Angry and stupid
The winning combination. Unless you’re 18-24, comparatively well off, and educated.
It seems a bit pointless to say something about the referendum, but why not?
The country seems to have shot itself in the foot – with a howitzer. My prediction was for us to remain in Europe, but not by much of a margin, but it was clear, even from the early results, that the Leave campaign had won the match.
I also predicted that some people would simply see this as a protest vote, deciding that if David Cameron said one thing, they should do the other. Mind you, when I found myself aligned with him or that ghastly squit, George Osborne, I almost felt compelled to switch sides.
The problem is that by using this as a protest, people really have blasted both feet off because they’re not going to wake up some day soon and find their lives have improved because Brussels is no longer allegedly interfering in their lives, or because the Tories give any more of a damn than they did in the first place.
This is what, I think, will happen if the Scots vote for independence. There won’t be some great Scottish renaissance the day after, but as the Scots voted to remain in the EU and because their decision was contrary to the rest of the UK, the referendum may lead to a successful independence vote at some stage (although I assume the process will be a tortuous one).
What might happen in Scotland also suggests a solution for England which has been suggested on more than one occasion – regional assemblies. Let, say, the north have a high degree of autonomy (everything barring defence and foreign affairs) since it seems that what comes out of London is so inimical to the interests of people in that part of the country.
There was never a need for the referendum in the first place. If Cameron hadn’t been trying to placate the Tory Eurosceptics and see off those nuisances, UKIP, the angry idiots wouldn’t have put us in the position we now find ourselves. Now that Cameron’s gone, leaving it to his successor to clean up the mess, it can only be hoped that that his heir won’t be Boris Johnson (with Michael Gove in attendance). (04.07.16. As it’s turned out, Johnson decided not to run, but Gove did; though Theresa May is probably going to get the job [22.07.17. which she did].)
There will be obvious damage to the country, and non-obvious damage. There will be issues that few people (if any) anticipated. How many of the Leavers are going to find that they detrimentally affected their lives? How many will eventually wish they’d voted to remain?
Call me a sceptic, but this probably won’t led to a bright new dawn, either; but it might make people think the sky is bluer, the leaves are greener, and the daffodils are a bit more yellow.
Any talk of rejoining Europe would appear to be political suicide for either the Conservatives or Labour given the level of opposition to the EU, but that doesn’t mean that country won’t be a formal part of Europe again. But now that Britain is out, will some of the rest of the Continent follow suit? Perhaps there may be no Europe to go back to.
I will make this observation, though. In the wake of World War II, the Treaty of Rome and its consequences may have been seen as the way of preventing another devastating European conflict, and although there was the civil war in the Balkans (really more to do with the Ottoman Empire than Europe itself), the Continent hasn’t seen armed conflict in 70 years. While the countries of Europe may work in concert, the idea of a United States of Europe seems to be dated, based on the very different world of 1945. An economic market was fine, but the Euro was a contrived step too far.
What next? We’ll have to wait and see.
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