Thanks Luke…Great to hear from an insider. I also see the EU experiment as unsustainable, and applaud the bold move by GB. Going to Ireland in a couple of months and wonder if there will be any impact there. Also Puzzled by the markets…wonder if there is some intervention behind the scenes.
I will be in France in a couple of weeks… I will ask around me what French from different places thinks about it.
I cannot wait to hear your on-the-street reporting!
At this point, the anecdotes are far more trustworthy than the MSM reporting.
Where will you be going? Urban or rural? North or south?
Both! A few days in Paris, and about 8 days in two villages (center and east).
OliveOilGuy and folks, apart from your dollars buying more of our ( Irish ) Euros I'm guessing that a reaction here is relief that " for once it's the British that have messed up their affairs rather than ourselves doing it! " Irish farmers and manufacturers will suffer as they have important markets in Britain and sterling is weaker. The border between North and South becomes an issue again as now one side will be in, and one side outside the EU. And subversives will again try to kill any Northern police enforcing it.
There is also worry about the free movement of people between Ireland and Britain now that they say they are going to tighten border controls. Will passports be introduced for the first time?
I myself confess to being confused and undecided about the benefits of being in or out of EU. In the early years, structural funds, agricultural funds, were definite positives as were liberalizing rulings by European courts on our legal system which helped drag us out of the dark ages. Latterly, Trichet making us bail out the banking system (temporarily) leaving us with a bill of 64 billion, so as to shield the euro banks(temporarily) has been our downfall. All our own responsibility of course.
Cornelius,
Putting on my super cynical head for a second. When I was 10 years old my grandad taught me a very important lesson. I was bothered about wasps in his garden, I was trying to play football but had to stop to swat them away. He came out and gave voice to words of the effect, "What are you doing that for? Do you not know how to deal with wasps? Give them something sweet." He then headed back into the kitchen, opened the fridge, took out some jam and placed a few spoonfuls in an upturned lid. He then placed the jam outside in a corner of the garden away from where I was playing. Low and behold, no more wasps bothering me. They all went to the jam and got stuck in it. They were easily dispensed.
All the best,
Luke
Luke, if you're saying, that joining any community for financial rewards alone clouds the judgement and coarsens the whole enterprise and probably ends in failure; I have no difficulty agreeing with you.
I would also like to say, lest you misunderstand me, that I am sad rather than glad, that a great country like Britain finds itself in such straights due to politicians behaving like schoolboys. We will all be the poorer.
I do find though that people often overreact to bees and wasps, who if left to their own devices will eventually grow bored and buzz off. Maybe a bit like Boris Johnson?
Cornelius,
Nice analogy, I hadn't considered the 'buzz off' aspect 
Likewise, and I assume we're coming form the same angle here, I found that the Brexit/Bremain vote became a campaign of personality rather than content. (And secretly I wonder why it was done that way).
For me, Farage's departing speech to Brussels was particularly cringe worthy - it seemed like the last day at work speech where you tell everyone what you really think of them but then plead with them not to terminate your pension.
The point I was eluding to is that we surrendered our sovereignty to gain prosperity without realising that we are the engine for prosperity and that those who promise us a better world through submission to an abstraction are the parasites.
All the best,
Luke