Never have so many been so adversely affected by so few! The fallout from last Thursday’s referendum has led to almost the entire world catching cold with tumbling markets, volatile currencies and diving oil prices driving some countries to reassess their investment portfolios and sovereign funds. Investors are heading for the hills and won’t be returning until the dust is seen to settle.
I’m still shell-shocked at what 52 percent of my compatriots eligible to vote have — in most cases unthinkingly — done to their country and themselves. As demographic maps show, the decision to take Britain out of the EU was primarily rubber-stamped by the non-university educated working class living in economically-strapped parts of the country as well as the over 55s who imagine their choice was patriotic — a sentiment few of their children and grandchildren share.
Unfortunately, those in deprived industrial regions are due to suffer most if gloomy economic predictions pan out. Economic experts, written off by Leavers as liars and scaremongers, portend inflation, job losses and a black hole in the budget necessitating a further round of austerity cuts. Anti-globalism, xenophobia, media manipulations and stirring populist rhetoric lacking any substance, are responsible for the biggest crisis in Britain since the end of World War II.
Communities draped themselves in the flag and voted like lemmings only to wake up on Friday morning hanging off the edge of a cliff with no soft landing. A growing number are expressing their regrets. Some say theirs was a mere protest vote they believed wouldn’t count; others have called to ask whether it’s too late to change theirs.
A Regrexit twitter hashtag is the go-to social media site for flip floppers. A tweet from Emma, accompanied by a photo of a sign in Wales embossed with “EU funds: Investing in Wales,” reads, “This makes me want to smash my head against a brick wall.” Another from Judi Hess reads “When Putin and Donald Trump both congratulate you for something you really need to reconsider what you did.”
The real surprise was the largest trending Google search after polling stations closed was “What is the EU?” This indicates that some voters hadn’t a clue what they were voting for or against.
But there’s no going back or is there? Over three million signatures on a referendum asking the British government for a repeat performance indicates that hope — or perhaps desperation — is in the air.
The pro-Brexit Sun newspaper warns that 490 members of Parliament are plotting to keep Britain in the single market against the will of the populace. More power to them! Democracy doesn’t mean putting a nation’s future in the hands of the willfully uninformed or people who can’t see beyond the confines of their bubble.
Responsibility for making such life-altering, generational decisions should rest with democratically-elected officials. In the same way that members of parliament probably aren’t accomplished at cleaning fish, should we expect a fishmonger to be a wiser strategist than a career politician?
People are feeling insecure, not least the 1.3 million Britons who’ve made their homes in Europe. An unprecedented number of Britons are planning to relocate to Canada and the Republic of Ireland has seen a surge in British nationals applying for Irish passports.
Britain’s youth feel they’ve been thrown under a bus; their prospects to live, work and prosper across the channel now in jeopardy. Some 65 percent of the silver-haired voted to leave, as opposed to 75 percent of teens and 20s. They’ve had their day and now they’ve presumptuously quashed the hopes of people just starting out whose career prospects have been reduced.
Writing in the Telegraph, Christopher Hope terms the referendum as “the biggest uprising against the people who run the UK since the Peasants Revolt in 1381,” adding, “Britain’s bosses, politicians, church leaders, sports stars, bankers, economists and celebrities told the people to vote to remain in the UK, but the people gave the establishment the finger.”
A similar insular, narrow-minded, anti-establishment, anti-globalist trend is currently underway in the United States and in several EU member states where far-right and far-left populism has taken hold. It’s little wonder that Brussels is running scared of a possible domino effect, prompting heads of state to urge the British government to get this divorce over with as quickly as possible.
Those pro-Brexit politicians who thought the scorned EU would give the UK an easy ride are realizing the error of their ways. Britain is being set up to be made an example of to deter others from making the same mistake. The President of the EU Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, has spelled it out, announcing Britain’s severance from the EU “is not an amicable divorce.”
Adding to Britain’s woes is the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron who gambled on a referendum he was not obliged to authorize, and lost. At the same time, the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is poised to face a leadership challenge.
