UK Has Left European Union

You guys know any details? I'm a bit in the dark, and not sure what to think of it. British pound is now worth three quarters of the US dollar.

Very interesting year...

We're fucked is the sum of it

How much do you know?

If it means anything, the main events to follow are...

a, Scotland will hold another IndieRef, and it is basically confirmed they will leave, which will mean will Labour(Left) will no longer be able to form a government in Britain, and with such a shite Lib Dem(centre left) party, we are left with perpetual Tories (Right), which is pretty bad. This will probably mean a shitload of privatisation, and all round unthinkable negatrives.

b, The pound is fucked, recession here we come

c, We will have Boris Johnson as PM, and he's a nasty piece of work, he appears all fluffy, and useless, but he's a slimy right wing dickhead, probably worse than George Osborne (Chancellor of the exchequer), who was the other option if we stayed, of course after DC has stepped down. He will appoint Michael Gove as the new COTE, and he is one of the most hated individuals in British politics, after completely fucking up English education.

d, Not much in terms of difference, we still have to pay what is actually a reasonable rate for a trade deal, and we'll have to follow some of their rules as well, only we won't get anything back. Places like Newcastle, and Sheffield have massively benefitted from EU funding, and it supports a lot of things. The EU also creates better workers rights, and has a lot of business, and economical shiz attached to it, even if just by name, which are now pulling out of London

British politics is a million miles away from your American counterparts, its a lot more party, a lot less personality, we don't pick our party leaders, and we have a lot more major parties.

Conservative/Whig/Tory = Right wing, lassez faire pigs, with a help out your rich mates attitude. Dicks

Labour = Fronted by useless, far left wreck Jeremy Corbyn, the party's fallen to pieces, and is a car crash of anti-Semitism, and bad leadership, nobody knows whats going on

Lib Dems = Great Joke

Green Part = Who gives a shit bout politics, y'all need fucking trees. Also fronted by an Australian...

UKIP = Far right group of racists, who've got a lot tamer since the GE, where they lost a tonne of MPs. Fronted by walking joke Nigel Farge; looks like a muppet, drinks like an alcoholic

BNP/Britain first/ = Even more racist. A Britain first member killed an MP last week

Apart from any economic and national interests or fears of migration - today's truly a sad day for the idea of an idealistic and collaborative Europe standing united in peace under one transnational flag. We should never forget what brought us together in the first places. Thinks are looking more and more like they were at the beginning of the century. Not good.

Frankly the UK was barely engaged with the EU, all of you mainland countries really conglomerated your economies and shared a single currency but the UK never got on board. I don't think the UK has looked at themselves as a part of Europe since the reformation, maybe even since the wars of the roses ended. I feel like the EU will carry on better without them.

I am shocked about the GBP. Its never been weaker than the dollar that I recall in my lifetime. For the longest time while the dollar was sinking and sinking the pound was hanging in there and I was wondering how this tiny island nation was pulling it off during a global economic meltdown. Answer is? they weren't. Oh.

I guess now is the time to buy up vintage Vox, marshall, hiwatt and orange amps if you'e a yank like me. I need to raise some money and go scour the UKs pawn stores as things continue to get worse there....

Well, that's not strictly true, the Euro is a trainwreck, that's worked well for a few countries, and ruined others. We were doing just fine until our nation succumbed to its paranoia around immigration, and economical situtations, and went for the right wing side, thus causing a mass pullout, and a drop. As a country we're very, if not overly protective of our "sovereignty", and independence, and because of that people are very resistant to the idea of being part of a big institution, in fact one of the main arguments of the out campaign, was that a European super state is being built, which is not thoroughly untrue.

Generally I support the EU, and staying in it, though a thorough reform of the whole thing needs to take place, starting with a democraticisation; nobody knows, let alone can vote for the people who represent them, to x degree, and make the rules we have to abide by, some of which are really daft, and have killed various industries, with OTT regs.English fishing is more dead than Lazarus...it died for a bit, but it'll come back now, unless its part of the deal we strike, to hand back control of it still.

