h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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I'm interested in this - care to expand?

Historic examples, Lyndon Baines Johnson's, and Richard M. Nixon's overwhelming election successes in the 1964 (Johnson) and 1968 and 1972 (Nixon) elections and the storms of controversy in which their administrations collapsed.

The reason for their respective extraordinary election results were that several substantial pluralities of the total electorate had unrealistic and irrational expectations of them, and the eventual collapse of their public opinion support was that much of their constituencies felt betrayed when their expectations were not met.




A counterexample, Ronald Reagan's election results, very near the 46/54 split given, a consequence in part of Peggy Noonan's speech writing for Ronald Reagan, notable for some of cleanest semantics in political history.

As a matter of formula, she had a marvelous knack for adequately addressing the conservative and liberal factions of both the Democratic and Republican parties adequately in context of the same speech on the issues covered, with the consequence that very few of the voters had unrealistic expectations of Ronald Reagan.




With Johnson and Nixon, large numbers of voters in reaction on political disatisfactions swelled the vote, were disappointed and reacted again with the effect of destabilizing their respective administrations.

There's nothing new about this, an overwhelming public opinion mandate usually presages serious political trouble in the offing.

>>As a Texan, I have no vote and no real, direct stake in the vote, but I am interested to see how this turns out. I see a few similarities to our upcoming presidential election. I'm curious to see if the voices of fear, xenophobia, and isolationism can win.
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Indeed - it seems to be a circular thing in politics - I see true parallels here.

It's a shame that the current generation see no parallels to the last time nationalism got too dominant.

However I have confidence that remain will win.

>'m not happy with a simple majority and nor is anyone I've spoken to about it. Because if it splits 51/49 in whichever direction, that means half the country don't agree. This is much too big a decision to have half the country not agreeing.

But we'll see what happens. I'm still mightily peeved to have to watch this awful campaign, full of disinformation and lies and smears decide my future without being asked what I think.
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And this this this - a truly bod awful example of dreadful campaigning on both side - this has been the worst campaign in politics I've ever had the displeasure to witness - it brought out the worst on both side. I really actually despair over this. Thank bod it's awful.

*wonders if Orcus was sober when he wrote that post - it seems a tad muddled?*

Anyway - only minutes now till the results start coming in. - Oh no, hang on, midnight in the UK is an hour later than here.

I'm off to bed. To wake in the morning and find out if I'm a citizen of the country I've lived in for 40 years or not.

Now I'm beginning to sound muddled....

Guilty - sorry

Not sure my posts are that coherent when more sober however

It's either 11:00 or Midnight in England now. Have the results begun to come in?

No, very high turnout, so it's takin g a bit of extra time

2.15am 52.7%leave. This is VERY depressing

Hopeful news at 3:00 GMT, it's now only 50.1%.

04.38.

Looking likely that the leavers have a growing lead.

52% - 48%.

I feel sick.

How can we be so stupid.

PP.

What if the victory margin is razor-thin? Does Parliament have to act in such a circumstance?

£ has fallen 10% against the dollar.

Talk of the Bank of England having to intervene when markets open.

FTSE expected to be down 8% overnight.

Nikkei down 6%.

Thanks leavers. You had one job to do.......

PP.

If the majority is just 1 that's it.

PP.

Scotland as a whole voted stay.

What price a new Scottish referendum and a vote to leave the UK?

PP.

The thing that frightens me most is having Johnson, Gove and Farage running the country, as will soon happen. It's like Thatcher's Revenge - The Movie.

But will that really happen. It was a referendum, not an election. I've been reading that the Leave side think that the government should remain as they are to maintain some sort of stability for the time being.

I read that NI voted to Remain, as well as Scotland. England thy name is Alf Garnett.

OTOH All is surely not quite lost yet, is it? This doesn't mean we shall leave the EU, it is a reflection of what the public thinks.

But for now I can start worrying about what will happen about my and my fellow expats' pensions. All the Brits that live around here are free-lance translators and have trouble making ends meet as it is.

Jings.