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| Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. This is bad news. |
1. "The London Bubble"
One of the key revelations of the result is just how different the urban elite are from the rest of the country: London, along with other big cities like Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU whilst the rest of England (we'e talking smaller towns and countryside) voted to leave. The urban-rural split is very clear and there has always been an anti-London/anti-big city sentiment brewing in the country about us being out of touch with the rest of the country. In big cities like London, we are plugged into the world economy - we see trade with the rest of Europe as vital and we live and work alongside so many European migrants here. But in the countryside, they are not plugged into the world economy in the same way and a lot of the businesses there serve a far more local market. There are far fewer migrants there and the kind of anti-immigrant feeling there is far stronger in rural areas. People in the countryside are far less interested in whether the British economy remains relevant in the world tomorrow - they are far more focused on preserving their traditional way of life and within that context, migrants have always been seen as a threat. At the back of my head, I know what people in the countryside are like - I have traveled all over the UK over the years, but it is only too easy to ignore their voices and just stick to my social circle in central London.
2. How will this affect me?
Well, for starters, the pound has taken a big hit and I hope it will stabilize in the next few weeks, but it is definitely going to be weaker for the foreseeable future. It will make traveling abroad more expensive for me, but you know what? I'm rich enough to just take the hit and travel anyway. The irony is that the people who will no longer be able to afford to travel are those who are the poorest in society - they are the ones most likely to have voted for Brexit. They are going to see the price of their holidays shoot up and unlike the rich elite in the London bubble, they will find life a lot harder as inflation rises, due to more expensive imports. You see, when the Brexit-aftermath recession hits, the poor will suffer the most, the rich will find a way to get by and treat it as a minor inconvenience. Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas or cutting off your nose to spite your face: I've just a lot of those analogies already. I did however, look up what will happen to interest rates as that is of a key concern to me as I have a mortgage and I am a landlord - a lot of my income comes from the rent I collect on my properties; which brings me neatly onto my next point about money.
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| Actually, will I be worse off financially? (Read on.) |
3. Interest rates, borrowing, inflation and mortgages.
This is where there is some uncertainty about whether things will get worse or not. You see, a weaker pound means more expensive imports, that means a higher rate of inflation. That would usually mean a rise in interest rates and that means I have to pay more for my mortgage. Would that make me worse off? Not necessarily. Time for an analogy. Say you want to buy French cheese at a British supermarket and the imported French cheese becomes more expensive because of the weaker pound - is the supermarket going to increase the price of the French cheese? Of course, it is going to pass the rise in costs to the customer. Your £1.50 Camembert is going to become £1.85. Likewise, the landlords are going to do the same thing: they will pass the cost of borrowing to the tenant and given that I have only one mortgage out of a total of five properties, I have an excuse to increase the rents for four of my properties. Bad news for them, good news for me. Likewise, if there is a sharp shock to the British economy, they may freeze interest rates or even cut them further in a bid to stimulate a economy, to prevent it from slipping into a deep recession. So, I am not likely to be any worse off in terms of my financial position and a lot of it will depend on what will happen to the exchange rate really. Will there be a recovery in the exchange rate after the panic is over? I certainly hope so.
4. Did anyone mention the Syrians in Germany and Sweden?
The referendum was always going to be about immigration - our relationship with the EU is a very complex issue but the people who voted for Brexit were mostly concerned about the influx of migrants from the EU. When Germany and Sweden opened their doors to Syrian refugees, I did have a nasty feeling at the back of my head that it would be the one thing that would make the UK vote for Brexit, because many Brits have this NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude. They may generally agree that someone should help the refugees, but they don't want the refugees living on their street. You see, we're incredibly divided on the issue in the UK. The richer, urban elite are saying that we should open our doors, let in a lot more refugees because we need to be compassionate to these people. The poorer, rural folks who are already struggling to make ends meet feel that the government should be doing a lot more to help poor British people, rather than Syrians feeling war. Once these Syrian refugees get Germany citizenship, there is a fear that many will head on over to the UK - so the poor will feel that by voting Brexit, it is the only way they can safeguard their future and at least get to the front of the queue for government help for the urban elites are a lot more passionate towards Syrian refugees than poor British people. It is "oh you poor refugees fleeing that terrible war - come to the UK and we'll help you rebuild your lives" vs "you stupid council estate trash, you only have yourselves to blame if you are so poor,."
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| Brexit will bring a recession for the UK. |
5. What does this tell us about the UK?
As I am writing for an audience primarily in Singapore and Malaysia, allow me to state the obvious: this is hardly a homogeneous country, but a deeply divided one. The divide is between the rich and the poor, the urban left-wing elite and the rural right-wing folks. It is usually geography and economics that keeps the two sides of the divide aside: London and other big cities are radically different from the countryside in so many ways. Those from the countryside usually scream in horror when they look at how much things cost in London - I remember when I was in Scotland over Christmas, I realized that for the price I paid for my new London home, I could have bought a small castle in Scotland. And no I am not speaking figuratively, I mean literally - a fucking castle. Instead, I have a modest two bedroom house in Camden. Most of the poorer, working class folks in the UK are well and truly priced out of London and it does feel like a different country once one gets out of London. Many of my friends have talked about London leaving England to rejoin the EU, or forming a city state like Hong Kong or Singapore - given how we realize we have nothing in common with our English neighbours just beyond the M25 (the London ring road). Ironically, I've met teenagers who are extremely informed about the issue but don't get a vote as they are under 18 - then there are adults who are so fucking stupid but because they are over 18, they get a vote. Sometimes, democracy just doesn't make sense when you put such power in the hands of idiots. I despair at how utterly stupid 52% of the country is.
