June 23-ish for vacation trip to the UK?

February 22, 2016 11:02 AM

My wife and I have been planning an anniversary trip to the UK for this year but haven't yet decided on the timing. I'm thinking it could be pretty fascinating to schedule it so that the EU referendum vote falls in the middle. Great idea or bonkers?

We're US citizens. The last trip I took to the UK was for a conference in London, flying out on our presidential election night in 2008, landing at Heathrow the next day to learn that Obama had won. So I spent my first day there in a tired but happy daze, buying copies of every different newspaper I could find, all of them of course with huge banner headlines and photos of the Obamas. It was a pretty extraordinary experience.

Late June is a lovely time to be in the UK, I plan to follow all of the Brexit campaigning closely, and whichever way the vote goes it's going to be historically important. So I can't see why it wouldn't be worth timing the trip to coincide. Am I missing any counterarguments? Like potential crowds of frenzied UKIPers rushing about the streets Maenad-like in search of foreigners to tear limb from limb in their (pick one) joy/rage? Seriously... any reason a different time might be better? FWIW, intinerary will mostly be northern England / Scotland.

posted by Creosote to Travel & Transportation around Manchester, England (11 answers total)

I think that's a great idea, especially with the Scotland dynamic thrown into the mix (leveraging this vote as justification for a do-over on Scotland independence). However, given the reversal of polarity (you are in their country during their election), my recommendation would be to remain reasonably neutral unless you are sure of the political position of the person you are talking to!
posted by scolbath at 11:17 AM on February 22, 2016

the only reason i can think of is if there are strikes related to the politics. i imagine that's unlikely, but don't follow uk news closely these days.
posted by andrewcooke at 11:28 AM on February 22, 2016

Best answer: I would do a trip like this in a heartbeat. If you're interested in the Brexit referendum, go! It will be way more fun there than at your home in the US.

I went to the UK for the 2001 General Election - spending the night watching Dimbleby narrate the returns in the hostel bar and then running around the city watching concession speeches in the morning. I also camped out in front of Downing Street and watched the cabinet ministers arrive. At first it was just me and some guy from Liverpool, though it grew to a couple hundred by the time Blair arrived from meeting with the Queen.

I would listen to people's opinions about Brexit, though probably not offer many up. Listening to the chatter on talk radio has been pretty useless.
posted by kendrak at 11:32 AM on February 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'd be surprised if you even notice there's a referendum happening while you're here, to be totally honest.
posted by bifter at 11:42 AM on February 22, 2016 [10 favorites]

You might want to get there a bit earlier, and join in the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations.
posted by TristanPK at 11:50 AM on February 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I love the U.K. and think any trip there anytime is a good idea, but will add that (aside from things like terrorism and war) it is generally extra fun to be somewhere where Something Important is happening. One of the things that made our trip to South Africa great was that it happened to fall on the 10 year anniversary of the end of apartheid.
posted by bearwife at 12:12 PM on February 22, 2016

The UK during a referendum is not like Iowa during primary season. You'll notice no difference unless you spend all your vacation time watching TV.
posted by caek at 1:26 PM on February 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

June 23rd is a great time to visit, though. Go north. It's midsummer. But yeah, I don't know of any places I'd go to to cheer on an election or referendum.
posted by ambrosen at 1:38 PM on February 22, 2016

Best answer: It's a nice time of year to be in the UK, for sure. I'm sure the referendum won't have a negative impact on your trip. This isn't something we've done before, so it's hard to say what the atmosphere will be like, but it will certainly be interesting and I doubt there will be riots.
posted by altolinguistic at 2:06 PM on February 22, 2016

Response by poster: I didn't really expect to hear any caveats about the timing & the more I think about it the more it gives some focus to the trip. Understood about being sparing in offering opinions. It's not as if the US doesn't have an upcoming election that looks like it may divide people about as severely as anything in the last century or so.
posted by Creosote at 3:58 PM on February 22, 2016

I'm generally of the mind that it won't be that big a deal as a tourist. Compared to say when the Olympics were here, when I think you could actually feel a change in the atmosphere then but it was everyone coming together and feeling positive about the UK's performance, it wasn't about being divided in opinion.

That said, it's a good time of year to come over anyway and the issue will be interesting to witness kind of on the periphery. While you're here, maybe grab a few papers to get a broad view of the discussion? I would get The Telegraph, The Guardian and The I. Avoid the Sun and the Daily Mail like the plague but if really you want that kind of rhetoric get The Metro at any station because at least it's free. Papers with a full english breakfast at a low key pub is a magical experience.
posted by like_neon at 1:16 AM on February 23, 2016