Friday, 24 June 2016

Britain votes to leave the EU

The people of the UK have cast their votes. As I expected both Barnet and London have come out strongly in favour of remaining in the EU. Sadly the rest of England feels rather different. We are now in a crisis. The Prime Minister has resigned. It is truly sickening to see the crocodile tears from those #Brexit Tories who have spent the last 6 months calling him a liar. For what? Cameron said #Brexit would cause massive uncertainty and this would damage the UK economy. This has already happened with the £ and the FTSE crashing. We are guaranteed a lengthy period of uncertainty whilst the Tories tear themselves apart picking a new leader. Is this what Leave voted for or wanted.

The Leave Campaign labelled warnings of such things as "Project fear". As the prices in Supermarkets rise as imports cost more, I wonder how many people will start to regret their decision. Many people said to me "my head says remain, my heart says leave".  In my experience, when I let my heart rule my head, it usually ends up costing me money and heartache.

No one knows where this ride will take us. As someone who loves the UK and loves London, all I can hope is I am totally wrong and all of the experts are wrong. We will see if those who called to leave and dismissed all arguments against are like drunken braggarts who put their heads in crocodiles mouths.

The truth however is that we are a democracy and in a democracy sometimes you get a result you don't like. The only decent thing to do is to accept the vote and work your socks off to make sure that the damage done is as little as possible.   I'm not angry with ordinary Leave voters, taken in by the lies, but I am furious with the Murdoch press and the Leaders of the Leave campaign for duping them. And I am especially sickened by the 25% of people who couldn't be bothered to vote.


1 comment:

Broadway Blogger said...

Excellent comments from the Barnet Eye. I feel that we are stronger in Europe than out of it because in my experience being part of something bigger always allows you to achieve more of your aims. I fear for the UK with Scotland now certain to leave and possibly Northern Ireland as well. It could well take 10 years before we actually cease to be members of the EU so for the near future it will not make much difference. Markets will calm down and people will adjust to the situation. Retailers wont pass on the higher prices immediately but will gradually increase then over time so we wont even notice that until much further down the road. It does show how divided the UK has become under successive Governments - both New Labour and the Tories in the 90s have created a two part society with a rich educated elite in London and the South East - and then a lower educated service class or even underclass who read the Sun etc. remaining in the Counties of England and Wales. These people have suffered from immigration by skilled and unskilled European workers and have voted to leave. I understand that - but this is not the EU's fault it is successive Governments who have not invested in places like Herefordshire - Lincolnshire etc. where they are now ghost towns with huge problems. In London and Barnet we have a great place to live and work. I am sure it will stay that way - but I fear the reasons for discontent in the Countryside will remain and this vote wont change much for them.