Yes Graham the population has asserted its right to be heard, but what are they saying? That they don't like the manufacturing jobs that used to support them and a far more robust economy being offshored to suit the maximised profit curve of mostly foreign owned or controlled companies, that they reject globalisation or being swamped with unmanageable levels of migrants?

Of course those on the extreme right will say it's about lots of other things like sovereignty, independence and controlling migrant numbers, and the moribund will agree with them, given nothing much changes for the ruled or governed!

And as seen before, antiestablishment and unfathomable unrest used by those born to rule to roll out their own agenda? Fascists, communists, racial supremacists and an assortment of tails that just want to wag the dog!

Will the rust belt become productive again as the smart money moves to Europe or a newly independent Scotland or reunited Ireland?

Houses may fall in prices and become more affordable? For whom, the unemployed or debt laden foreign investors? The only ones gormless enough to see decaying buildings in areas with little or no industries or income generation to support them, as good investment?

Young folk wanted to remain but stayed at home like around 20% of them always do, then wanted a new referendum to allow them to exercise a right they didn't value enough the first time!

While those who lust for power might well get it, it will likely be as big frogs in much smaller puddles? If anyone believes any real or universal measureable good at all, will come out of this result, they're dreaming!
Alan B.

The head line says what's important:

"It is a powerful coalition because it tends to value experience over theories, which is really to say reality over fantasy."

Dead right - especially they are fed up with the fantasy of catastrophic human caused climate change/global warning and the consequences of the ideologically driven, irrational policies being implemented on the claim they can control the climate. What a ridiculous belief. And look at the consequences. Millions in energy poverty as electricity prices have soured, e.g. up 133% in UK as a result of the irrational policies - and all for what? They won't make an iota of difference to the climate.

Brexit gives hope that, at last, political correctness, top down rule and left desctruction of common sense is on the way out. The reaction of the maniacs to the vote proves beyond all doubt what a crazy bunch of anarchists and fools they are are.

Peter Lang, nobody is saying we can CONTROL the climate. But your claim that "They won't make an iota of difference to the climate" is quite a ridiculous belief. The fantasy that there's no human caused climate change/global warning is something that contradicts both experience and theory.

And theories are not fantasies. There's a big difference between a theory and a discredited hypothesis, yet you're treating them the same. A real theory is an explanation that fits the facts. Theories are needed because our experience is limited – e.g. humans have not directly experienced catastrophic global warming.

It's not why UK energy prices have soared. That's because of the failure to build new nuclear power stations before the old ones closed down. And that's partly due to its unprofitability around the turn of the millennium – the private sector weren't interested and the Blair government was reluctant to act. And under Cameron the government appears to have panicked, abandoning value for money considerations when they approved Hinkley Point C.

What is interesting is that in three recent referendums the position taken by the political class has been been defeated. In Australia, the Republican push; in New Zealand the flag change and now Brexit. When the plebs get a chance they ignore the propaganda poured out by the 'progressives' in all the mainstream media

You are right Peter Lang. It shows that some people can think despite the billions wasted on propaganda. Unfortunately here both Turnbull and Shorten believe in the fantasy. Maybe their is not enough people out of work to realise the billions that could be put to useful purposes instead of lining the pockets of the renewable high priests.

The lesson given appears to be that the voting population is far more insular, inward looking and greedy than commentators expected.

Of course John Howard understood this well. That is why he gave Australia middle-class welfare and the Pacific Solution.

The take away for the political class is that it is possible to lead and the outcome of that is likely to be preferable to kowtowing to a few loud voices in the hope that they will go away. Sadly the political class seems more hell-bent on the latter than the former.

Runner,

Actually, the global climate industry is costing $1.5 trillion per year (as claimed by the Climate Industry itself and the Insurance Journal), not just $ billions. Thanks for the opportunity to point that out to the gullibles and the loony Left.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2015/07/30/377086.htm
http://www.climatechangebusiness.com/

Rubbish Agronomist. It is the silent & ignored majority that has spoken in Brexit result.