6. What will happen to Scotland then?
Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, this will trigger a second independence referendum and they will get their independence for sure. The UK is due to leave the EU by around summer 2018, Scotland will want a split before then, so that it can opt to remain part of the EU whilst England, Wales and possibly/probably Northern Ireland (more on this later) leaves the EU. This divorce is going to be really, really messy to say the least - but the Scottish divorce is going to come before the EU divorce because of this 2018 deadline. The SNP messed up their campaign on independence the last time on a few key issues such as the currency (they wanted to keep the pound and London said over my dead body) - but given how the pound has nosedived today, the Scots may be a lot more willing to adopt the Euro with independence and it will be goodbye Scotland. We all knew this was coming, yet people still voted for Brexit.
Good question. It is going to get so messy in Northern Ireland as they had fought very hard for the peace process over the decades. Places like Belfast have only started to thrive again at the end of the troubles. Currently, it is so easy to drive across from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland as there are no border posts and you only realize you've crossed the border when the road signs become bilingual. This is the only land border the UK has with another country, so we have no idea what is going to happen there. The Scottish divorce will rekindle feelings for Irish nationalism: the government in London can promise the Northern Irish everything they want, but they will probably want independence once they see Scotland get theirs and with a 2018 deadline looming, things may move faster than you think. I doubt they will want to join the Republic of Ireland but they will probably want to become an independent state within the EU - following the Scottish example. There is a precedent for this actually. Yugoslavia fell apart spectacularly in 1992: today, parts of the ex-Yugoslavia are part of the EU (Croatia, Slovenia) whilst the rest of the ex-Yugoslavia are not part of the EU. We could see a Yugoslav-style split up of the UK within the next two years. Is it ridiculous? Yes it is. Yugoslavia fell apart after a bitter, deadly civil war: the UK is falling apart over this referendum?
Actually, things are not going to be as bad as one thinks. In the Yugoslavia case, there were winners and losers. Slovenia has emerged as the richest ex-Yugoslav state with a booming economy, followed closely by Croatia. Parts of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo are still desperately poor, though even within Serbia, there are still big regional disparities. London has always been the richest part of the UK and that is not going to change - London will find a way to reinvent itself to stay relevant to the global economy. A cynic may say that London will become the latest offshore center, now that it is free from EU regulations when it comes to financial services. It will continue to attract money from places like Russia and China who couldn't care less if the UK was part of the EU or not. So there will be a period of adjustment and reinvention, but London will find a way out of this mess. As for the rest of England, they will be hit far harder by the recession that will come and they won't be able to reinvent themselves the way London can. But they will get exactly what they voted for. In the short run, a weaker pound will be a boost for our tourism as tourists will find the UK a lot cheaper. So, why not visit the UK for a holiday and take advantage of the weak pound?
9. Cameron has resigned as PM, what next? (More shit.)
Oh man. He fucked this up, didn't he? He promised the electorate a referendum, he led the remain camp and then lost - it was going to be very hard for him to remain as PM after such a result. And I thought he was a pretty good PM who has done quite a lot of good things for the country - but to have to leave office under such circumstances was certainly the last thing on his mind, but he made a fatal error of judgement and has paid a very high price for it. He would have wanted to served out his term as he was barely a year into his current term as PM. There will be an interim leader and then an early election. My guess is that the interim leader will be Theresa May, there will be a vote for a new leader for the Tories and that will emerge as Boris Johnson - he took a gamble in supporting Brexit and it paid off for his political career. He will then become the next prime minister as Jeremy Corbyn has proven himself to be as useful as a wet rag when it came to persuading Labour supporters for voting to stay in the EU. Corbyn is the British version of Bernie Sanders, his left-wing views will appeal to those on the extreme left of the political spectrum, but he lacks the charm and the skill to appeal to anyone who isn't already on his side. Perhaps Labour will get rid of Corbyn too after this sorry episode. Such is modern politics for you. Personally, I can't stand Boris Johnson - he is the British version of Trump and this just makes me think, oh shit, Trump can actually win in America. Oh shit. What kind of world are we living in?
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| Cameron really fucked up this time, didn't he? |
10. How did we get into this stupid mess in the first place?
Let's go back to the last election a year ago in May 2015. The opinion polls had placed the Tories neck and neck with Labour, David Cameron was worried about losing ring wing voters to UKIP (the extreme right-wing party) who were a rising force in British politics. UKIP threatened to split the right wing voters, so Cameron offered them an olive branch with an EU referendum if they voted for the Tories. He was expecting to stay in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and then get the Lib Dems to veto such a referendum. But what happened instead was that the Tories won outright because Labour support collapsed, it was a complete disaster under Ed Milliband and Cameron (and his team) had over-estimated the threat posed by Labour. UKIP only managed to win one seat in any case, uh-oh, too late. he had to stick to his promises and offer a referendum. Now if only they had realized what a mess the Labour party was in, then he could have quite happily won the last election and still be PM today. But instead, his legacy would be the PM to have gambled and lost foolishly, simply because he had over-estimated his opponents at the last election. Of course, hindsight is 2020 - it is just like paying way too much for your eBay purchase, only to realize it wasn't worth that much.
I'm sure you'll have plenty more questions for me on the issue of Brexit and the future of the UK and the EU. I'll be happy to answer them. Please leave me a comment below and let's talk about it, okay? Many thanks for reading.
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| I believe that Brexit is a big mistake. |
Do you think riots will break out because of this referendum result?
