As the whole world knows by now, the UK has decided to leave the European Union. Due to all the recent and shameful events that have been seen all throughout the UK, I am still unable to write an entry on my blog that will do justice to the reality of events and an entry that doesn't sound too emotional.
Facebook is Brexit, newspapers is Brexit, Twitter is Brexit, people talking on the streets is Brexit, go the pub and all I hear is Brexit, leave the pub out of frustration; get home to watch some TV only to find out that apparently nothing else is happening in the world apart from Brexit. Brexit this, Brexit that. Brexit! Brexit! Brexit! Brexit! Honestly, I can't stand it anymore.
I am a tax paying citizen in this country but I am here as a guest. I have the utmost respect for British people but I can't help of feel that I must remain silent. I have justified my point of view on a previous entry in this blog and in countless posts on Facebook that I proactively joined or was almost forced to respond once the results were known. I stand by what I said. I still believe the EU (organisation) is rotten from the inside and requires change. I still believe the people's voices would not be heard if the country had voted to stay. There would be no consequences for the elites and the corrupt system that is now the EU. Business would carry on as usual whilst a few members would relish on the result only as an excuse to steal a bit more.
For now, the country is divided, we are all grieving. Many people have seen a side of their own friends they have never seen before. The racism and xenophobic attacks have spread like the worst epidemic catastrophe that one could have ever imagined. People are grieving, communities are divided. I am speechless.
I have requested another blogger, Adam Tavener, if I could use his words instead. Adam also lives in Bristol (hence my request to him), he's a businessman and the Chairman of his own firm Clifton Asset Management. I believe that mirroring the words of someone who is a British national and who was on the side of the Remain campaign allows me to be unbiased at the moment; which I feel I must remain at the moment.
I will, however, say this:
There is a big difference between Europe (the continent) and the European Union aka EU (the organisation) and how the UK relates to them. It's important for people from other countries to know that.
Owen Jones, placed it beautifully in his "Grieve now if you must – but prepare for the great challenges ahead" article published in The Guardian when he said "Threats that you will lose everything mean little if you already feel you have little to lose."
Maybe that's why the UK's vote was not only a cry for help from the poorer communities but as Glenn Greenwald said: "Corrupt elites always try to persuade people to continue to submit to their dominance in exchange for protection from forces that are even worse. That’s their game. But at some point, they themselves, and their prevailing order, become so destructive, so deceitful, so toxic, that their victims are willing to gamble that the alternatives will not be worse, or at least, they decide to embrace the satisfaction of spitting in the faces of those who have displayed nothing but contempt and condescension for them.
There is no single, unifying explanation for Brexit, Trumpism, or the growing extremism of various stripes throughout the West, but this sense of angry impotence — an inability to see any option other than smashing those responsible for their plight — is undoubtedly a major factor. As Bevins put it, supporters of Trump, Brexit, and other anti-establishment movements “are motivated not so much by whether they think the projects will actually work, but more by their desire to say FUCK YOU” to those they believe (with very good reason) have failed them."
Here's Adam.
Anyone else feel weird?
"At age 54, having started work at 17, being part of the EU, in its various forms, has been all I have known in my adult life.
Although it never really dominated my thoughts or business decisions (we are a largely UK-focussed business) it was always there, in the background, a small but continuous noise, like some sort of bureaucratic tinnitus.
Like most of us (I suppose) I have felt many passing emotions towards the EU. Admiration at superb, largely empty French motorways. Annoyance at the level of debt needed to fund the building of said superb motorways.
Frustration at seemingly crazy bits of legislation designed to shape the behavior of 28 very different member states, and huge appreciation for the way that youngsters from Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the rest seemed to be able to go out and enjoy themselves in the evening, consuming alcohol responsibly and never causing the slightest trouble. Compare that to the war zone that is the centre of my home city of Bristol on a Friday and Saturday night, and you have to wonder where our kids learnt to behave with such breath-taking stupidity.
So it was always there, sometimes a talking point, but in Britain, particularly, it didn’t impinge much on daily life, and elections to the European parliament were almost completely ignored.
