So, one of the side effects of living and working in expatriate land is that I get to hear a lot about British politics.
Between hearing the opinions of my co-workers at work today, and my Facebook and twitter feed, I've been getting a good sense of how upset British people are about the vote.

I'm not informed enough to have an opinion on the issue.  (Everything I know comes from John Oliver).



It does sound like the European Union has both some advantages, and some significant disadvantages.   (Taking power away from the voters and giving it to bureaucrats is always worrying.)

And yet, almost all of the British people I know interpreted this referendum as being about xenophobia versus multi-culturalism.  And they are interpreting this as a victory for xenophobia.

Couple this with the rise of xenophobia in the US, and it's shaping up to be a depressing year.

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Sidenote:
Back during the Scottish Independence vote, I used to ask my Scottish friend about the European Union issue.  The argument at the time was that Scotland shouldn't become independent, because then they would be out of the EU.  (It was not guaranteed that an independent Scotland would have been granted EU membership.)

He told me that Scotland would be better off independent, because he thought the UK was going to vote to leave the EU anyway.

I am now slightly in awe at his prescience.

It does appear, however, that wanting to stay in the EU was a major factor for many Scottish voters who voted no for independence in 2014.
With this no longer being a factor, many of my UK friends are predicting another referendum, and this time, probably a Scottish Independence.