ReplyDeleteNo not at all. Because the people most likely to vote for Brexit are the thugs who are most likely to riot. People who vote remain tend to be rich, upper-middle class folks who would never ever litter or jaywalk, never mind riot. They will go as far as to send an angry tweet or update their Facebook status.
DeleteHowever, had the result been the other way, had we voted to remain by a narrow margin, oh all hell would break loose and there would be mayhem in the streets all over the country.
You still don't understand my point about how British society is divided, do you? Certain kinds of people riot - they are the poor, uneducated, working class folks. Rich people don't riot.
I'm not saying that it is impossible to build a future in Europe for young Brits post-Brexit. I came to this country as a Singaporean student years ago and somehow managed to build myself a life in this country and am still here 19 years later. It'll be harder, but it can be done.
DeleteIf I am a young Britian living in UK I would definitely riot. Brexit will cripple my future.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, many of the British expats in Singapore overwhelmingly voted remain. Then again, people who worked overseas tend to be more educated and have a more globalist outlook, hence it is not a surprise that most British expats voted in.
ReplyDeleteI would have voted in if I were living in UK as a commonwealth citizen. Neil Humphrey also talked about the same class divide saying how Thatcher has caused the divide with her neoliberal policies.
The way I look at this issue is that it will happen sooner or later. UK was never a fan of being the EU. The Labour party initially wanted UK to leave after a decade of joining and some Conservatives firmly opposed to it. There was firm opposition in the UK from the get go. The UK never adopted the Euro and the fact that UK managed to recover faster from the Euro financial crisis simply because it did not use the Euro convinced some that UK will be fine without overlording bureaucrats from Brussels.
The western world seems to be slipping into nativism as evident by the rise of Donald Trump and the far right in Europe. Geert Wilders, a right wing politician in the Netherlands has called for a NExit if he is elected Prime Minister. It seems to be a popular activity in the West to shift bash Muslim and shift blame to migrants.
You mentioned about the breakup of the UK. I am more concerned about the breakup of EU. Putin would be so happy.
Who knows. I am hoping that the rest of the EU won't be as foolish as the UK and hold a referendum like that. I have just returned from Lithuania recently and they lived through the horrors of Soviet occupation - Lithuania desperately wants the EU project to succeed and they can't imagine why Brits wanna leave.
DeleteEveryone wants to have something better I guess. Those who have it, don't know what they've got.
DeleteAnd they're going to find out the hard way. The poor used to blame everything on the EU. Now they're going to have to blame everything on Brexit.
DeleteMy main concern is is UK still a good place to emigrate to or would another EU country be better?
ReplyDeleteLanguage barrier mate, language barrier. Do you speak another European language fluently?
DeleteHmm. Well there's always Ireland. But it obviously doesn't have as much to offer as the UK.
DeleteDublin's a dump. Trust me on that one.
DeleteHello Mr LIFT
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from a London cosmopolitan Bremainian who does not need to use the UK Guardian Newspaper style philosophical theorization in order to argue for Bremain.
I have been following the Eurosceptic arguments since 2010. To me, Brexit is the culmination of a 25 year lopsided globalist liberalism. This is an irony when a free system permits some members of the cosmopolitan elite to effectively rig the system in their favour.
When the result came out, I was slightly relieved. Much of the SG-PAP's mass immigration foreign talent policy since 1997 was probably inspired by the EU & UK Tony Blair. For most of the next 20 years, EU-UK gave PAP the confidence that the foreign talent policy was right even though it was consistently & fundamentally unsound.
The PAP reluctantly & slowly made adjustments after 2013. As of 2015, the mass immigration extremists were still trying to justify their position based on some abstract globalization notion without really understanding the notion.
Due to UK influence on Singapore, Brexit would very likely result in these PAP-SG mass immigration extremists face the hard truth about lopsided globalization.
As for London, its strong fundamentals mean that its position is likely to be safe in the long run.
There is the difference between in the way EU and PAP import migrants. PAP will import migrants that can help the Singapore economy in some way. The EU on the other hand seems bent to accept *cough cough* migrants from Islamic countries that just can't integrate into society.
DeleteIf you look at PAP immigration policies, they prefer Indian and Chinese migrants. In fact, the percentage of Singaporean Muslim has dropped when PAP started their liberal immigration policy. It is in PAP's interest to maintain ethnic proportion.
If wasn't for the Syrian refugees crisis, I think the remain camp would have stood a chance.
Well, there are two kinds of migrants from the EU that Brexit supporters loathed: there are the super hardworking, intelligent, highly skilled migrants from places like Poland "coming here, stealing our jobs" - then there are the Syrian refugees. Let's not confuse the two issues here, they are quite different - the only thing they have in common is that a lot of people in England would rather neither groups came anywhere near the UK. Well, at least 52% thought so. Talk about a divided country. The other 48% of us are fuming. So near, yet so far.