The majority that have seen what they are losing with bureaucratic control of their lives & futures.

They are sick of being lied to, & taken for granted.

I'd say the political, bureaucratic, & academic classes would be wise to shut up, pull their heads in, & keep them down. I have a feeling that the silent majority now have a baseball bat in their hands, have seen what it can do, enjoyed doing it, & are itching to use it a few more times, before they put it away.

This should go double for the noisy greedy Scots. Keep pushing & the poms might decide to ditch them. Why they think the EU would want another beggar state in Scotland, when they have just lost the cash cow of the UK, I can't imagine, except that they are lefties, & given to foolish flights of fancy.

The Brexit vote is NOT a referendum, it's a plebiscite, so the UK parliament, can and probably will ignore the popular vote. Parliament is supreme, Britain doesn't have a written constitution.

The worst news for the Coalition would be a similar working class revolt in Australia.

Alas this site is as delusional as our major parties. The debt created by our Central Banking Masters cannot be repaid since it is 3 times the GDP of the planet. Their derivative gambling scams are officially 20 times the GDP of the planet. Have you viewed the movie ' The Big Short' ?

At the Brisbane G20 meeting it was determined that "bail in" was passed enabling the confiscation of banking deposits on the whim of bank failures. Even Rhonda Jamb, acknowledges this reality Graham. James Rickards the Author of the 'Death of Money' admits that this system is going down because exponentially more debt money must be created now to pay for the debt of yesterday. WTF Graham, have you have learnt nothing ?

The EU needs Britain more than Britain needs the Eurozone
so it will just be business as usual, maybe after a few petulant hiccups
from those against the decision.

Britain is actually propping up Greece, and will probably continue to do so,
only now they can oversee it from a more independent stance.
Also the border security can be tightened. Given the millions of refugees trying
to find ways to sneak into Britain, this is a prudent move.

In some respects you could once again blame the muslim wars for shutting
down the easy passage of people across borders in the eurozone.
Also all the Greeks and basket case country citizens coming to Britain to claim welfare.

Given these problems it is a sensible decision to leave.
j

Dear Graham,

Spoken like a true neo-liberal.

“less regulation and free enterprise” might just as well read freedom for the business classes to remove the EU protections on wages and work hours or freedom to pollute and contaminate.

“everyone pulls their weight without expecting a handout” could just as well be read as signalling fresh attacks on the welfare state. A winding back of the National health system is already being floated by leaver Nigel Farage.

Ultimately Brexit can indeed be viewed as a move from human-centric European policies to nationalistic themes and business-centric laissez faire 'freedoms'.

What is most disturbing however is the constant decrying and attacking of 'mindless bureaucrats'. This relatively small group, consisting of members of all the EU nations, made heroic efforts to bring what was such a divisive continent together into a generally cohesive group delivering prosperity, improvements in human rights, and deregulated movement of people and goods for all these postwar years. Quite remarkable really.

John Ralston Saul in his book Volaire's Bastards writes about the fight to bring proper sanitation to Paris. In the 1860s there were suburbs in which 95% of the children who were born failed to reach the age of 5 but is would take over 50 years to get just half the city's buildings on sewers.

Cont..

Cont..

“The long delays were largely due to the virulent opposition of the property owners, who did not want to pay to install sanitary piping in their buildings. These people were the New Right of their day”

Ralston Saul goes on to say; “It was the creation of an effective bureaucracy which brought an end to all this filth and disease and the public servants did so against the mass of the middle and upper classes. The free market opposed sanitation. The rich opposed it. The civilised opposed it. Most of the educated opposed it. That is why it took a century to finish what could have been done in ten years. Put in contemporary terms, the market economy angrily and persistently opposed clean public water, sanitation, garbage collection and improved public health because they appeared to be unprofitable enterprises which, in addition, put limits on the individual's freedoms.”