For most Brits the biggest impact was probably being able to go through the ‘EU Citizens’ immigration channel when going on holiday, and being able to buy cheap fags and booze in greater quantities than was previously possible.
Then everything changed. I went to bed on Thursday last thinking that the Brexit campaign had proved their point, people were frustrated with the issues upon which they based their campaign, and something needed to be done, but ultimately caution would win out, and we would, by a small margin, vote to continue our relationship with Europe. Big mistake.
The decision that we took left me with an odd sense of bereavement in that something that I had simply taken for granted for so long would no longer be there. It didn’t mean that everything would automatically be awful, I didn’t buy all the project fear stuff, or better, I narrowly voted for remain as I found some of the Brexit economic arguments less than compelling, but absolutely, profoundly different.
If you will indulge me in an anecdote, I think an incident in my somewhat unruly youth sums up how I have been left feeling about this. Candidly I had a fractious and difficult relationship with my father who had the unenviable task of bringing up three of us single handed. By the age of 15 my rebellious spirit (and complete lack of caution or brains) got the better of me, and after a particular disagreement I announced that I was going to leave the family home and go and live with my mother and her new husband (uninvited, I might add, and much to my new stepfather’s utter dismay). This was the Tavener family equivalent of a defection from North Korea to South, a kind of treachery that could not be forgiven. Or so I was to find out later.
So off I went to live with the two of them in a pretty village in South Wales. After a couple of weeks I realised that I missed pretty much everything about my original home life. Whilst I was in the midst of it nothing felt special, but once it was no longer there I suddenly appreciated all of it - brother, sister, pets, garden, the lot. So I did the obvious thing and wrote a letter to my father explaining to him that I may have been a bit hasty, and that, on reflection, I was ready to come home now.
The reply I received was simply life changing for me. I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that I had made my bed, so I must lie in it, and was thus not welcome to return home, or even to visit. Furthermore, and to rub salt in, I was told that things had been a lot more pleasant subsequent to my departure, and that the remaining family unit were having a whale of a time without me. In conclusion, I read, we wish you well, but you are absolutely on your own; actions have consequences.
At 15 years of age I have to say, this was a slap in the face that shocked me to my core, and I certainly spent the next few months feeling a deep sense of grief and loss. My fault, absolutely, actions do have consequences, but wow, what a short sharp life lesson that was.
The point of my sharing all this is that, for many of us, myself included, our sudden exit from the sometimes frustrating but ultimately comforting bosom of the EU evokes precisely those feelings, loss, and a slight fearfulness of the unknown. The comparison ends there however. Things did work out ok for me in the end, although it took quite a few more hard lessons to knock all the crap out of me. But the UK is different. We were, and are, one of the world’s most successful economies.
We have an unrivaled history of blazing trails in almost all areas, commerce, arts, science, you name it. If you doubt me then you really should read what Bill Bryson has to say about us remarkable Brits. There never was a nation that punched so far above its geographic and demographic weight, and, once the new normal sinks in, I really believe that we will continue to do so.
In the short term there are a few things that urgently need to happen. The name calling must stop. We had a democratic vote, yet once again the side that lost won’t accept the result. To me that is profoundly undemocratic, indeed it verges on the dictatorial - ‘we will keep having the vote until it goes the way we want’. Not a good advertisement for our supposed intelligentsia. Various devolved administrations should stop banging the opportunist drum about breaking up the union. Grow up, by creating more uncertainty at this point you are actively harming the people you represent.
But most of all we need leadership. Now. Not after party processes that are months away. We need the confidence that there is a plan, and we are getting on with it right now.
This businessman didn’t vote to leave, but we are where we are, and I believe we do have an opportunity to prove once again what a world beating place the UK is. Now that it is done I will do absolutely everything I can to make the new reality a huge success. Yes, it’s a big change, but it’s also a real chance to come together and demonstrate that our characteristic attributes of decency, tolerance, entrepreneurial spirit and hard work are just as effective, possibly more so, outside the EU than in it."
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