DeleteWhy are so many more conservatives' MPs anti-EU as compared to labour's MPs? Shouldn't euroscepticism manifested itself more in the Labour camp because Labour represents more of the 'working class' while the Tories appeal more to the elites, especially given that maxim that the elites are more likely to vote for remain?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Indeed, far more Conservatives are anti-EU compared to Labour MPs. It is because there is a major problem with the working class: being in the EU will actually create more jobs for those working class supporters who need it the most, the Labour MPs who are very well educated know that and have supported to remain - but the disenfranchised, disillusioned working class people have stopped trusting Labour and have voted to leave (many of them will vote for the far right, for UKIP instead in coming elections) because they are not intelligent enough to figure out the issues and are just looking for convenient scapegoats to blame for all the things that have gone wrong with their lives. The whole argument of "these Eastern Europeans coming here, taking our jobs" tend to resonate with them - it is woefully simplistic of course, but simple folks swallow simple arguments: hook, line and sinker. As for Tories appealing to the elites to leave the UK, hmmm - it is another bizarre situation. The Tories have lost their monopoly on the right wing vote since UKIP became so strong, and some Tories feel that if they do not cater sufficiently and appear strong enough on their anti-immigration stance, then they will loose voters to UKIP. The fact is both Labour and Tory have lost voters to UKIP because no one but UKIP dared to be so anti-immigrant and fucking hell, that has made them very, very popular with the racists in the country. So for the Tories, it is not about being anti-EU per se, but more about appearing to be anti-immigration. Labour's relaxed stance on immigration has led to them totally crumbling in recent years as the current mood in the UK is very, very anti-immigration. Like you won't believe how scared they are of Syrian refugees turning up in their thousands in Britain, like they have in Germany. There are politicians like Boris Johnson who will gladly take a strong anti-immigration stance, if it will help serve their political careers.
DeleteDoes this answer your question?
Yes. It does answer my question.
DeleteI still find in bizarre that the main faces of brexit are Boris and Gove, who I assume have no absolute chance to appeal to labour voters.
I actually kind of like the Tories because of their economic policies(balanced budget, debt, etc etc). Also, it seems to me that they have become more socially Liberal over the years.
Alas, as you have mentioned before, you can't get eveyehring you want all the time. It is indeed sad that this anti-eu/immigration camp in the Tories has snowballed into brexit.
Cameron's resignation is going to have huge ramifications. It was once thought that the Tories were going to comfortably win the next election because of Corbyn. Also, some in labour are displeased over Corbyn's lackluster and half-hearted campaign for remain. Labour has blood on their hands too.
It seems that Labour now stands a better chance in the next election, especially if the negotiation goes baldy wrong. Boris(bookie favourite) as PM would be fascinating to watch. I have not heard much about him before but he seems to be like that of a "toned down" version of trump,extremely volatile with huge upside and downside.
I doubt the leave campaign has any Road map forward. Heck, this is actually unchartered terrority, so I am more inclined to think that more shit will hit the fan as negotiation goes on. I can't imagine why would Boris want to join the leave side. Maybe he thought Cameron won't resign?
Just offering some of my thoughts here. Not offering any prediction given that the bookies and polling have gotten eveyething so wrong.
Thank you for spending time to answer my question.
Boris joined the leave side as it was a gamble for him to fast track his way to no. 10 Downing Street and it seems to have worked. He makes me worried - I don't want him to be my PM, he is a buffoon and an idiot.
DeleteAlex, another easy way out of this mess is what you always preach to the Singaporean. Migrate to other countries and drop the current citizenship.
ReplyDeleteThe 52% had spoken. What is stopping the 48% from migrating to other countries since majority of them are rich and educated. You had done it once by renouncing your Singapore citizenship. You can say the same things to UK that you always say about the Singapore current government.
You don't say. I am married to an Irish national - so we have been exploring how I can get my hands on an Irish passport, not that I wanna live in Ireland, but if push comes to shove, it would be good to have yet another passport at my disposal - an EU passport at that, which shall enable me to live/work in the EU. Given my language skills, I can quite easily live and work in many EU countries. But no, I don't wanna move to Ireland. No thanks. Seems a bit devious though, just to get hold of an Irish passport for that purpose?
DeleteDublin is a dump though. I was there in December. I wasn't impressed.
DeleteYou can apply for USA like Alvin Tan who doing very fine now that the Malaysia and Singapore government cannot touch him. You may have more freedom to do what you want in US. US is the land of freedom.
Delete@Kelvin - actually I don't like America at all. I like visiting New York and California but no I don't want to live there. The one city where I have studied, lived and work is Paris and I wanna have continued access to France and the possibility to live there long-term. I had that when the UK was part of the EU and now I am looking to secure and Irish passport just to be able to guarantee my continued access to France. I like France a lot more than America. I don't know why people think the US is the promised land blah blah blah. It is so overrated compared to some European countries. If I have to leave London, I'd go to Paris. French is my second language anyway and it is nearly as good as my English.
DeleteDo you think there's any chance that a second EU referendum will be casted in order to overturn Brexit? Apparently, I was reading an article this morning about how some Leave supporters have deeply regretted their votes and wished that they could have supported the Remain side. Silly isn't it? The PM shouldn't even have promised a referendum in the first place, knowing how the turnout will be like. It's not only affecting the UK but Europe as well. Unbelievable. All due to egoism. The UK needs to be more unified.
ReplyDeleteThey are not even "supporters", they are just voters who did not think that their votes counted.
DeleteI think it is unlikely to say the least, but we are in uncharted territories and I don't know what will happen. I am looking to get hold of an Irish passport in the meantime to keep my options open.
DeleteReally? How so? Isn't it too early to tell? I mean, it only has been a day so far. The future seems uncertain and I can't deny that it is downright frightening since no one is going to be able to predict the future. But who knows? Circumstances can chance although the PM has repeatedly made it clear that he will respect the Leave decision.
DeleteIn the words of one of my best friends on FB, her status update was simply "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH WE'RE FUCKED."
DeleteIt looks like a "Brescue" is still an option, after all: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215
DeleteSaw quite a few news article.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a number of leave voters who now regret for voting for Brexit.
