BritainA12 Amarillo Globe-News amarillo.com Saturday, June 25, 2016

AP

Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, speaks to the media Friday on College Green with the Houses of Parliament in the background in London. Britain voted to leave the European Union after a divisive referendum campaign.

The Associated Press

LONDON — Britain has jumped. Now it is wildly searching for the parachute.

The U.K.’s unprecedented decision to leave the European Union sent shockwaves through the country and around the world Friday, rocking financial markets, toppling Prime Minis-ter David Cameron and even threatening the ties that bind the United Kingdom.

Britons absorbed the over-whelming realization that their anti-establishment vote has pushed the British economy into treacherous and uncertain terri-tory and sparked a profound crisis for a bloc founded to unify Europe after the devastation of World War II.

“Leave” campaigners hailed the result as a victory for British democracy against the bureau-cratic behemoth of the EU.

Conservative former London Mayor Boris Johnson said “the British people have spoken up for democracy in Britain and across Europe,” while Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right U.K. Independence Party, said “the dawn is breaking on an in-dependent United Kingdom.”

But for the 48 percent of Brit-ish voters who wanted to remain — and for the 2 million EU na-tionals who live and work in Britain, but could not vote — there was sadness, anger and even panic.

At a London train station, commuter Olivia Sangster-Bull-ers called the result “absolutely disgusting.”

“Good luck to all of us, I say, especially those trying to build a future with our children,” she said.

The decision launches a yearslong process to renegoti-ate trade, business and political links between the U.K. and what will become a 27-nation bloc, an unprecedented divorce that could take a decade or more to complete.

Cameron, who had led the campaign to keep Britain in the EU, said he would resign by Oc-tober and left it to his successor to decide when to invoke Article 50, which triggers a departure from European Union.

“I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months,” a somber Cameron said outside 10 Downing St. “But I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the cap-tain that steers the country to its next destination.”

He also said he had spoken to Queen Elizabeth II “to advise her of the steps that I am taking.”

In a referendum marked by notably high turnout — 72 per-cent of the more than 46 million registered voters — “leave” won

with 52 percent of the votes.Stock markets plummeted

around the world, with key in-dexes dropping more than 12 percent in Germany and about 8 percent in Japan and Britain. Markets calmed and later recov-ered some of their losses after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney promised to take “all the necessary steps to pre-pare for today’s events.”

The euro fell against the dollar and the pound dropped to its lowest level since 1985, plunging more than 10 percent from about $1.50 to $1.35 before a slight recovery, on con-cerns that severing ties with the single market will hurt the U.K. economy and undermine Lon-don’s position as a global finan-cial center.

The referendum result re-vealed Britain to be a sharply di-vided nation: Strong pro-EU votes in the economic and cul-tural powerhouse of London and semi-autonomous Scotland were countered by sweeping anti-establishment sentiment for an exit across the rest of Eng-land, from southern seaside

towns to rust-belt former indus-trial powerhouses in the north.

For many who voted “leave,” the act was a rebellion against the political, economic and social establishment and the de-rided “experts” — including CEOs, artists, scientists and sol-diers — who had written open letters warning of the conse-quences of an EU exit, or Brexit.

Pro-Brexit voters were per-suaded by the argument that leaving the EU meant taking back control of immigration — by abandoning the bloc’s princi-ple of free movement among member states — and reclaim-ing billions that the U.K. pays to Brussels each year.

“Remain” supporters said this was a fantasy of sovereignty in an interconnected world, one that ignored the benefits the EU, and EU workers, bring to Brit-ain.

But for many “leave” voters — who tended to be older, less well-educated and less well-off than the other side — the vote was reclaiming a birthright.

“It’s a vindication of 1,000

years of British democracy,” 62-year-old Jonathan Campbell James declared at the train sta-tion in Richmond, southwest London. “From Magna Carta all the way through to now, we’ve had a slow evolution of democracy, and this vote has vindicated the maturity and depth of the democracy in our country.”

The vote also represented a cultural and political populism stirring across Europe and beyond.

Populist politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders hailed the result and called for similar anti-EU votes in their countries.

Donald Trump praised the decision during a visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, saying Britons “took back their country.” He compared the vote to the U.S. sentiment that has propelled him to presumptive Republican presidential nomi-nee, saying “people are angry all over the world.”

President Barack Obama said he talked to Cameron and be-lieves the British voters’ decision speaks “to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization.”

The divisions exposed by the referendum threaten to unstitch the complex fabric of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said “Scotland has voted to stay in the EU,” and a new referendum on indepen-dence from the United King-dom is now “highly likely.” Scotland voted in 2014 to remain a part of the U.K., but that decision was seen by many as conditional on the U.K. re-maining in the EU.

The EU exit would also com-plicate the status of Northern Ireland, which shares a border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member. Irish nationalists used the result to call for an all-island referendum to reunite the two parts of Ireland after 95 years of partition into an inde-pendent south and British north.

