This is not a political blog but I can’t let the year pass without posting at least one piece about Brexit.
This is a topic that has been discussed and debated to death but still nobody seems clear what the actual consequences will be.
My perspective is as an ex-pat living in Italy who, like many others living abroad, found the result of the vote for the UK to exit the EU both shocking and bewildering.
All of my friends in England voted to remain but one from Northern Ireland close the leave path. This was, for me, an unfathomable decision because she had always struck me as rational woman whose radical left-wing views seemed entirely at odds with self-righteous rightists in the leave camp. What follows is adapted from a reply to a letter she wrote explaining her choice.
Firstly, I’d like to say that I didn’t think I was being so blunt about your decision to vote remain in the referendum. Perhaps my shock/surprise came over stronger than I intended but I didn’t set out to offend and I apologize if this is the way it came over. I certainly didn’t want to suggest you were blindly following leaders. I’ve known you long enough to know, and admire, your free-spirited independence.
I think fear of mass immigration was made into a big issue (playing upon inherent racism) but I recognize that this was not the only factor and was clearly was not what swung the vote in your case.
I agree with you that frustration and powerlessness led to people flexing the limited political muscle they had. This is the nature of most referendums and you now see it happening in general elections too.
People are no longer dependent solely on state propaganda or the mainstream media for information. The distrust towards the so-called experts and out of touch politicians is now at a feverish level and anyone with an internet connection now has a voice. However, even in this climate, lies written on buses and cynical poster campaigns still contribute to influencing public opinion.
The biggest problems I have with some of your arguments is that many of your examples of misuses of power, widespread corruption and lies, conspicuous waste and rampant inequality are inherent in all national governments not just the European Union.
I bow to your deeper knowledge of matters relating specifically to Ireland and I can see how the EU’s bullying and double standards fueled your anger over these issues.
Aside from this, a lot of the examples you give of tyranny and/or corruption or just plain incompetence can’t be blamed entirely on the EU. Tony Blair’s ill-conceived education and training policies are one example and the National Health Service is another. I can’t for the life of me see how or why the UK’s poor record on training will magically improve with increased independence.
All aboard! Brexit lies on the bus
Successive governments have slowly yet systematically dismantled and undermined the UK’s hospital and medical services over the years. When this inevitably leads to the kind of mismanagement and reduced standards it is all too easy to justify privatizing off many of the key services. You say “The NHS doesn’t need more money” but, while cash alone is not a cure-all, there definitely needs to be a regeneration of this valuable institution’s core values which have to be financed in a more responsible and professional manner.
On this issue (public transport and the post office are others) the future was in the UK’s hands before any talk of Brexit and will remain so if and when the country and the rest of Europe have gone their separate ways.
On the question of employment, I recently read about the difficulties of employers finding enough fruit pickers in Kent. Up until now, these workers have mostly come from Eastern Europe. When Britain eventually leaves the EU this labour supply will be halted or severely reduced. Who will do jobs like this?
British people don’t want this kind of work and the same is true of lowly positions in fast food outlets or coffee chains. You might say that Brits would be attracted to these jobs if the wages were better but what evidence is there that governments or businesses are willing or able to make this happen.
Recently the Tories have shown their true colours by dragging their collective heals over the question of raising the minimum wage and improving working conditions. Even if Labour got in at the next election (a ‘miracle’ that might just happen) they would have their work cut out to turn its bold manifesto promises into reality.
The concept of cheap labour and exploitation in general is one the main ways in which Capitalism remains the dominant political ideology. Hegemony ensures that voters are still indoctrinated to believe that this is the way of the world and that no viable alternative exists.
In the USA, Trump duped gullible votes by promising to bring back jobs for his fellow Americans. Strip away the ‘fake news’ that he himself generates and it is plain to see that his true interests lie with his fat cat friends and golfing buddies.
The Kinnock family are not in the same league as the Trumps but you are right to be angry about their immoral wheeler-dealing. Surely, though, they represent just the tip of a huge iceberg of corruption and nepotism, scurrilous scandals that are all too common here in Italy.
But, above all, this kind of behavior is NOT caused by the EU nor is there any reason to think will it improve after Brexit. “The EU is increasingly biased to the right”, you say, but where in the world is this not true?
The wasteful subsidies towards farmers and the way in which the unscrupulous and the greedy exploit these is part of a whole bigger issue regarding the food industry in general. The unsustainability of current production levels and land use, which the pay-outs are seeking to contain, are, to my mind, part of wider issues relating to people’s diets.
It has been clear for years that reducing meat consumption will have huge benefits to people and the planet. The sticking point, just as it is on the issue of global warming, is that people’s lifestyles are so fixed that it’s hard to see what it will take to convince people to change. The fickleness and irrationality of human nature are, of course, at the root of most of the ills you itemize.
The notion that the “UK will start growing all the things it has always grown and go some way to feeding its own population without importing tonnes of the stuff from Europe” is, and here I will be blunt, laughable.
Quite apart from the question of the country’s relatively small size and unpredictable climate, what kind of meals do you imagine people would switch to? Supermarkets with UK only products would certainly be smaller! This exaggerated reliance on self-sufficiency reminded me of an old sketch by Rowan Atkinson when he played the part of a smarmy politician and said: “A lot of immigrants are Indians and Pakistanis, for instance ,and I like curry but now that we’ve got the recipes… is there really any need for them to stay?”
Nobody in their right mind could convincingly argue that the EU was perfect but the principles upon which was set up, however idealistic or unworkable they may be in practice, are fundamentally sound.
Just as trade unions can protect exploited workers, there is also a strength that comes from working together rather than in isolation. There is power in a union but some form of compromise is inevitable. Even when the EU is not working as you might wish it to, it is better to focus on changing the system from within rather than opting out completely. More often than not there are many who feel hard done by whenever a decision is made. This doesn’t mean you have to scrap the whole decision-making process.
Most, if not all, the world’s most serious ills – terrorism, pollution, racism, sexism, injustice, inequality etc. etc. – cannot be contained within national boundaries; real or imagined. The geography of the UK means that it doesn’t need to build a wall but even though post-Brexit Britain will, in theory, be freer to manage its own affairs this won’t make these global woes magically disappear.
Working with other countries and, indeed, living with people from other cultures is challenging, complicated and often unpopular but it is still necessary in the fucked up world we live in.
Britain have never exactly been passive or slow in declaring its independence, over the Euro for instance. Now with all the daunting (and costly) legalistic and logistical manoeuvres that are necessary before the leaving becomes a reality we have a recipe for prolonged (and costly) turmoil and profound uncertainty. This disarray is exacerbated by the motley bunch of politicians who are stumbling into negotiations without any discernible plan. Cherry picking the best bits of the EU won’t cut it with other nations, nor should it.