Even the is a big surge of information hunt in UK on "What is EU" and "Brexit" now.
You can say that the 52% are only looking for information after they voting to leave.
What can I say, they are fucking idiots.
DeleteI believe there is an online petition for a second referendum that already has over 100,000 signatures. But I doubt anything would come of it. Haha funnily enough Google searches for getting an Irish passport have gone up by 100%. If I had stayed in Ireland for just a few more months I would have been eligible for citizenship. Instead withdrew my application for a job in Ireland and I'm about to take up a post as Junior doctor in Nottingham. Fuck me.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I've been crazy busy today - but I'm not panicking yet, it would be good to have an Irish passport to keep my options open as I did really enjoy working in France and Germany and I did so as a British national - it was so easy. If we can secure some kind of deal to enable me to continue working there and for French, German etc nationals to work here, then I may not need an Irish passport. But we'll see. It just feels a bit dishonest to get hold of an Irish passport when I have zero intention of ever living in Ireland as it is a dump. I dread having to visit my mother in law there as it is one helluva epic journey to the middle of nowhere in Ireland ...
DeleteHaha tell me about it. While the Irish are some of the most friendliest people I've ever met, it does kinda suck to live there - especially if you move there after having lived in bigger, more cosmopolitan cities.
DeleteI was so excited to finally leave Dublin to work in the UK. But now I'm depressed because the places I'm going to be working in (Nottingham and Boston) voted overwhelmingly to leave: therefore I shall have to spend the next 2 years surrounded by morons. In the end, I might just end up joining the legions of doctors emigrating to Canada/Australia.
Ah yeah true true, just have to wait for the negotiations to start to see how that goes. But its always safe to have a back up plan I suppose as right now it's just complete chaos.
Why didn't you try to get a job in somewhere like Manchester or London ?
DeleteAh. That's a bit complicated. I'm afraid this is going to be a bit of an essay. I apologise in advance.
DeleteSee. The job application process with the NHS for the foundation program (the first stage of being a junior doctor) involves ranking all the regions in the uk in order of preference. There are about 20 regions. There were 4 Londom regions and I ranked them high, then came Birmingham. The North West (Manchester/Liverpool) was supposed to be number 6. I fucked up big time and put it as number 7 while number 6 was Trent (Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Boston etc etc). See we rank them according to location and the quality of the training, and while the Midlands may suck, the hospitals associated with the University of Nottingham are supposed to offer really good training.
The other thing is that everyone in my uni in dublin was told that only our final results would count towards our jobs applications. So, being the lazy shit that I am, I slacked off a lot in some of the earlier years in uni. Little did I know that all the previous years in uni counted in the UK. So because of my fuck up, that brought my application score down. So I ended up with my 6th choice.
Luckily the foundation program only lasts 2 years. I've been placed in Nottingham for year 1 and Boston for year 2. During year 2 I'll be applying for core/basic specialty training and if I perform well over the coming year, I should get a good spot- especially since my final results were pretty decent. At this point I could also try applying for Canada and stuff, but I'd have to do extra exams for that in advance. As far as I'm aware, UK doctors don't need to do an exam to go to Australia. I could be wrong - I'll have to do more research on the matter over the coming months and start preparations.
Lol I guess the positives to take out of this are that I'll save a bit of money as the cost of living in the midlands is lower than London or Manchester, and I've at finally got the kick up the ass I needed to stop being lazy.
LIFT, just saw this infographic. It seemed the people most dependant on EU aid were the ones overwhelmingly voted leave. It seems anti-intellectualism is a global culture. Some people are just too stupid to know they are being manipulated (happens in SG too). No wonder a Trump presidency seems more likely as time goes on.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.4cdn.org/pol/1466765820532.jpg
Yup. Richer folks like me can weather the storm. Let's see these stupid poor people suffer. Stupid is as stupid does.
DeleteThen there is also this article about Boris Johnson spending years to poison the public opinion on EU.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/opinion/who-is-to-blame-for-brexits-appeal-british-newspapers.html
Was saying earlier on about how compulsory voting and voter turnout can play a part. As it is I read that only about 70% or so of the population turned up to vote. This effectively means that only about 36% of the population decided for Brexit. Its not even endorsed by majority of the population.
ReplyDeleteYou know, given the levels of political apathy and ignorance, I'm not sure I trust some people to vote as they are so ignorant that they will vote the wrong way?!
DeleteThe more I research on it the more I find it ridiculous. Just a year ago the Brits rejected UKIP heavily in favour of a Conservative/Labour government in their general election. A year on they are giving Nigel Farage the biggest win of his career. Translated into Singapore context, thats like voting in the PAP and WP, and then a year on saying we want to follow Gilbert Goh (whom incidentally I feel is the local version of Farage). Doesn't make any sense. If the UK public had felt that strongly about Brexit, immigration, etc, they ought to have given UKIP a bigger vote the last time round already.
DeleteRight now whenever I see Singaporean 'netizen experts' comment on how the Brits 'voted for change' and 'took their country back', I cannot help but laugh. For all the talk on Western Democracy and how people there know their rights and what not, in this particular case it shows they perhaps didn't even know what they were voting for.
The problem with a referendum is that you are giving people who haven't even the most basic understanding of the issue a chance to vote on something they have no idea what the hell they are voting about. Such is the problem with referendums. Urgh. It was such a bad idea in the first place.
DeleteWell you might take heart. There are theories online about how Cameron's resignation was a calculated move. This means Johnson and Gove will need to work out the entire exit themselves and being the shit stirrers they are they will probably screw it up either way, which would finish them. Indeed you can see how Johnson is now backtracking and saying Oh, number of foreigners will not change much, etc.
