Free Republic

Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, called on Tuesday for Washington, in parallel with its negotiations with Europe, to pursue a separate free trade agreement with Britain, once it has formally separated from the European Union. Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican in the United States, echoed a call from many members of his party, who have dismissed President Barack Obama's contention that Britain will be at the "back of the queue" for trade talks. Obama issued that warning in April when he intervened to try to persuade Britons to vote to remain in the June 23...

Britain’s departure from the EU rattled the stock market, refreshed the patriots, rankled the globalists, and rocked effete politicians. Even with the approaching storm, not a bad day for freedom Well, they did it! Great Britain ripped up their 40-year-old membership card in the European Union and may become “Great” Britain again: you know, sovereignty, security, and stability. Britain was a major player in the European Union, a bloc of 28 nations, making it the biggest trading zone in the world. Membership in the EU permits citizens of one nation to travel and live in other member-nations. Last year, Britain...

Plans for 'a closer European Union' have been branded an attempt to create a 'European superstate'. Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault today presented a proposal for closer EU integration based on three key areas - internal and external security, the migrant crisis, and economic cooperation. But the plans have been described as an 'ultimatum' in Poland, with claims it would mean countries transfer their armies, economic systems and border controls to the EU. Zaoralek added that the four eastern members had reservations about the proposed common security policy. Eastern members have become increasingly jittery...

University of Tartu guest history lecturer Joseph Enge thinks that the UK's vote to leave the European Union is both reasonable and rational, and that it should not come as a surprise. Even more, the current criticism of the voters shows that they are right to leave. Yesterday’s vote for the UK to leave the European Union should not come as a surprise. Their decision is reasonable and rational given the unilateral decisions made by President Obama and Chancellor Merkel without consulting or taking account British concerns or interests. Yet, the hue and cry have been falsely and insultingly directed...

One of the most visible signs of Britain's membership of the EU in recent years has been the Polski Sklep. Polish grocery stores have popped up on the High Streets of most big towns, responding to the growing population of Eastern Europeans in the UK. "I feel really bitter and emotional about it," says Iwona Erikson, cradling her baby daughter in one arm. "I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought - 50% of the people here are racist. They have decided: 'We don't want foreigners here.' I had never felt discriminated against until now. Sylwia Sawska, serving customers behind a...

LONDON — A petition calling for the UK to hold a second referendum on membership in the European Union surpassed 1.3 million signatures on Saturday, in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the 28-member bloc. The demand to sign the parliamentary petition briefly caused the government website to crash on Friday. A House of Commons spokeswoman told the Guardian that the site was temporarily taken down due to "exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion." In the referendum, 17,410,742 voted to leave and 16,141,241 voted to stay — a...

In the wake of Thursday’s surprising Brexit vote and the subsequent, near-immediate collapse of British Prime Minister David Cameron, a curious phenomenon has become apparent: Canadian pundits mostly think the referendum was a disaster. There is very little sympathy here — among an intelligentsia that is heavily Anglo — being expressed for Euroskepticism and the various motivations behind the Leave campaign’s victory. I might have voted Remain myself if my great-grandparents’ generation hadn’t lit out for the great plains, but isn’t there something obviously unusual about our view of the transatlantic frenzy? Canada is a political entity defined by its...

European Union nations urged Britain on Friday to quickly exit the bloc and end uncertainty about the future, as Prime Minister David Cameron said he would leave the departure negotiations to his successor, possibly until sometime in October. Britain's vote to leave plunged the EU into a new existential crisis as it struggles to recover from economic woes, public disenchantment with Brussels-imposed austerity policies in debt-stricken Greece and Europe's inability to manage the refugee emergency.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: 51.9% of Great Britain voted to skip out of the European Union. That's a bigger number than Americans who voted for Obama. And Obama went over there in April and lectured them not to do this. It's been a bad couple of days for Barack Hussein O. The Supreme Court shafts him on immigration. The British vote to leave the European Union. What else happened out there that's not great for Obama? Oh, well. There are three things. I can't remember them. Anyway, great to have you here, folks, as we wrap up another week of broadcast...