He asks the question; “if the battle fought and won was both just and popular, have the old elites been able to convince so many citizens that the public servants and the services they offer are to be looked upon with contempt?”

You wrote;

“Another is the failure of progressivism against progress. Brussels represents the sort of polite future that our own elites would like to usher us into – lots of regulations; one-size fits all, except for minorities who often earn extra entitlements; an edureaucracy; and lots of political correctness and self-censorship.”

This is indeed a victory for the old elites for whom you speak, and division and wealth inequality looks like it may well be ascendant, but we can only hope the damage might be limited to Britain.

Arjay,

Central bankers are our servants, not our masters. Admittedly they're not serving us very well, but that's more due to the political restrictions they're under rather than any decision they make.

Global gross debt is high, but global net debt is zero. So the size of the debt really isn't a problem. The way the economy works, most of the money only exists as debt. We don't need exponential growth of money just to pay off the debt, but we do need to keep the money supply growing to keep the economy growing. That's quite easy, as businesses can (as a trend) afford to borrow more money whenever the economy grows, interest rates fall or there is inflation. And when the private sector can't afford to increase its debt, the public sector can.

And as I have pointed out before, the "bail in" arrangements don't allow the confiscation of banking deposits on the whim of bank failures. This is a matter for national governments, but generally there is some level of protection for depositors.

Steelerudux

Britain is not Europes nanny or benevolent benefactor.

The Eurozone was forged on the idea of mutual benefits to all
member countries.
Europe has failed to be an equal partner and now is a drain on the British
people and the government purse.

You can also blame Isis and the muslim war in Syria and African wars in Libya
for Britain being forced to
shut down the easy flow of people between borders.
More trouble caused by muslims

Now tell me Aidan, if the banking system is safe,why do they need "bail in" ? i.e. powers of deposit confiscation . These powers were passed here in Australia without parliamentary endorsement. How is this possible in our so called democracy ?

Haven't I told you this already, Arjay?

"Bail in" does not mean deposit confiscation. It's the bondholders, not the depositors who are liable. How much depositors are protected if the bank collapses is a matter for national governments and is beyond the scope of what the G20 agreed to.

Deposits are safe because governments guarantee them. That doesn't mean the banking system is safe; that's a different issue. However in Australia the banking system is quite well regulated and therefore quite safe.

Dear CHERFUL,

From a leading business group in the UK.

“The EU enables easy access through the single market to the UK’s largest trading partner – 45% of UK exports in 2014 were to the EU amounting to £227 billion worth of goods and services each year.1 While the share of UK exports to the EU is declining as the UK increases its trade with countries outside of it, the value of exports to the EU has increased on average by 3.3% each year between 1999 and 2015. 2 80% of British businesses that trade overseas do so with the EU3 – it is a growing and critical market for us. Similarly small businesses often look to trade with the EU when exporting for the first time. Preserving access to the single market is therefore highly valuable.”

“In 2014, the EU cost the UK £9.8 billion in direct budgetary contributions. But, the collective impact of the benefits of EU membership has made the average household in the UK around £2,700-3,300 better off and added £70-90 billion every year to the UK economy. This is a return of 9 to 1.”

“Harmonisation of EU rules and standards has made it easier for businesses to enter new markets. With one set of standards across the EU, a business in the UK can trade across 27 other countries more simply than if outside and operating under a different set of rules.”

http://news.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/uk-and-the-european-union/eu-business-facts/eu-two-futures-cbi-april-2016-pdf/

The economic argument will only work if the UK can access all these markets as before.

Doubtful.

It seems the leavers are relying on less regulation meaning less cost of production and therefore making the UK more competitive internationally. However a tightening of trade with the EU as a result will have a huge impact.

Keep it up Steely, digging a hole to bury your Greens.

You are confirming everything that many of us, but not enough, have always known. The arrogance of bureaucrats who believe they are better, & more equal than the ordinary citizen who pays their salary.