DeleteWe'll see - even if BoJo does get into no. 10, how long he can stay there depends on how badly Brexit goes and if he fucks it up big time and we enter a painful recession, people will be quick to blame him for misleading the public and he will be history. That could be one good thing that emerges from this sorry episode.
DeleteWe should have had a referendum on immigration instead of the EU, as this has always been about immigration at the end of the day.
So when was the day you realised you have become exactly like the PAP you hate; oblivious and out of touch with the poor and needy of your country?
ReplyDeleteI am not the problem here - don't hate me just because I happen to be rich.
DeleteTo quote my friend Mark, "Can someone please explain to me why the working classes vote for the Tories, Brexit when these things are highly likely to shaft them in the end?" The poor in the UK have problems - no one is denying that, but how is voting for Brexit going to solve any of their problems? It is simply going to make things worse. The only way for them to improve their fate in life is to try to get a more socialist left-wing government into office: but they keep voting for right wing parties. Rich people are not the problem: poor people are so bloody stupid, they are their own worst enemies. I keep hearing the phrase, "turkeys voting for Christmas" and "cutting off your nose to spite your face." Wales receives £500m in EU aid a year and are one of the poorest parts of the UK reliant on EU money - what do they do? They vote for Brexit. Great. So you are soooo poor, yet you bite the hands that feeds? Now you wanna hate the rich or are you going to make the poor people take responsibility for their own bad choices? Duh.
I'm not hating you here, I'm just highly amused how you've totally switched positions since you've created this blog.
DeleteYou were the champion of standing up for yourself against government policies against you. You left Singapore because they chose to woo foreigners instead of nurturing you. The PAP always maintains they have to do so for the good of the people and create jobs for the poor. Yet you are unconvinced and left.
Now we have the people standing up to detrimental policies against them. You even admitted you were out of touch and have ignored them. Now all you do is harp on how rich you are and the poor will suffer if they rock the boat and not vote for PAP...sorry Bremain. Haven't you become exactly like what the PAP is?
I think most Singaporeans can understand that PAP's policies have made the country richer. What they are unhappy about is that it's only the rich lining their pockets and very little benefits trickle down to them and yet they have to suffer the negative consequence. They'd rather have a poorer country but a more affordable what. Essentially this is what London has become as well.
Just look at you. All your post is about you you and you, about your money supply drying out when foreigners shift out of London, and how rich you are that you can take this, how the poor are stupid. Well if you know how the poor felt, why did you proceed to do fuck all to help them until they made their voices heard? It is only now you started spewing hate, and offered no help still?
LOL does this blog not belong to LIFT? Shouldn't all his posts be about him, him and him by mere virtue that this is his blog? Or did you think somehow LIFT should be tuning his writing style to make you happy?
DeleteSo the poor is standing up to detrimental policies against them you say. Before a claim like that can be valid, you need to consider whether the population that voted for Brexit (though I hate to label them as "the poor people"- pretty sure there are rich people who are stupid as well) is doing this because they've considered all sides of the argument or are doing this out of pure spite. Have you spoken to any of these pro-Brexit people in the UK? Sure, the poor have the right to voice their dissatisfaction with the EU through their vote, but surely with any election a voter has the responsibility to keep themselves educated about the issue at hand? Case in point: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/what-happens-if-we-leave-the-eu-google-searches-surge-as-people-realise-they-dont-know-what-brexit-a7100596.html
If you say LIFT has become like the PAP who is out of touch with the poor and needy, then I say the people he is criticising are the equivalent of those TRS readers who claim to care so much about the poor but do nothing for them, read horrendously fabricated propaganda from shitty sites like All Singapore Stuff and TRS while voting for shitty opposition parties like the Reform Party just to "stand up against the PAP", never mind that their ill-informed choices will only make the country worse off.
Oh, so you have read my blog? I don't think you have read enough of it (well there are over 1000 posts) and I left Singapore because Singapore is a tiny, tiny country, a small place with limited opportunities. I was lucky enough as a child to have traveled quite a lot and I saw what the outside world was like and there was this wanderlust in me, this desire to travel, see the world, experience other cultures, meet people from other countries. It's not all about the PAP you know, but this mix of push & pull factors that resulted in me leaving Singapore to live and work in so many different places around the world. I'm not involved in politics. Never had the desire to do so, never will. Perhaps that's political apathy. I vote and that's as involved as I get. I'd rather focus on my career, my hobbies, my friends and having fun. Now you can attack me and criticize me for my political apathy: guilty as charged, but you're grossly mistaken if you think that I am actually political. No, FY, I am not. I am so not. If I was political, I would have stayed in Singapore, fought for a better tomorrow, took on the PAP. Instead, I moved away and didn't get involved in politics in the UK either. Perhaps that's because I'm a rather selfish person at heart, but that's another matter altogether. I care about what will happen to the British economy as that will affect me, this has never ever been about the PAP and if you wanna drag them into the discussion, then I can only say that you're incredibly confused for the situation in Singapore is really quite different.
DeleteIt's not up to me to help the poor. Fuck them. Fuck the poor. I don't give a shit about them. I'd rather give my money to help the Syrian refugees who have left Syria, lost everything and are trying to rebuild their lives. Yeah I'd do that, but the working class in the UK have already been given so much help and they want more? No, they need to take responsibility for their own poverty. I'm not going to help them - I already pay plenty of taxes and most of that goes on helping the poor already. I'm not a fucking politician in any case, it's the politicians who take the tax money collected and help the poor. I'm just a private citizen, a law-abiding citizen who pays his taxes. You want me to help the poor? Are you fucking mad? Why not petition the government in Westminster to do so, that's their job, not mine. I've got zero interest in helping the poor, I'm not into politics and I believe in the concept of the 'deserving poor'.
