Two British expats in Ho Chi Minh City have shared their thought with Tuoi Tre News following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, with a near 52-48 percent split for leaving, on Friday.

Ben Robinson: A disaster

I think Brexit a disaster for the UK and I don't think it can ever recover. The world is a different place to what it was 60 years ago, but the people who voted to leave don't understand that.

The world is completely different, the world economy is different, and I think Britain doesn't have a place in the world alone. Most of the people who voted leave have a romantic view of the past, of a powerful British empire but that doesn't exist anymore. The world has moved on.

I felt disappointed, and that the vote was largely made by an uninformed population, who didn't fully understand the consequences. I think it was irresponsible of the government to call the referendum for that reason. I think Britain doesn't have a role in the world outside of the EU because it is not self sufficient, Britain cannot grow the food it needs to feed itself.

Britain manufacturing sector is very weak, and the auto industry, for example, is owned by foreign companies.

Andy Golwer: Only time will tell

I’m against the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The EU has implemented some very important laws that we would not have without them, for example human rights legislation and workplace rights legislation. The EU also works hard to tackle climate change. I believe that our current conservative government will not implement these laws if they don’t have to - this will affect workers and the less well off. I also believe that free movement of people in Europe is a good thing, we will most certainly now lose that right.

There are two main reasons for people to vote for Brexit. Firstly people (not including me) don't like immigration into England. Recently times have been relatively hard financially and the government has made lots of spending cuts, some sections of the media have portrayed this as immigrants fault. The politicians who wanted to leave have also said this.

The second reason (and one I do agree with) is the EU is very expensive to run and at times very undemocratic. Some EU commissioners are appointed not elected. It can seem like we don’t have a say in how they operate.

There have been so many arguments about this from those who wanted to stay and those who wanted to leave. It will actually take 2 years to leave and that has to be negotiated with the other countries in the EU. Some people say it will cost jobs and lose the UK money, other people say the opposite. The truth is nobody knows because no country as big as England has left the EU before. I imagine there will be less migration to the country. It also depends on who the new leader of the government will be now that David Cameron has resigned and who wins the next UK election in 2 years time. In my opinion I don’t think there will be huge change.

British people can currently live and work in Europe without any kind of visa or even permission to do so, it’s an automatic right. That will change - as will whether British people can receive free or cheap healthcare in other European countries. There are hundreds of thousands of British people who are retired living in France and Spain - this decision will affect them significantly. However what exactly happens nobody knows - this will be negotiated between the UK and the EU over the next 2 years.

For British people in non EU countries I don’t imagine there will be a great deal of change.

I have friends and relatives who were on either side, some wanted to leave and some wanted to stay. For the reasons stated above. This was a very close vote, I think 52% to 48% split.  Some people think their lives will be better and others think their lives will be worse, only time will tell.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!