It’s too early to say RIP to the United Kingdom and hello to Little Britain, and there’s a good chance the European project will survive in some form. It’s just tragic that Britain has chosen to limp along for the foreseeable future instead of leading the race.
I’m still shell-shocked at what 52 percent of my compatriots eligible to vote have — in most cases unthinkingly — done to their country and themselves. As demographic maps show, the decision to take Britain out of the EU was primarily rubber-stamped by the non-university educated working class living in economically-strapped parts of the country as well as the over 55s who imagine their choice was patriotic — a sentiment few of their children and grandchildren share.
Unfortunately, those in deprived industrial regions are due to suffer most if gloomy economic predictions pan out. Economic experts, written off by Leavers as liars and scaremongers, portend inflation, job losses and a black hole in the budget necessitating a further round of austerity cuts. Anti-globalism, xenophobia, media manipulations and stirring populist rhetoric lacking any substance, are responsible for the biggest crisis in Britain since the end of World War II.
Communities draped themselves in the flag and voted like lemmings only to wake up on Friday morning hanging off the edge of a cliff with no soft landing. A growing number are expressing their regrets. Some say theirs was a mere protest vote they believed wouldn’t count; others have called to ask whether it’s too late to change theirs.
A Regrexit twitter hashtag is the go-to social media site for flip floppers. A tweet from Emma, accompanied by a photo of a sign in Wales embossed with “EU funds: Investing in Wales,” reads, “This makes me want to smash my head against a brick wall.” Another from Judi Hess reads “When Putin and Donald Trump both congratulate you for something you really need to reconsider what you did.”
The real surprise was the largest trending Google search after polling stations closed was “What is the EU?” This indicates that some voters hadn’t a clue what they were voting for or against.
But there’s no going back or is there? Over three million signatures on a referendum asking the British government for a repeat performance indicates that hope — or perhaps desperation — is in the air.
The pro-Brexit Sun newspaper warns that 490 members of Parliament are plotting to keep Britain in the single market against the will of the populace. More power to them! Democracy doesn’t mean putting a nation’s future in the hands of the willfully uninformed or people who can’t see beyond the confines of their bubble.
Responsibility for making such life-altering, generational decisions should rest with democratically-elected officials. In the same way that members of parliament probably aren’t accomplished at cleaning fish, should we expect a fishmonger to be a wiser strategist than a career politician?
People are feeling insecure, not least the 1.3 million Britons who’ve made their homes in Europe. An unprecedented number of Britons are planning to relocate to Canada and the Republic of Ireland has seen a surge in British nationals applying for Irish passports.
Britain’s youth feel they’ve been thrown under a bus; their prospects to live, work and prosper across the channel now in jeopardy. Some 65 percent of the silver-haired voted to leave, as opposed to 75 percent of teens and 20s. They’ve had their day and now they’ve presumptuously quashed the hopes of people just starting out whose career prospects have been reduced.
Writing in the Telegraph, Christopher Hope terms the referendum as “the biggest uprising against the people who run the UK since the Peasants Revolt in 1381,” adding, “Britain’s bosses, politicians, church leaders, sports stars, bankers, economists and celebrities told the people to vote to remain in the UK, but the people gave the establishment the finger.”
A similar insular, narrow-minded, anti-establishment, anti-globalist trend is currently underway in the United States and in several EU member states where far-right and far-left populism has taken hold. It’s little wonder that Brussels is running scared of a possible domino effect, prompting heads of state to urge the British government to get this divorce over with as quickly as possible.
Those pro-Brexit politicians who thought the scorned EU would give the UK an easy ride are realizing the error of their ways. Britain is being set up to be made an example of to deter others from making the same mistake. The President of the EU Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, has spelled it out, announcing Britain’s severance from the EU “is not an amicable divorce.”
Adding to Britain’s woes is the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron who gambled on a referendum he was not obliged to authorize, and lost. At the same time, the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is poised to face a leadership challenge.
It’s too early to say RIP to the United Kingdom and hello to Little Britain, and there’s a good chance the European project will survive in some form. It’s just tragic that Britain has chosen to limp along for the foreseeable future instead of leading the race.
