Record rout on world markets as Brexit fallout continues

EUROPEAN Council president Donald Tusk made a pithy tweet last night writing ‘UK-Iceland 1-2. Winter is coming’ in reference to the hit TV show Game of Thrones. 

He later apologised and replaced the UK with England, having made a common mistake that will hopefully be relegated to the ash heap of history with the likely break-up of the centuries old union. 

The fantasy series has the recurring theme that a long, harsh winter will soon arrive lasting for generations, but centuries of perpetual summer has lowered defences with many refusing to heed the warning signs. 

With the English football team being beaten by a supermarket and more than $3 trillion being wiped off global stock markets in a record rout, it looks like winter is finally here. 

On Monday June 27 $930 billion was lost in a fresh selling frenzy, adding to the more than $2 trillion dissipating on Friday. Sterling hit a 30-year-low, Britain lost its triple A credit rating with three agencies, the FTSE 100 was battered and American investors took a serious hit. 

As Tuesday got underway the markets had rebounded slightly, the French and German stock exchanges rising by two per cent to match London’s as analysts suggested bargain hunting vultures were circling the continental carcass. 

Britain’s busiest billionaire Richard Branson told ITV that there should be a second referendum arguing the ‘Brexit facts were inaccurate’, Virgin Money had seen a third wiped off its value, and that, collectively ‘we are heading for disaster’. 

“We are in a prolonged period of economic adjustment … it will not be as economically rosy as life inside the EU. It’s very clear that the country is going to be poorer as a result of what is happening to the economy.” said the chancellor Gideon Osborne on Radio 4 as he confirmed he will not stand for the Conservative leadership.

He comfortingly added that ‘it was not our responsibility’ to have a plan for leaving the EU, doubtlessly reassuring panicking markets and small businesses across the country.