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Comment by icu | Hacker News Reader

I'm sympathetic because I think both sided have gone to extremes and quite frankly lied at times to gain votes which is why I did my own research and came to my own conclusions after dwelling on it for a long time. I think if the UK does leave it would be absolutely stupid to push out people who have made the UK their home and contributed thus far. Most likely it would be business as usual until the UK negotiates it's way out of the EU.

I sincerely hope that if a leave vote happens that your family and business life doesn't get disrupted and please don't think that all the people who voted to leave did so for xenophobic racist reasons.

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"please don't think that all the people who voted to leave did so for xenophobic racist reasons."

But the whole premise of leaving is universally build on xenophobic racist reasons or started with xenophobic arguments. The line between Euroscepticism and Anti-Europeanism is very thin, there is a market for "Breaking point" ads.

The fact that 9/10 of most anti-European parties (even on the mainland or those a Nigel Farage is dweeping with) is xenophobic/racist from nature is extremely telling.

No, it's really not.

Leave won due to the votes from non university-educated people in towns & villages and white working class, and both groups are more xenophobic than the university-educated generation under 40, who are furious. People were not voting about economics or trade agreements or the ideals of multi-national unions. It's not pretty to have this divide along socio-economic lines, and it's not pretty for liberals to realize that they wish that the xenophobic white working class didn't have such an influence in a vote, but that's how it is.

If you* make me go through a visa application that's the same as kicking me out, because I don't want to go through a visa application to keep living in my own home (been here for many years), hence you'll kick me out.

*As you would have regained sovereignty (sic), I guess you can't blame The Government or the politicians. It's something you have decided, hence you take the blame for any bad consequence (and praise for the good ones).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and vote here on HN! I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what would happen to Northern Ireland and its huge, unpatrolled land border with the EU in the event of vote Leave?

Disclosure: I'm a Canadian who worked in London for the past two years but recently left the UK (not related to Brexit :P).

There is a fair possibility of the breakup of the UK which is a country of countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

However it is worth pointing out that although there is both a strong national identity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and a somewhat disparaging view of England and the English; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own devolved Parliaments except England. Furthermore, people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can vote on English laws dispite the reverse not being true.

I think it's likely that more power will be devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in exchange for keeping within the UK. One of the main reasons for Scotland to remain was that it would not be allowed to use the pound if it broke away.

Another key issue around a possible Scottish breakaway is Trident, the UK's ongoing independently-controlled nuclear deterrent. Trident is actually four submarines armed with ballistic missiles operated by the Royal Navy based at Clyde Naval Base on the west coast of Scotland.

The costs of needing to relocate personnel and the base would be a major sticking point in any Scottish breakaway negotiation.

Also the eurozone is extremely weak economically in part to needing to prop up the Euro and dealing with Greece.

The point I'm trying to make here is that although a majority of Scots voted to stay in the EU, I'm not certain of their fondness of breaking away from the UK completely and going all in on the EU.

What I think is more likely is that Scotland will do a sort of flip on how Greenland is within the Danish Realm and out of the EU but Denmark is part of the EU.

Having said that if the EU is looking like it will collapse then Scotland will stay.

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