Referendum Reaction

Friday, 24th June 2016 10:44 - by Resident IFA

It happened.  It really happened.

Out of the EU after 43 years.  Cameron out.  Stockmarkets lurching…well, tanking.

I voted to Remain.  I could have easily voted to Leave, yet felt the upheaval to be potentially de-stabilising to the economy.

My Mum voted Leave.  Quite a few of the Team here also went that way.  I understand why.

Now for the fallout.  The FTSE100 is back at only 4.74% down today (as I write) yet still has its head poking above 6,000 points.  In some ways, not so bad.

I believe Cameron to be a decent man and he has done the decent thing.  We can’t have a country in limbo.  Well, at least not absolute limbo.

It might well be that we see a total clear-out.  No doubt, factions of the Labour Party will see this as their opportunity to remove Corbyn.  How many of the party faithful will back him to beat, say, Boris in an election later in 2016?  Not many, I wager.

In the short-term, Article 50 must be enacted.  Or does it?  Apparently, informal negotiations as to the UK’s exit can take place first.  This could take years.

I mentioned my concern (above) re: de-stabilising the economy and, by dint, the UK stockmarket.  The negotiation of our exit was signposted as 2 years…yet could take much longer.

I’d rather not be in a similar position in, say, 5 years’ time.  As with most things – such as that niggle in your back you’ve lived with for a few months and now don’t really notice – we could ‘mend and make do’ as we go on.  Likely not an ideal scenario.

I actually hold out hope that whoever takes the reins of the Conservative Party aggressively seeks agreement on the UK’s exit and stops it from becoming a festering sore that taints us across Europe, if not the world.
I put a picture of my Polling Station on the lse.co.uk’s Team WhatsApp yesterday morning.  I titled it ‘A momentous day!’

I never thought I’d be so correct.  Although the sun rose as normal this morning, life might never be (quite) the same again…

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(* Note: I’m no longer an IFA.  They didn’t change the Blog title; not expecting such gut reaction from me! *)