President Barack Obama stands by his comment that Britain would move to the back of the queue when it comes to trade deals with the United States if it left the European Union, the White House said on Friday. "Obviously, the president stands by what he said and I don't have an update of our position," White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters at a briefing. Obama urged Britain to remain in the EU when he visited London in April and warned that a trade agreement between the two countries would not happen anytime soon if Britain left the bloc.

Former Conservative MP Louise Mensch cited President Obama sticking his beak in a British issue over the then-looming vote over whether the nation would remain in the European Union. Yesterday Britain made their choice known: they want out. And Mensch noted that once Obama decided to overreach and tell British voters that they should remain in the EU, support for the Leave camp increased. In the end, it seems to have been a contributing factor in the UK’s decision to say goodbye to the massive political project, long criticized, among other things, for usurping sovereignty among its member nations. That...

Regardless of what you think of Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, and his uncompromising talk of walls and bans, does anybody really doubt after this shock Brexit result that he’s right about the levels of anger? It may not be obvious to the political and media elites living in their hallowed, protected homes in privileged areas. But travel to the north of England, or to the middle of America, and you will find very real fury with government and very real concern over the impact of perceived immigration control failures. There’s an increasing large gulf between the politically correct ‘cool’ and ‘establishment’...

President Barack Obama, who had warned against Britain quitting the European Union, said Friday that Washington would respect the British voters’ decision to do just that. The US leader said Britain and the European Union would both remain “indispensable partners” of the United States and that the “special relationship” with London would endure. “The people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision,” Obama said, in a statement from his White House office. But, in a nod to Washington’s frustration that its ally has been unwilling to back a European project seen as a cornerstone of Western...

Britain leaving the EU means trouble ahead for Germany — and its hardest task will be convincing the Brits to drop a self-defeating ideology, a leading foreign policy expert told The Local. German business has a lot of vested interest in British markets, explains Josef Janning, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin. And that means Germany will have its work cut out negotiating a settlement which gives Britain access to the single market after it leaves the European Union. […] Being integrated into the single market will mean the UK will have to “swallow the...

---snip--- The votes in the UK to get OUT of the EU were those of workers tired of seeing their jobs taken by immigrants who didn’t share the British tradition, culture, and spirit. Many of our neighbors across the pond have felt they were losing their country and culture and that unrestricted immigration was changing their nation. It didn’t help that those wanting to stay in the EU branded the “out” group as racists or xenophobes. It was that many long time subjects of the British empire felt that their country was being lost to those who came to claim...

The momentous victory for the Brexit campaign signals a new era of freedom for the British people. After more than four decades of being shackled to the European Union (previously the European Economic Community), Great Britain has declared its independence. The vote for Brexit is a vote for sovereignty and self-determination. Britain will no longer be subject to European legislation, with Britain’s Parliament retaking control. British judges will no longer be overruled by the European Court of Justice, and British businesses will be liberated from mountains of EU regulations, which have undermined economic liberty.

As Donald Trump flew in to Scotland today after the UK's seismic break with the European Union, parallels have been drawn with the anti-immigration message that led to Brexit and his rise to presumptive Republican presidential candidate. Many have pointed out the similarities between Britain's decision to leave the EU and Trump's campaign - and believe it is an indication of how Americans will vote on November 8, which could see Trump in the White House. The Donald's arrival in the UK will be seen by many as a meeting of minds - two worlds colliding with shared views including...

I am not to familiar with European politics. Does anyone know enough to know which other country or countries may follow suit and declare independence from the EU?

-excerpt- He said that "the British people have voted to leave the EU and their will must be respected... the will of the British people is an instruction which must be delivered." "There can be no doubt about the result." Cameron gave no timetable for his departure, but said that he wanted a new leader to be in place by October when his Conservative Party holds its annual conference. Boris Johnson, a former London mayor who campaigned for the UK's departure from the EU, is tipped by bookmakers as Cameron's likely successor. Johnson, who was greeted by a booing crowd...

British voters chose to “leave” the European Union on Thursday, defying the polls — and President Barack Obama, who had urged Britain to “remain” in the EU. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also urged Britain to stay in the EU. Only Donald Trump had backed the campaign to leave Republican strategists had panned Trump’s decision to travel to the UK in the midst of campaign turmoil, and in the wake of his blistering attack on Hillary Clinton earlier this week. Now, however, it looks like a risk that paid off handsomely, in the currency of foreign policy credibility....