I hope that clears it up. It's your own fault to be so mistaken that I actually ever gave a shit about the working class. Duh. Double duh. You're so salah.
Thank you Delia. You know, that's why I'm so fed up with Singaporean politics. I have washed my hands of it in the 1990s and chose to leave as it was a mess that was not fixable. Too fucked up. Waaaay too fucked up.
Delete@Apple what the fuck is your problem dude? It is so annoying to see your posts attacking LIFT.
DeleteHe is no politician, he isn't the Dalai Lama, heck he isn't any famous celebrity so why do you care what positions he take? You have any grievances against the PAP or opposition not helping the poor take it up with them. Nothing LIFT says or does will affect they way the plan policies.
Even I think SG is a shithole without a future. I gave up everything to plan to get out of here. I gave up a comfy MNC job with stable pay to go back to studying something healthcare related not because I give a damn about sick people but because the demand in the Western world is so huge I can go anywhere not SG once i'm qualified.
Thanks Choaniki. I may write a popular blog but I am not here to 'appeal' to my readers and if they feel that I am 'losing touch with my readers' - well, then I suggest they are the ones wasting their time reading my blog because they should find another website to read, stop barking up the wrong tree if you don't like what I read. I am not a politician nor am I the Dalai Lama/Pope - so why should what position I take matter and why place the onus on my shoulders to solve the problems of the poor?
Delete@Apple: and over here, where you got scolded by Delia Toh and Choaniki. Have a read of what they said, in case you didn't realize what a total idiot you are.
DeleteIf you were somehow forced to change citizenship and become Singaporean again,
ReplyDeleteWill you vote for the PAP?
Never. I will never vote for the PAP because of the kind of people who support the PAP. I don't support the opposition in Singapore either as they're all crap. Looking at the politicians of Singapore and how clueless, stupid and inarticulate they are, I just despair.
DeleteIn case you didn't hear, I'm looking to get hold of an Irish passport to secure my future in Europe as that is another EU passport that will enable me to go live & work in the EU after the UK leaves the EU. A lot of Brits are currently looking to acquire a second EU passport: I am married to an Irish national, so it should be fairly easy for me.
Oh and I censored your third comment as you were fucking rude. It's my blog and if you think you can come here to be rude to me, I can show you my third finger and hit the delete button. So go fuck yourself, you may post another rude comment but I will just delete it as well. Bwahahahaha.
DeleteYes since you hate what London will become after Brexit, you might as well move out. Just go to Dublin. London will not head into the direction you like
DeleteSo you actually are in love with the PAP, you just hate the attitudes of the other lovers as well (you mother).
DeleteWell yes it is your blog, but I'm sure you are aware you are losing touch with your audience. The fact that you have to screen comments because you can no longer defend yourself against them anymore proves it.
@Apple:
Delete1. I don't know what London will become after Brexit - you don't know, nobody knows yet (unless they have a crystal ball). We can guess at best. I've been to Dublin and my mother-in-law is Irish for crying out aloud, that's why I can have an Irish passport because I am married to an Irish. Duh. I just never needed one as yet because an EU passport is an EU passport regardless of which country, but I think that Dublin is a dump and would rather live in Paris - I've both studied and worked in Paris and speak French fluently. Paris is an amazing city. The message we're getting is "don't panic, let's see how this will pan out". But here's the news that you're not going to like: I'm rich. Like I'm a fucking millionaire several times over. No matter where I go, my money will be able to buy me a standard of living that is pretty comfortable. A big house, a nice lifestyle, loads of exotic holidays. That's a luxury I will have regardless of whether the UK is in or out of the EU - as long as I am rich and I'm very good with money.
As for the PAP, you have the reasoning ability of a 9 year old kid. I had this classmate called Meiling in primary 3 and this boy used to tease me, "you love Meiling!" And when I said I didn't, all he could do was repeat over and over again, "yes you do! You totally love Meiling! You are so in love with her!" I gave up trying to reason with him - if it gave him some kind of kick or thrill to insist that I was in love with Meiling (oh she and I were just good friends) then that said more about him than about me. I don't like the PAP, I don't like Singaporean politics, I don't like the PAP supporters, I don't like the opposition, I don't like like the opposition supporters, there's a lot of things about the whole political situation in Singapore I don't like. Instead of asking me what I think, you're like that immature primary 3 kid who screamed at me in the playground "YOU LOVE MEILING!!" At which point I just shrug my shoulders and say, "yeah whatever. Grow up kid."
As for losing touch with my audience, mate, you don't get it do you? I'm not a politician, I'm not here to 'please' my audience, 'connect' with them' or 'get in touch' with them in any particular way. I merely write what I think, what I feel most honestly and if they don't like it, they can respond or go read another blog. My readership figures have been very good this year, so with 8.35 million pageviews, I am quite happy with the way things are going. So if you're not happy with what I write, kindly fuck off somewhere else for I have no desire to please you and if I lose touch with people like you, too bad, see if I fucking care. It's my blog, and it's all about me and my feelings, it's never about you and me trying to please you - did you get that memo? No? So let me give it to you again, I really don't give a shit what you think. You think you get to tell me what to do/say/write just because you've read an article or two on my blog? No you don't. You do not.
