A Scotsman describes how he first learned of Brexit (British Exit from the European Union) vote when he returned back to Scotland after being out of the country for a while. You’ll hear why he thinks the Brexit vote was a shambles then shares his concerns about problems from trading to travel that could occur if and when a British Exit / Brexit happens.
Listen to “Brexit: A Scottish Opinion” on Spreaker.
QUOTES:
“We voted on leaving the European Union.”
“Brexit was a complete shambles.”
“I would just like to see Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales coming to some kind of realistic formal agreement and then just sticking to it.”
“So the trading might be a bit of an issue.”
“My identity is fairly strong so I don’t need it for that. Brexit will benefit some of the people in Britain and it won’t benefit others”
“I would feel pretty bad for the young generation if we Brexit.”
SHOW NOTES
A Midlife Traveler Podcast; Season 1 Scotland Speaks
EPISODE: BREXIT
Remember: This story is better when heard in the Scottish voice…so listen the podcast…please.
Brexit is NOT a Breakfast Cereal
“So I came home, I’d spent a few days in Edinburgh, and then I went up to my parents’ home to catch up with them, then the brothers and sisters came around to catch up with me and the family. So I got up in the morning and can hear my two brothers at the breakfast table arguing and arguing, going on about it, and going on about it.
So I went into the kitchen and say (to mum) “What’s going on this morning? What are you not making?”
She asked “What are you talking about?”
I replied, “The boys are arguing about breakfast, what are you not making?”
“Brexit”
“What?”
“Brexit.”
“What’s that? Like a new type of cereal or what are you talking about?”
“We voted on leaving the European Union.”
…. So this was my reply, this is how terrible I am. I said “Oh. When did we join?”
Why the Brexit Vote a Shambles
So, to be honest with you, I have absolutely no idea here. Brexit was a complete shambles. The MP’s that encouraged the people to vote yes, then afterwards changed to “Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What we told you was rubbish. We just told you lots of lies to oppose David Cameron because we didn’t think he would vote yes.”
Some think they should have been imprisoned for fraud. They’re MP’s, they take a responsibility to inform people of the truth… as you well know, that’s exactly what MP’s do, right?
Could this mean another vote for Scottish Independence?
So Brexit, I don’t know … Is it wise in this current state of affairs to start breaking ourselves down into smaller communities and smaller … And then what’s going to happen is if Brexit actually happens then it means Nicola Sturgeon will whip out Article 52, which means that we get another re-vote for Scottish independence, which, if we get that, we will then vote to re-join the E.U…
It’s just too many votes. It’s been going on … It’s just too much going on vote wise. I would just like to see Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales coming to some kind of realistic formal agreement and then just sticking to it.
I don’t need to be a separate country to be a Scotsman.
My identity is fairly strong so I don’t need it for that. Brexit will benefit some of the people in Britain and it won’t benefit others. Staying in the Euro would continue to benefit some people in Britain and not benefit others. It’s just … There’s going to be somebody that’s going to get kicked out of the pram either way.
Re-negotiations of Free Trade Agreements with 27 Countries = A Long Road Ahead
The Brexit thing will be very, very hard though guys. Canada, maybe the Canadians on the list, Canada has been trying to get agreements to trade with the Euro for about ten years now. Free trade. The agreement has been yes, but the reason it takes so long is when you make one agreement with one country you then need to write that other agreement in twenty-seven different languages and have it agreed by twenty-seven different countries. So that has to be done twenty-seven times, times twenty-seven times. And every time there’s an issue with the agreement it has to be readdressed, rewritten, republished, and sent out again.
Brexit Can Hurt Financial Trading
So what I’m concerned about is what is going to happen with our trading within Europe. Even though they said “Aw, it’s okay because we’ll write up these dossiers.” But for how long will that take? The biggest issue is for traders, anybody that trades at the moment, whether its in … with meat or whatever, whatever you’re trading in and around Europe because currently we have one … So when we trade, we trade through, or most of us will trade through Lloyd’s traders.
Now they have one insurance broker that covers … The insurance broker for the agreements under the E.U., because we want trade to be done in a matter of milliseconds because prices can drop and change. But now Lloyd’s, the broker, will have to get … he will have to get insurance brokers from all the different twenty-seven countries to make agreements. Now that could take twenty minutes, thirty minutes, during which the price has changed five cents, ten cents, which doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re buying that’s huge amounts of money. So the trading might be a bit of an issue.
UK’s Younger Generation Could Face Travel and Work Restrictions in Europe
I would feel pretty bad for the young generation if we Brexit. I worked in Spain, I worked in Madrid, and worked in Poland, worked in France… freely. I just got on a plane, went and got a job.
That would all now be visas and restrictions and borders, and it’s been quite nice to be able to travel freely through Europe and get the experience of the European countries working and culture. I just I think that would be a shame for, you know, perhaps my younger brothers and sisters that might want to do that… But they won’t because they’re lazy.