More of the public is waking up to the control freaks that find their way into positions of influence. With enough savvy to change a car wheel, they want to tell everyone what to do, & how to do it.

Bureaucrats, green to the core, & the Greens, bureaucratic to the core.

The author is correct in pointing out elites over-favour some minorities and ordinary people value "secure borders".

Much of the majority Leave result was indeed about Britain retaking control of its borders.

So in the runup to our own Election forgotten Australians remain worried about their Borders. We don't want regional/world bodies like the UN or our Greens, using trendy guilt to persuade Australia to take in:

- more boatloads of $10,000 per seat "refugees" or

- those Muslims who will not settle into our society

Turnbull should not indulge his big money, small "l" liberal tendencies by welcoming to his dinner parties, those who rate Sharia Law higher than Australia's secular laws.

ASIO should now bury any (end of 2015 phonecalls to MPs) notions of Obama/Merkel political correctness. Turnbull now realises many/most Aussies favour a stricter visa system and tighter border controls (including airports).

Returning to the Greens - the main refugee advocate, Sarah Hanson-Young, is not a Senator for South Australia but the Senator for Nauru.

Suggest people vote Greens Last or not at all.

[Deleted for abuse]

SteeleRedux,

Well said....anyone who lauds the complete dog's breakfast of the Brexit campaign needs their head examined.

There was "no" exit plan.

The "leave" vote appears to have been achieved via the mechanism of lying and misleading the general population on immigration and the NHS.

Here's the latest:

"The leaders of Germany, France and Italy have vowed there will be no informal talks or deals made with Britain before it formally tells Brussels it is leaving the European Union.

The warning by the EU's three most populous continental nations means Britain must first take the plunge of invoking Article 50 to leave the union before being able to negotiate its future trade and other ties with the bloc."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-28/brexit-germany-france-italy-vow-no-informal-talks/7548940

Another informative book on govts being forced to act for the well-being of the general population, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution is E. Royston Pike's "Human Documents of the Industrial Revolution in Britain", exposing as it does the system which led to the degradation of people and their communities in Britain as the shift from country to urban environment was entrenched - how the Factory Acts were established to curb the excesses of laissez faire enterprise.

"Turnbull was elected on the presupposition that you win elections from the middle. While this is standard dogma in the departments of politics and peace and conflict studies, it is wrong."

It is important not to draw conclusions like this based on what happens in places without compulsory voting. The whole point of compulsory voting is not to hand power over to the lunatic fringes, and it works very well for that purpose.

PaulMurrayCpr

Id say the people who voted to leave the EU, were too many in number
to be a lunatic fringe.

It was the voice of wisdom from older true Britons with more common sense

Given that the younger vote in Britain has a few million muslims and ethnics
making up their number, of course they want to stay in the EU, but it has
nothing to do with whats good for British people but more to do with
liking the idea of muslims flooding Britain the way they have Europe.

Now aint that the truth.

Also the youth in Britain are like the youth in Australia, they are constantly brainwashed
at school about the Hippy pipe dream, " love and peace and the global village
utopia." Meanwhile, tribal, terrortorial warfare,continues unabated around the world just as
it has for thousand of years.

//Now aint that the truth.//

No.

Hey graham, you have "Spoken like a true neo-liberal", & I hope you are suitably chastised.

Of course any thinking person immediately stops reading the moment they see those words. No one who would use them has ever had a worth while thing to say to follow them.

Toni Lavis

I stand by what I said, it is the truth.

You prove to me that the first alliance of muslims in
Western countries including Britain, isnt to other muslims,
Whether they be Middle Eastern or African. Their votes would favour staying in
the Euro zone because they are against Britain closing its borders to other
muslims and Africans.

what I said about war continiuning unabated around the world the
way it always has is also true.

And the hippy love and peace global village is emotive claptrap. It is taught in
Western schools but has no basis in fact, in the real world. That is also true.