Many in Britain Were Googling What the E.U. is Right After Voting in Favor of Brexit

Here is one of those typically depressing stories that highlight the general ignorance of the majority of people in a modern, industrialized nation.

For once, it wasn't the United States doing something like this, either.

Yes, hours after Britain's landmark vote, where a majority of people opted to leave the European Union (EU), many Britons were apparently Googling some basic information, in an attempt simply to find out what the EU is, and what the ramifications might be for leaving it.

That is the textbook example of much too little, and far too late.

Now, what is done is done. And it seems safe to say that the damage has already been done. The Prime Minister promised to resign by October, and being in favor of remaining within the EU himself, he left the process of formally announcing Britain's intentions to exit the EU to what he termed as "fresh leadership."

Feelings have been hurt on both sides, however. JK Rowling tweeted that she wished their were more magic in the world, betraying her own depressed reaction that so many of her fellow countrymen wanted to leave the EU. In the meantime, EU leaders, with hours of the election results coming in, called for top level meetings of EU leaders, although Britain was already excluded in those talks. They are saying that while they are obviously unhappy about Britain's decision, they do not want any delays in the negotiations for Britain to leave the EU, and that it might be done in less than the two-year process that is the given time frame once Britain would invoke Article 50, which is the process for a member nation to leave the EU. No nation has ever before opted to do so, marking Britain as the first such nation. There is a lot of speculation that EU leaders will give Britain the harshest terms possible, in hopes of dissuading other member nations from flirting with the idea of leaving the EU (which some other nations have flirted with in the past).

Already, the United Kingdom received a downgrade of their credit rating in reaction to it's decision to withdraw from the EU.

Obviously, emotions are running high after such a landmark vote.

And let's face it: right now, all of the emotions are running high, and no one really knows what the full ramifications of this vote are going to be. It seems almost a certainty right now that Scotland will hold another referendum on breaking itself away from the UK and remaining a part of the EU. Also, Northern Ireland's overwhelmingly favorable vote to remain a part of the EU has drawn considerable speculation that it might hold a similar referendum to secede from the UK and join a unified Ireland. That possibility seems a lot less likely to me, but you never know.

In any case, we shall see. What remains a depressing thought, however, is this notion that many people - far too many people to ignore - apparently did not know enough about what they were voting for, and just how huge of an impact it would have - at least until it is too late. In that, Britons (and surely other nations) are similar to Americans, who have found themselves with one mediocre set of "leaders" after another, often stubbornly holding onto their backing of a leader (such as George W. Bush) well after he had proven to be incompetent and unworthy of the faith that the American people seemed so willing to lend him.

Still, the British made up their mind now, much like Americans made up their mind back then. Things had to get worse before they got better for Americans after they voted Bush another term in office in 2004, and my suspicion is that things will get worse for Britain before they eventually get better. And by better, I mean it will take a while before they fully overcome this disastrous decision to leave the EU.

Let's just hope no other nations opt for similar decisions that would hurt their own country.




The British are frantically Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it  by Brian Fung June 24, 2016:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/24/the-british-are-frantically-googling-what-the-eu-is-hours-after-voting-to-leave-it/