly, the EU is now effectively run by unelected bureaucrats (aka "Euro-crats") in Brussels who were grabbing more and more power from elected governments. When people complained about local problems, they were told that no solution was possible, because they had to follow EU regulations.

    Case in point, "record breaking floods" in recent years. The "Euro-crats" blamed them on "global warming", which was a lie. The true cause...
    * before EU, British local authorities dredged local rivers and dumped the debris out to sea
    * with EU regulations, that became a no-no, and the debris had to be stored on land. I.e. it became illegal to move mud from the bottom of the river to the bottom of the English Channel.
    * England is crowded, and real-estate is insanely expensive.
    * Dredging became insanely expensive
    * Local authorities stopped dredging local rivers, because they couldn't afford the increased costs
    * After several years of not being dredged, rivers started overflowing their banks every time they got hit with a moderate rainfall... well... like... dohhh.

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