UK Referendum on EU Membership 2016 – A Briton in Austria speaks out…
Charting my course from finding out that I was ineligible to vote through to living as Briton in Europe post-referendum
The London of 2016 is a vastly different place to the one I knew from when I used to live in the UK.
On Wednesday I boarded a flight to London, travelling BA for the first time in a decade. Since moving to Austria in 2000 I’ve probably flown into London (Heathrow, City or Stanstead) about 70-80 times. It certainly has no novelty to it.
Continue reading “Not the place you used to be…”
This week sees the last full week before the Referendum vote on 23 June. There will be many campaigners on both sides putting in some serious miles as the referendum still remains very much in the balance. I’ll also be putting in some miles – to London on Wednesday and back to Vienna on Thursday before a day trip to Zagreb for Friday – all part of the job working within the European banking supervision environment – going to the European Banking Authority in Canary Wharf and then the Croatian National Bank, the latter hosting a meeting of an SSM working group.
Continue reading “A week of travel – Austria, Britain and Croatia”
As I type this, on my way to work and having had an interview with a journalist from Der Standard yesterday afternoon, the imminency of the referendum is really starting to hit home.
Continue reading “Two weeks to go…”
In the short or long term a Brexit will have no effect on where I live. I think a lot of the UK will see a “Yes” vote as a missed opportunity.
One of the comments made by the first pro-Brexit Briton in Austria to answer a set of questions was that there is a big difference between the situation in Vienna compared with Austria as a whole – particularly with regard to the level of integration that a foreigner needs. I was very pleased that my blog had reached a Briton in Western Austria, who was very keen to talk about her experiences – in particular to highlight how different life can be outside the largest city or capital.
Continue reading “A pro-Brexit Briton in Western Austria speaks out”
A Brexit will result in the unravelling of the EU as we know it today and result in, at the very least, a tremendous amount of reform. A Bremain could see the UK as a very dysfunctional EU member depending on the margin of victory.
In my last post I set a list of questions that I wanted to ask pro-Brexit Britons in Austria. Below are the first responses – from a long-term Briton in Vienna (who would appear to have been living in Austria for a similar period as I have). Continue reading “Feelings of a pro-Brexit Briton in Vienna”
To date my blog has been dominated by pro-Bremain content – but of course this is only part of the story – there are Britons in Austria (and elsewhere in Europe) who favour a Brexit.
To date my blog has been dominated by pro-Bremain content – but of course this is only part of the story – there are Britons in Austria (and elsewhere in Europe) who favour a Brexit. Aside from vociferous forum/facebook trolls (trolling in general, not in particular in relation to the Brexit debate), in the interests of trying to understand how people’s opinions differ – or how personal circumstances shape their position, as well as to get away from merely expressing and “broadcasting” my opinion, I will be posting the views of some Britons in Austria, who identify themselves as favouring a Brexit.
Continue reading “Finding out how pro-Brexit Britons in Austria feel…”
I woke up this morning and read about Boris Johnson comparing the aims of the EU to those of Adolf Hitler. From someone who sincerely hopes that the referendum will see the UK remaining in the EU, I have spent the last few weeks following the opinion polls and soaking up the coverage in the media, as the campaigning for remaining in/leaving the EU have begun in earnest. Continue reading “Is this the “Boris moment” I’d been expecting to materialise?”
On Friday I did a brief interview with FM4, the state-owned alternative music station that also has some programming in English.
On Friday I did a brief interview with FM4, the state-owned alternative music station that also has some programming in English.
Chris Cummins, who presents the Reality Check show, is another long-term Briton in Europe and he asked me some questions about how a Brexit might affect me as a Briton in Europe. He’ll be sent to cover the Referendum from London for the station in June.
The interview can be listened to online on FM4’s Website until 20 May at: fm4.orf.at/player/20160513/RC/134008
UK Membership of the European Union is likened to being akin to shovelling crisp fifty pound notes into the furnace in Brussels every week.
A piece by Martin Wolf in the Irish Times recently came to my attention – not least because it takes ten very common perceptions being quoted about leaving the EU, and debunks them. Continue reading “Martin Wolf – busting the scare tactics”
I recently started to ask people, in relation to my post about having a “Plan B”, whether they had any consideration about whether they might consider moving on if a Brexit were to happen.
