please empty your brain below

So 22% of the City of London still voted to leave.

Nowhere near Gibraltar.
For a very sensible view of Europe and the Leave vote, listen on BBC iplayer to philosopher John Gray's 'A Point Of View', broadcast just a few moments ago (8.50 - 9am on Sunday July 2nd).

It puts the Leave vote in the context of the wish by some to create a European super-state and forecasts the way ahead.
I haven't yet listened to the talk, so apologies if this cuts across it, but I've never understood this connection.

Yes, there are certainly those who wish to turn the EU into a European superstate, and there may well be many people who would oppose such an idea.

But in this context, how can Brexit possibly help? Far more impact on the direction in which the EU moves henceforth can be achieved from inside it than outside.

It seems to me that those in favour of a superstate should be remaining (to join in with it) and those opposed to a superstate should be remaining (to prevent it).

Still, it's too late now.
If it were true that more could be achieved by Remaining than by Leaving then there would be value in Remaining.

But all the moves from Common Market towards European Superstate have been done by the back door. It's the Microsoft approach - We know what you want and we're going to do it and if you don't like it, tough.

Listen to John Gray.
Somehow I think the consequence of a remain vote would not have been the status quo...The European Union leadership would have seen this as a desire for the next step for greater integration - and how could we have said no to that if the people had voted to remain? Even if Brexit is watered down at least we can be assured that that will not happen!
About 1,000 people voted "Leave" in the City of London, but the electorate in the City is tiny. (Incidentally, the BBC says it was 24.7% Leave in the City - 1,087 votes for Leave, versus 3,312 for Remain).

The vote in Gibraltar was amazingly one-sided - only 823 people (4.4%, fewer than 1 in 20) voted for Leave. No where else came anywhere near that. The next was Lambeth with 21.4% for Leave.

Leaving Gibraltar to one side, the City was in the top 5 for "Remain" in the mainland UK, after three other London areas (Lambeth, Hackney, and Haringey) and one in Scotland (Foyle), and similar to other London areas such as Islington, Wandsworth and Camden. Not that the views of the few thousand people actually living in the City of London should be equated with the views of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people working there, or the businesses based there.
Hmm, I like the notion of Havering serving as a message to Greater London being akin to the role that the UK serves within the EU - providing of a wider world that exists outside its parochial borders.










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