But nothing matched the shock of many in the capital, London, where more than 10 percent of the population is from the EU, and which voted by a large margin to remain in the EU.

Christine Ullmann, a German who worked on the campaign urging other Europeans to “Hug a Brit,” expressed a widespread sense of sadness and loss.

“What about Brits who be-lieve in the goodness of their so-ciety who find themselves in a society where they can’t travel and work freely in Europe?” she said. “I feel really sad for them. They’ve lost more.”

Markets reel as world absorbs shock of UK vote

1. Economic instability: Economic forecasts predicted a prolonged

recession in Europe and Great Britain after a Brexit vote. Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on For-eign Relations, explained why in an op-ed published last week in the Washington Post: British regulations, derived from EU rules, will have to be rewritten wholesale. Nobody will know for some time what will happen with Britain’s com-mercial relationships with its trading partners or its mem-bership in the EU market.

2. Unrest in Great Britain and other EU countries: Scotland’s first minis-

ter Nicola Sturgeon said a sec-ond independence referendum was “highly likely.” A wave of similar calls for independence are expected throughout Great Britain and other European Union countries, starting with Northern Ireland and spread-ing to such places as Den-mark that have refused to adopt the Euro.

3. A win for Russia: Rus-sian officials respond-ed with predictions of

thawed relations between the UK and Russia, and President

Vladimir Putin said he under-stood why it happened. “No one wants to feed weak econ-omies,” he said.

4. Potential investment opportunities: Downward pressure on the euro,

sterling and European stock markets could mean buying opportunities for American, Chinese and other investors, Harvard Business School Pro-fessor John A. Quelch wrote Friday. Quelch also predicted that London would remain an important financial center. But he said that, while the Bank of England had “clearly thorough-ly prepared” for the referen-dum, few British or other Euro-pean businesses had.

5. U.S. interest rates likely to remain low: “A U.K. vote to exit the Euro-

pean Union could have signifi-cant economic repercussions,” Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen said Tuesday.Here’s a big one for American mortgage holders and home buyers: Volatility in the financial markets is predicted to drive investors to relatively secure U.S. treasuries. The higher demand in U.S. debt is likely to pull down US interest rates.

— The Associated Press

What does this mean for the rest of the world?WASHINGTON — The shock waves of British voters’ decision to leave the European Union began almost immediately after the polling booths closed Thursday night. The British pound plum-meted against the dollar, the Dow tanked and experts predicted years of uncertainty in Great Britain and Europe. Here are five immediate takeaways:

“ThE BRiTiSh PEoPlE hAvE SPokEn UP foR dEmocRAcy in BRiTAin And AcRoSS EURoPE.” NiGel fArAGe

leader of the hard-right U.K. independence Party

NiGel fArAGeleader of the hard-right U.K. independence Party

n “Damn! A bad day for Europe.” — Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy ministerm Twitter

n “I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months, but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination.” — British Prime minister david cameron, announcing his intention to resign

n “The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom. Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day!” — nigel farage, leader of the U.k. independence Party

n “It’s true that the past years have been the most difficult ones in the history of our Union. But I always remember what my father used to tell me: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” — EU President donald Tusk, speaking to reporters in Brussels

n “The European Union is strong enough to give the right answers to today.” — German chancellor Angela merkel, speaking in Berlin

n “A victory for freedom. We now need the same referendum in France and in EU nations.” — french far-right leader marine le Pen.

n “The British referendum will either serve as a wake-up call for the sleepwalker heading toward the void, or it will be the begin-ning of a very dangerous and slippery course for our peoples.” — Greek Prime minister Alexis Tsipras

n “Huge numbers of people in the EU reject the EU’s immigration policy, there’s big disappointment with the economic policy.” — Slovak Prime minister Robert fico

n Britain’s decision “is not the end of the world and above all not the end of the European Union.” — czech Prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka, facebook

n “The British people defeated the political elite in Brussels and in London and now they are in charge again. Now it is our turn.” — dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders

n “The conclusion is: we need a new European treaty.” — Jaroslaw kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling law and Justice party

n “I think an independence referendum is now highly likely, but I also think it’s important that we take time to consider all steps.” — Scottish first minister nicola Sturgeon

n “We must do everything to avoid the domino effect, a situation when other member nations also say that they don’t want to be in the European Union any longer.” — Polish President Andrzej duda, speaking in krakow

n “Today the European flag is at half-mast, but sometimes it is necessary to take a step back before taking a step forward.” — Pedro Agramunt, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the council of Europe, speaking in Strasbourg

n “What matters now is that we keep Europe together.” — German foreign minister frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking in luxembourg

n “I can only give a sigh: So it’s done. This is bad news for Europe, bad news for Poland. It means instability of the situation in Britain now.” — Polish foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski

n “The people of the United Kingdom ... have declared their independence from the European Union, and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy.” — donald Trump, the presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee, facebook

reactions to britain’s vote

Britain Votes to LeaVe e.U.