Friday Five News 24/6/16

                

Well Local and International news can be combined under the EU referendum.

Yesterday will be forever etched on this country’s history.  We The country voted to leave the European Union.  Some say it was a decisive decision.  I don’t feel that 51.9% v 48.1% is particularly decisive.  However statistics can be manipulated and many arguments could be made about the way the vote went.  Here in London the majority decision was to remain.  Many young people voted to remain while it was older people who wanted to leave.

I’m disappointed.  I believe people used this referendum to hit back at the Government and didn’t really consider the consequences of the leave decision.  In the long term it may prove to be the right decision but it is going to be some time before we can reflect on the long term effects of this decision and see if we really can be better on our own.

Already there have been short term repercussions.  The pound and shares are suffering and the Prime Minister has resigned.  There is going to be, at least in the short term, a period of uncertainty.  The overall decision in Scotland of remain will probably trigger further debate on independence for Scotland.  Wales was also predominantly leave.  Questions around the situation in Northern Ireland will also be raised, particularly as it has a border with Ireland that is an EU country.

It will be interesting to see who the main players in our future will be.  I’m not convinced that some of the main Leave supporters in the Conservative party (e.g. Boris Johnson and Michael Gove) are the best people to negotiate our exit with Europe.  I’m also not convinced that the Labour party is in a good enough state to take on running the country if and when we have the next general election.  The danger with this is that it opens the door for parties like UKIP to take advantage of the situation.

One of the reporters on TV likened this to divorce proceedings.  There will be anger, upset, protracted negotiations and, inevitably, it will get messy.

SPORT news also defers to the referendum as questions will now be asked about how our exit from the EU will affect football players.  Good to see we have our priorities sorted!

I have to question whether attending the Glastonbury Festival counts as ENTERTAINMENT given this story about the difficulties people experienced getting there (traffic jams that lasted for hours) and the state of the site given the recent weather conditions! (Mud, mud and more mud!)  It’s not something I’ve ever wanted to experience.

Getting away from the referendum this MISCELLANEOUS  article reports on rumours that the next iPhone release will not have a headphone socket.  There is a lot of speculation about this.  Something different to think about.

All links are courtesy of the BBC website. Opinions are my own.

Have a great weekend.