Good luck UK! You're on your own!

I stayed out of the EU referendum chat so far, but since the results are now in, I'd like to say a couple of things about this Orwellian meta-event that will have a colossal impact on our economies.

As an EU citizen who loves this country (and French no less) it’s pretty painful, with a strong tang of lunacy, and a little bittersweet aftertaste.

PAINFUL:
Painful, because I always loved the UK since I was a kid, the music first, then I learned the language, then the people, the culture, and the genius of the British society. I have often stood up for this country abroad. I have often faced questions domestically, along the lines of “Oh you like it here!? But you’re French!” It has not always been an easy vocation. So the result of this referendum is damning to me. It will be more damning to my UK friends who will stay here, now that it is clear that our family’s days in this country are numbered.

You have been lied to, and you will pay for this naivety.

If you cannot tell that BoJo, Gove, IDS and Farage are going to fuck you over much worse than the EU ever did, I guess this country was finished a long time ago, and no one saw it.

LUNACY:
The pound hit a THIRTY FIVE YEAR LOW, and the FTSE lost EIGHT PER CENT in overnight trading. It may be some early jitters that will settle fair enough. Good luck however with the administrative nightmare of reinstating laws, and customs, and trade regulations, now that you are out. You might realise that being out of the EU can also cost a pretty penny...

Good luck with your NHS, TTIP and pretty much anything else with BoJo and Gove at the helm. Good luck with your borders even for that matter! Gove is so competent and BoJo clearly does not rule by photo-op right? Your immigration from outside EU was already higher than the whole national target! It's easy to blame the EU for everything, maybe you should also look at the effectiveness of your public institutions if you ask me. And don’t think either you can stop immigration just like that even if you could actually “take back control of our borders”. You’ll find the EU a lot less cooperative for one, and who knows, you might realise then that they served a purpose. Or an immigration coming from a lot closer to you, say, I don’t know… From Scotland (EU?) Ireland, Errr, Northern Ireland?

Way too many of you have been reading dime-store grade, Daily Mail drivel clearly. The EU was a huge vector of stability and value. Don’t take my word for it. You’ll see.

It is edifying to hear the typical demographic spread of the Brexiter: Male, low education, white. Good luck pal! I’m sure BoJo and Gove REALLY care about you, you mug! Classic right wing trick: Con the population that has the most to lose from it, to elect them. Like W Bush in the past with his Joe-6-pack rhetoric.

Lunacy, because you were already enjoying a rebate negotiated by Maggie, which had a lot of other EU members peeved as it was. Don’t count on “renegotiating and jumping right back in” any time soon.

Lunacy, because if you ask me, even the eastern European low-qualification immigration had a positive impact on this country. Manning your hospital, retirement homes and construction industry. An immigration that integrated well over time. Well done.

Lunacy because you benefited from a lot of EU industrial projects (Airbus anyone?) Because your economy is more reliant on the financial sector than any other one in the world, and I’m no expert, but I don’t think JP Morgan, or Goldman Sachs will push to stay in what has become a parochial market. They want to be IN the EU, not OUT of it. I think you’ll see that your financial sector is going to shrink…

Lunacy because, well, seems no one told you, but you are, as much as I love you, NOT Norway or Switzerland. This one has to be in top 5 of the most bizarre quasi-arguments used in this campaign... You do NOT have the colossal oil reserves or Norway (or their productivity either for that matter), and you do not (thank God) have the soullessness of the Swiss “Banking secret”. Nor do you have their productivity either. That has to be in the Top 5 of the worst whoppers that this BoJo you like so much, has pulled in this campaign “Just look at Norway and Switzerland they’re fine!”

Lunacy finally to vote for a quatuor of politicians who, regardless of your political allegiance (I'm no bleeding hearty leftie myself) are the most over-privileged, incompetent, PR-obsessed in recent history. Forget the accusations of racism, there was a fringe of openly racist leaver voters, but it pales in comparison to the whole. Most people voted Leave for other, more objective reasons. I disliked seeing them being demonised in this campaign, that was awful also. But the incompetence, of super-conservative, super-overindulged-buffoon Boris Johnson, THAT cannot be understated. And that will have a very real bearing on this country soon...

BITTERSWEET:

Yes, because, believe it or not, you were not the only ones with serious doubts about the EU and the Brussels plutocracy.

- Mad props to banksters in chief Goldman Sachs (something too often forgotten) for falsifying the accounts of Greece so that they could join (and never been brought to justice). Probably the single biggest event to have contributed to the slow-mo implosion of this EU.

- Special thanks also for the abject US invasion of Irak which precipitated an uncontrollable chain of events culminating with mass Syrian immigration, which obviously did not help in a context of immigration jitters. On that note, big shout-out also to our sclerotic politicians who have led the West (US, France, UK, Germany) for turning a blind eye for so long to despotic middle eastern regimes for the quick gain of selling a few fighter aircrafts and navy ships. Quite the visionaries, clearly.

- Eternal gratitude to the Brussels legislators who managed to blend both idealistic arrogance and institutionalised kleptocracy like no one before. Drown out the consistent democratic objections of many countries and people complaining that they were not ready for full freedom of people and services, for years. If only this referendum meant that Jean-Claude Juncker lost his position as head of the European Commission, that would be one good thing. The obnoxious obstructionist, professional politician, indicted in multiple scandals, unable to do anything real on the big subjects, such as a coordinated crime response EU-wide. The Sepp Blatter of the EU.

It’s also bittersweet because I went to business school in the 90’s and I was one of these brainless morons (a kid I suppose) who went on and on with the Europe kool-aid. “Yeahhh… Weeeeeee… Europe…. Yaaayyyy….” (I barely caricature the rationalism behind the whole EU argument).

So I feel a bit guilty also by association, the EU clearly should not have been built so shoddily, so quickly, with such a deep and wide integration, on the back of arrogant principles. I have felt this for many years, and part of me is admirative of the UK for standing up to Brussels, to deliver this long overdue body-blow to the EU integration as it stands. Once again I really struggle with the way the campaign went, and who you voted in. The EU should have had more economic pragmatism at its core, something the UK would have helped bringing. But this was not the right antidote in my opinion.

I’m going to try and stay away from further brash declarations such as “Oh that’s it then, we’re leaving”. You can’t always leave a place that easily, particularly one you love and where you built a life, you know? But our days here are clearly more numbered now. Because it will be harder for us to stay. Because the economy of this country will suffer. Because I cannot bear to imagine having to watch the c**** face of this f***** t**** of BoJo at the evening news.

We all lost last night, but no one more than those who think they won, if you ask me. But there again, who knows. It may be for the best. Who can really call the future, on such a gigantically complex event? I hope so for the UK, and I hope the EU will continue, but hear the need to reform. There again the EU may not survive this either, which would be a catastrophically messy and uncertain geo-political and economical reshuffling.

The big question might now be: Who is going to implode faster? The UK or the EU?