It’s been a week since the European Referendum here in the
UK and in my household we are still getting over the shock of the decision to
leave. (Brexit) The reactions have been
shocking particularly the rise in racially motivated incidents and the backlash
on social media.
I’m not usually one for standing up and speaking out but
some of the things being said (and done) have made me angry enough to do just
that. Especially when people keep saying
it will be alright when we don’t actually know that. We don’t know how bad it may get before it
starts to get better.
We were complaining before the vote about being fed up with
all the news coverage of it, most of which was either misleading or certainly
not helpful. The lack of information
available did not make it easy to decide which way to vote.
In some ways that is understandable when this is an
unprecedented situation. No country has
left the EU so of course there will be a lot of unknowns. Personally I voted In. I don’t regret that decision. I thought we would be better being part of a
solution to problems rather than causing them.
It’s been a long week and although the stock exchange and
currency have settled a bit after the horrendous falls immediately following
the result, it seems that we still don’t have answers to the questions people
were asking before the vote and now there are more questions:
Who will be the new leader of the Conservative Party?
Will that person continue as an unelected Prime Minister and
begin negotiations with the EU or will they call a General Election?
When will Article 50 be triggered?
Who will continue to lead the Labour Party? Jeremy Corbyn is hanging on by the thinnest
of threads.
Will Scotland move to have another Independence Referendum
in a bid to remain in the EU?
Will there be real attempts to unify Ireland and what impact
will that have?
How long will it take for Immigrants to feel safe and wanted
in this country following some of the awful incidents this week?
How long before ignorant racists realise that many of the
people they’ve abused are probably British citizens and have as much right to
be in this country as they do and that if we did boot all the non-British
people out our public services would probably collapse? (And how long before the knowledge sinks in
that if we do negotiate a decent post Brexit trade deal with Europe it will
probably come with strings attached like free movement?!)
BIG questions.
We probably will be ok in the long term. As in years.
Not days or months but years. We may not remain a united kingdom and I
don’t think anyone will consider us great but of course our British spirit will
see us through.
I accept that this is democracy in action and although I may
not like the decision I have to accept it and look forward. We can’t change the present by looking back
although we can learn from our mistakes and hopefully make the future better.
However, like it or not, we are part of a global
community. Big issues like global
warming, the continued threat of ISIS, migration issues etc will not be solved
by cutting ourselves off from the outside world. These issues need to be tackled globally. We need to be part of discussions and
negotiations involving these issues.
We also need to accept that, despite the colour or our skins, the languages we speak, our beliefs and all the other things that make us individuals, we are all human, and if we don’t work together we could destroy this planet and the human race.
