As a result my future, on the face of it, looks a bit uncertain in Munich and I can see potential employers being a bit reluctant to recruit me.
I am, nevertheless, relaxed about this because:
- if my startup kicks off then I will be my employer
- I've been here for 10 years so I probably qualify for permenant residency (currently EU citizens have unrestricted rights to live in member countries and don't need permenant residency status)
- even if the UK does leave the EU it is possible that there will be a free-movement of people arrangement (like with Norway and Switzerland)
- my grandfather was Irish so I am eligible for Irish citizenship and a passport - I am, leisurely, going through the motions of gathering the details required.
- that's, kinda, how I roll.
*It's utter piffle that the government refuses to reject the voice of the people regarding this EU-thing. Only in March this year they completely ignored the people's overwhelming choice of name for a new research vessel - Boaty McBoatface - even though they had asked the public.
*Let me get this right: France becomes fifth largest economy in the world, overnight, without any effort. And one of the key people in the UK who made this possible has a French name.
*My thanks to ... for reminding me that the referendum was a kind of IQ test for the UK. Humph. Here's the irony: some people benefit from times of change. They tend to be positive, flexible and dynamic individuals with a broad outlook. The ones who will be shafted are (generalising a lot here) the ones who voted to leave.
*There's an old saying in the London banking world, something like: "The moment a banker says his bank is sound, all confidence is lost" - perhaps someone should have told Carney (Governor of the Bank of England) this. [this was the day after the vote, the pound was crashing and Carney made a "calming" announcement that he had a quarter of a trillion pounds available for liquidity - how reassuring]
*Because of the economic catastrophe that's just been voted for, a lot of UK based people will need to get off their fat, lazy arses and do some real hard work from now on. Just as well they will be losing protection of the European Working Time Directive.
*Negotiators say "If you can't walk away then you can't negotiate". But the UK has now declared it's going to walk away and will now try to negotiate.
*There's a rumour that quite a few hedge funds and financial institutions are getting ready to short Sterling - and this includes the Bank of England. [this was the day before the vote and the joke was that even the BoE had no confidence in the pound and was joining the hedge funds - I'm looking at you George Soros - in taking advantage of its imminent collapse. Actually, they may well have done a bit of this.]
*I know you're all wondering about my thoughts regarding the anti-immigration/leave votey thing in the UK. So here goes:
1. a leave vote should be good for me because a) it means there will be less supply of native English speakers in the EU (assuming I can stay here which is most likely) and b) chaos has opportunity for those who look
2. but it will be terrible for the UK economy (and probably everyone else's) for a while - obviously - perhaps for a very long time.
3. If the leave-monkeys say they will spend another 100m pounds per week on the NHS - a very good thing except for the crash of sterling after a brexit vote - then that will mean more immigrants.
I know you're all wondering about my thoughts regarding the anti-immigration/leave votey thing in the UK. So here goes:
There are probably some other issues worth considering but I am more concerned with getting my damn apps working on iOS (which will be priced in euros, dollars and any other stable currency).
*Oh and to quote Alan Price's England My England: "We're a land that's built on coal/With oil beneath the sea/We struggle to get by/So we join the EEC" (the EEC became the EU)