I ordered an Original Fuzz guitar strap in England two weeks ago, when the Pound was stronger than the Euro. Hard to imagine that Germans and other mainlanders will fly over to Britain because everything is less expensive.

welp, prices will catch up with inflation shortly in the UK, the price adjust ments in the USA are always fast and severe....but I am talking about vintage UK made music gear, I am not suggesting anyone go to the UK to buy NEW products (in fact I never suggest people buy new gear when they can get old stuff at good prices)....

the UK has more of their own classic amps and recording equipment than other countries and when the economy takes a shit in a country that's when the good old music gear surfaces at rock bottom prices. I did well out of various US economic crises, but the UK has never been worse off than us since I've been collecting. With the exchange rate in my favor and your average limey feeling the pinch I am just thinking we are about to pull into their vintage market's rock bottom phase. Used musical gear always drops when the going gets rough. People flood the market with cool gear they need to sell and values therefore dip, it takes the collectables markets longer to adjust to inflation than markets for new goods too... sometime this year will be an ideal time to buy up vintage stuff from the UK. We are about to see a big dip in the more common old british amps.... so metal face 4 input marshalls, 800s, anything old by Laney, post-matamp orange amps, probably hiwatts, sound city for sure and original JMI vox gear and especially the post-JMI vox stuff. Anything that got manufactured in good quantity back in the day will start appearing for sale now. In a few months assuming the GBP stays weak the market will be at low ebb. If you can make a trip to the UK and arrange transport back to your homeland for all your cool scores then it will be time to buy.

EDIT:

When W first took office these Japanese dealers used to fly over heare and scour our pawnshops and attend all of our guitar shows. The big fish would rent a shipping container. They would spend millions while here, but they would literally fill that shipping container with vintage USA made gear like tweed fender amps and piles of 60s ES335s and such. Then they would ship it back home and sit on it until the market recovered. A lot of it they sold to rich Japanese business people who love rock n roll, but when the Japanese economy started to falter later you started seeing the Japanese selling our own gear back to us on ebay and still do. This is all stuff that was bought up at vrious points from HW Bush to W Bush heading back ehre now that the US market for it is stronger than the Japanese one!

but if you can afford to buy from the UK during this economic meltdown and KEEP some of it you will you will wind up with desireable stuff you will never be able to afford again. I probably can't afford it, I am just too far away. But folks in Germany, Benelux, Switzerland, France, Scandinavia? hmmm

the EU as a loose governmental structure is really fucked up, agreed

its really more about streamlining trade within Europe while setting human rights standards throughout the continent... I am still saying that since you guys failed to adopt the Eurodollar you were only pseudo-participants. I would not be surprised if the UKs failure to join team Eurodollar with the other countries has contributed to the new currency's notorious instability.

I see everyone was awake. Heh, I was awake until 2 in the morning, part watchig the live cast o news streaming on Reddit, part talkig to my only politically mindful friend about this situation, and then just relaxing.

I hear that Greece has gon bankrupt several times, and Germany has had to vail then out on orders by the EU, which is kind of fucked up. Bunch of stuff on economic freedom from EU laws, and I think David Cameron was supposed to issue a speech. I her he would step down from office... The UK needs a strong hand to guide these very uncertain times.

Aren't shipping prices going to skyrocket? It's going to make buying vintage gear at home a bit pricey.

you really wanna buy vintage amps in person if you can so you can hear if they are making any weird noises.... something can look clean and well-maintained inside and it may have issues, but if all you have to go ona re photos and prmises you can wind up paying top dollar for a piece that is ready for extensive service and then have to chase the dealer for a partial refund whereas in person you could have an honest talk with the guy and work out the fair price, that is if he isn't already marking it fairly to begin with.... vintage prices are inflated on ebay and reverb

guitar shows

I wish I could kick it to London in a few months to take advantage of the weak GBP and score some cool old heads, bring them on as carry on, leave my clothes and toiletries behind if needed, but money and free time are against me

Neither of us will be ableto take advantage of this historic oppurtunity...

If you see anything decent put it up here, if you're not gonna snag it yourself. Anybody else watching any of the Glasto this year? I have EITS on streaming in the background, and Sigur Ros is gonna be on at half ten.

unless I can fly out for a week its not worth it, most UK internet sellers don't ship here.... I would wanna pick stuff up

if you have the scratch start hitting the pawn stores and small music shops in about a month Duke

Hoy shit, Duke, post stuff here! Maybe we might be able to do a manuevering here. If you find like a cheap Blues Junior or whatever, you buy it, and we buy it from you at a slightly higher price.

Just a thought if the oppurtunity arises.

the blues jr will not be cheaper because the UK's economy is down.... its a USA product, dude. Its vintage amps from the UK that will be cheaper for awhile. Just trust me. Modern stuff probably won't be cheaper.... basically think of it this way, the UK's insanely expensive amps of yesteryear are about to become just fairly expensive. it won't effect you because you don't have the budget to take advantage.

Ah, of course. The Blues Junior were 1995.

Heh, a budget of $2k might get something.

1995 just happened... I still own shirts from that year that fit

21 years ago, mate. I wasn't even born yet.

but Crocodile Dundee was... and he wants his slang back, "mate"