I screen the comments because I get a huge amount of spam comments advertising everything from viagara to clothes to the typical Nigerian 419 spam emails telling my readers to get in touch because some Nigerian prince needs to transfer money out of Lagos. The fact that I am responding to you here and not deleting your comment proves that I am happy enough to engage you as long as you're not being too fucking rude to me. Most people however, are more than happy to agree to disagree instead of pick a fight, even if they don't like what they read.
DeleteLastly, I'm not a politician. I'm not here to be popular or win your vote or be your friend. I am just a blogger who is here to write what I think. I hope you realize that. If you came here looking for some kind of left-wing political ideal about helping the poor, then that's your dumb fault for barking up the wrong tree. Duh. That's you being a fucking idiot. See? I don't give a shit about being popular with you. I just called you a fucking idiot. Get it? Now fuck you you little piece of ignorant shit.
Apple, what on earth is your problem? Politics isn't stagnant. It's fluid and ever changing. Just because one votes a certain way does not mean one is definitely right wing or left. Why are you so smug in pigeon - holing Alex as PAP? Also, as Delia said, it is HIS blog, so if he wants it to be ALL about him, then so be it. If that bothers you, don't come to his blog. I don't read Falling Snow and Geraldine Pheneah 's blogs because they irritate me. You don't like Alex ' s blog, leave! Unless you have a crush on him?
Delete@Apple
DeletePolitics is never simple such as supporting or opposing a party blindly.
There are certainly some policies by the PAP that LIFT would agree with and there others that he would not. Even with the policies that he agrees with, LIFT may not agree with how they are implemented.
Just by profiling and approving/disapproving based on the political party one supports, you have missed the valid criticisms that he made.
@Apple, I was referring to the scolding you got on this thread collectively by Wei Ping Toh (the very measured gentleman he is), Di Talasi, and hang on, I will post another little comment on another thread where two more of my readers scolded you.
Deletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-petition-latest-eu-referendum-rules-change-force-second-vote-poll-government-a7102486.html
ReplyDeleteDo you think a second referendum will happen? I sincerely hope it will.
I think that it could happen but only if the following happens: the EU restart negotiations with the UK for a new deal, they offer the UK a far better deal regarding the T&C of our membership (including stopping more migrants from coming, the UK accepting zero refugees etc) - effectively, you are pandering to the fears of those who voted Brexit. Then you will have something to vote over. Otherwise, it is actually quite hard to justify a second referendum.
Deletehttps://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215
ReplyDeleteHi, I've been reading your blog since a long time back and would like to refer to the video link below.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/UTMxfAkxfQ0
One of the other issues of voting out also seems to be the fact that the common people do not know how the policies are being made and by who. It seems to be done by a centralized EU power that is getting bigger over time and have no need to answer to any agency in particular about regulations that might not make sense and that most common people have no access to or any idea about.
It might seem better to separate yourself before the problems get bigger? Any ideas?
Lara, I think the bigger problem is that the common people have no idea how politics work - you need to spend a lot of time studying the issue before you understand how our relationship with the EU affects the laws governing the UK. The fact that the common man is a thicko idiot who doesn't understand how the EU works doesn't mean that laws from the EU is bad. Let me give you an analogy. Your average British person probably doesn't understand how Aspirin works, they just know it is a cheap, effective painkiller and medicine that we use to combat various illnesses. Should we ban Aspirin from our pharmacies just because the average person doesn't understand the way Aspirin works? No. The problem doesn't like with the Aspirin, it lies with the common man. Stop making the EU the scapegoat for the stupidity of the common man. You can't cure stupidity - the only solution is to allow the clever people in government run the show and leave politics to the educated classes. The stupid masses can go back to drinking beer, watching football, watching crap reality TV and doing whatever else dumb idiots do.
DeleteHi Limpeh, can I ask a homework question? What do you think are some strategies that people could use to take advantage of the situation leading up to the referendum?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't quite understand your question - is this a hypothetical question, given that the referendum has already taken place?
DeleteYeah, I guess it's a hypothetical question, because my project mates and I don't really fully understand the question as well
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I am trying to be helpful here. Tough one, as people genuine didn't know what the heck was going to happen with the referendum prior to it happening - the polls swung one way than the other with various events (such as the murder of MP Jo Cox by a Brexit supporter) and there were so many factors (such as the turn out) which would determine the result. I think everyone simply hoped for the best and expected the worst, which was what happened. In light of this deep uncertainty, how was anyone going to 'take advantage of the situation' - unless you were trying to persuade people to invest in an asset class like gold, which is something people would turn to if they had no confidence in holding their savings in pound sterling. Some politicians certainly took advantage of the situation by getting rid of Cameron to further their own careers, but I doubt your project is about that? Can you be more specific please?
DeleteThanks for some insights! (especially about the murder of Jo Cox part) My whole project is about Brexit actually, and it's pretty tough imo given that it is a very current situation. We had this project literally a few days after the referendum results became official.
ReplyDeleteThe question I asked was just one of the six questions that were imposed on us, so I don't really know how to be specific. The full question is actually "Describe some strategies that you could use to take advantage of the situation leading up to the referendum. Discuss some possible hedging strategies a fund manager may take if they have investments in UK."
Have you considered the role of 'spread betting' in this - ie. how to bet against the market when everything is going downhill and still make money?
DeleteOh right, never thought of spread betting. In fact, it's my first time hearing of it. Thanks Limpeh! You're of much help, I could really use these points for my project :)
ReplyDelete