I don't mean to be the partypoop, but I actually like the way this pans out. The original vote wasn't so much about being part of the EU, but whether being part of the EU makes a single nation stronger to protect its self-identity in a group relative to globalisation and the worldstage. Because that was the promise. In retrospect it primarily became a large monster with too much regulation and the quick addition of too many weak links so that the original promise never held. The EU simply became itself that "global" outside force that crushes the self-identity of nations.
And this just becomes very clear now. And the longer they drag this out, the more evident it is. The EU should have moved to England immediately and help them solve the problems and, if neccesary, accommodate the brexit, thereby showing the strength of cooperation. See what they do instead?
I frankly believe that for several nations currently the EU is not beneficial at all, and the more chaos ensues, the better. Not beneficial to individuals, but in end, better for everyone, because the EU in its current form isn't beneficial to individuals either.
That's a very generous assessment, Oscar, but I think a mistaken one. It was about hatred of foreigners i.e. non-native anglophones (having said which, anti-Americanism is also strong in some quarters), but mostly a fear of waves of migrants, mostly of the Moslem persuasion, and that harks back to the deeds done in the immediate post-war years when 1947 saw the Independence of India and the killings, riots and train hold-up massacres of people fleeing to the new, twin-country of Pakistan. Some got lost and went to London and Luton. Combined with the West Indies boatloads disembarking and moving to London, the country saw the birth of what led to the "Rivers of blood" speech that today seems less than fantasy. Where America reaps the price of slavery, the UK the price of empire. As a kid newly back in the UK during the 50s, I never heard of drugs in the local reality; the only ones I knew about were to be found in American detective books. Today, all kids know all there is to know on the topic. Rule the dreadlocks.
In essence, the British migrant problem is not a new one from Europe, but a much older version. How ironic to watch some of those very new Britons condemn the possibility of others moving to Britain today...
Yes, the situation has meant that member states lose some autonomy, but so you do the moment you join any club that has rules, and without rules, the situation remains, literally, lawless, which is not good.
Some Brits get excited over basic things such as identity cards, seeing them as some threat of 1984. I carry one everyday, and it has been priceless on each of the occasions when I have lost consciousness and the medics arrive to help me. As vital my medical card that instantly grants me (so far!) access to a hospital bed. My driving licence, too, is always carried and one faces a fine for not having it if stopped for some reason. Last I knew, in the UK you had only to turn up at a cop shop somewhere within three days to show it.... who is sloppy now, who has the mañana syndrome?
My first Vogue shoot took me to Amsterdam; I was amazed to find that everybody I met spoke almost perfect American. It was an eye-opener to the insular nation we, the Brits, were. Yes, we travelled the world in our wooden sailing ships, but we remained as closed as it is possible to be. Those fluent in other languages are pretty rare. We studied French in school, but the only French that we ended up being able to understand came from the lips of fellow Brits. Confront us with a real French person and we had no bloody idea what was being said. Reading was something different, and why I was able to enjoy French PHOTO.
A big part of the problem is that migrants of all colours represent, at the very least, alternatives to blame for things that go wrong. They get accused of stealing jobs... do folks think that foreign workers are only to found in low-paid manual labour? Many of those people are very highly educated and find work because companies and governments need them to fill voids.
One could write all night about this topic, but in the end, logic has little to do with emotion, fear and basic ignorance and when that is cynically exploited by politicians pandering to said fears, sense loses the argument. That is not to say that I don't understand the emotions that arise with every new temple or mosque that gets built in "our" notionally Christian country; the French understand that even better.
