It’s been a seismic few days in politics as the UK narrowly votes to leave the European Union. The campaign, bereft of facts or positivity, has been divisive, breaking families and friendships. I was on the losing side, having voted to remain in the EU. My young voting kids also voted remain. Indeed, one of the most telling statistics arising from the vote is that, overwhelmingly, young people voted to remain and, as age categories aged, the vote switched to the leave camp.
I’m watching our political elites implode as a consequence of the vote. Our Prime Minister has effectively gone and the leader of the opposition is facing calls to go due to his lacklustre campaign (I can only agree with the poor campaign from Labour). Already the ‘Brexit’ leaders have demonstrated a lack of vision and leadership; there is no plan now that we have voted to leave. The Brexit lies on the economics were blown apart early in the campaign, but were held onto despite this, only to be accepted as vague aspirations on victory was predictable but galling nevertheless. Obvious lies swallowed by many gullible. Immigration was the touchstone for many Brexit voters, that is clear. Ugly truths given voice.
I am trying to ignore, what I hope is a minority of leave voters, who are now voicing ‘Bregret’, as they hadn’t thought their protest vote would carry the country into financial tail spin. The surge in Google searches for ‘what is the EU?’ after the vote took place leaves me sad and bruised at the ignorance of many of my fellow countrymen. Perhaps most difficult to witness is the xenophobia given legitimacy by this vote. Not everyone who voted Brexit is a racist, but all racists will have voted to exit. I know some good people who voted to exit for other reasons, and I must respect their decision; it’s hard though.
On the journey to the vote and in the fallout I’ve found out more about the political views of my social and gaming circle. Sometimes I’ve found out things that I’d rather not, and for others confirmed views that I already knew. Facebook isn’t a great place for a debate, as I think we can all agree. It remains a place for me to post pictures of fun stuff and other life events and to find out what some of my chums are up to, perhaps with the occasional challenge. Yes, I’ve unfollowed quite a few over the past few weeks and this morning I uninstalled the Facebook app from my phone. The place has become toxic, so for now I’ll leave it to times that I choose and not need to face it on the commute and at work.
I don’t know where we will end up, but I’m not convinced it will be very good. Personally, it means that I will need to extend the number of years that I must work, my chance of an early retirement is probably gone, but hey, there are worse things.
These musings are from just one voter, they say something about me. There is more I could say, but this will do. I just wanted to place this down as a marker as I look on at the ensuing chaos.