14. A Word from the 48%

This was not a unanimous decision by a long shot.

Already the vote has been analysed, divided up into groups most and least likely to vote Leave and Remain.  There’s an idea that the older population has screwed over younger voters, who were far more likely to vote Remain.  We’ve all seen the statistics from the YouGov poll graphic that’s been flying around – but I’d like to point out that I don’t feel the divide like this.

Personally, I feel a total disconnect from the country right now.  That’s not to say I hate anybody or their choice, or I feel that you don’t have the right to your opinion.  Far from it.  I just think we’re separated from one another on a far more fundamental level than our age, or our educational background, or any other factor that’s been cited so far.

We are ideologically different.  We see this country from two completely opposite perspectives – to an extent that it currently feels irreconcilable.  I feel alone not just because we’re unpinning ourselves from the EU, but because a slim majority of the electorate I am part of doesn’t share my view that in our current time of crisis, nothing is more important than unity.

Now, full disclosure, and I’m sure I don’t speak for many Remain voters here – but I have never really considered myself a patriot in the traditional sense.  I would not support this country through any decision it makes or any path it walks; I do not support it now.  I don’t think the UK is the greatest country in the world because I don’t believe there is one – and I’m not comfortable casually saying that there is for the sake of encouraging some kind of synthetic national pride.

That’s not to say I don’t like this country.  I do.  When at its best, I think the UK is creative, academic, funny, strange and wonderful – a hotbed for ideas both sensible and sensational.  But so are many other places, and the UK is far from its best right now.  I think, like many other people outside of the United Kingdom, that this is a country that fuels its inflated sense of importance with the ghost of our Victorian-era power.  Our economy is internationally significant in that it is large; pre-Brexit, we were the fifth largest economy in the world.  However, to mistake that for individual power would be – and has been – a monumental mistake.

The stock market and Sterling crashes overnight may be based on panic, but they do show that the world’s instinct is that an error has been made.  It does not presently have confidence in the UK as a single unit.  And why should it?

With its vast Empire-era power, the United Kingdom destabilised many countries for short-term financial gain – and let’s reiterate that our economic strength and development came from the ransacking of these countries.  By modern standards, this would be unquestionably unethical.  Our gain from this was not just economic or political, either; people from across the Empire fought alongside us in both wars.

Let’s talk more about war.  Terrified of Hitler after the devastation of the First World War – then the Great War, as we hoped it would never be replicated – the UK cowered until it could cower no longer, and then only won the Second World War with help from other large powers around the world.  Even then, it was weeks away from losing the war, brought to its knees financially and emotionally by six years of conflict.

After the Second World War, the country’s economic position was dire.  American money saved the UK, but its position and its dignity were shattered; in fact, the last repayment on these huge loans was only made in 2006.  Let’s not forget that the UK also received by far the biggest amount in Marshall Aid – cumulatively, 3,297 million dollars.  To put that into perspective, the next largest recipient (France) received 2,296 million.

There is no shame in taking aid when it’s needed, but my point is that the UK did need it.  By modern standards, the United Kingdom has never been, and will never be, independently successful.  Especially now, when it can – thank goodness – no longer rely on sticking other countries up for resources, ideas and monopolised trade, it has no means to establish itself as a world power.  In order to maintain the standard of economic growth the country wants, that is what it would need to do to replace the international heft of the European Union.

I am not convinced by the ‘Make Britain Great Again’ rhetoric, and nor is the rest of the world.  Because of that, I now feel like an outsider looking in on my own country – but that’s based on far more than just this view of the UK’s potential on its own.

It just feels intrinsically selfish.  Both the Leave and Remain camps were arguing solely on the basis of what’s best for the UK, and I can understand that – but equally, I care about what’s going on in the rest of the world too.  Surely, that’s more important?  After all, it’s no joke or exaggeration to say that we are on the precipice of dark, dark times.  Terrorism, fear, displacement, aggression and xenophobia are rife.  We created the European Union after the uncharted horrors of World War II, determined to stand together in future – come what may.

That war wasn’t all that long ago.  People who lived through it are still alive.  It may seem that peace in Europe is a given now, but it would be a mistake for us to make an assumption like that.  The consequences are too much.

The UK has just made a very loud and public statement that it does not stand with the EU – that it thinks it can stand on its own.  More’s the point – it wants to.  The anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the scaremongering about Syrian refugees, add fuel to the fire which Daesh uses to radicalise young people.  They don’t care about you.  They hate us.  We have to do this for ourselves.  It also leaves countries struggling in the Eurozone out to dry, where people’s standard of living is so much worse than a crowded NHS waiting room or a classroom in which there are children who speak a number of different languages.  It lets other countries know that it’s okay to pull out of the EU’s human rights and employment protection policies and set your own.

Whether you believe the Tories will replace those policies or not is moot.  The message that sends to other countries is frightening and irresponsible.  If we’re allowed the responsibility of deciding what human rights are to us, why shouldn’t they?  And in a world where in places, women are still jailed for being raped, people are killed for espousing their religious views or lack thereof and it’s legal to execute someone for being gay, this is a dangerous precedent to set.

The truth is that we do not always need to govern ourselves.  Seriously.  It’s okay.  Some things are more important than that.  It’s okay to hand over control to a council of people who are trying to orchestrate better circumstances for everyone – not just themselves.  That might occasionally result in a loss for the UK, but for goodness’ sake.  Can’t the UK see how lucky it is?  It was, after all, one of the top contributors to the EU for a reason.  It could afford to be.

Sometimes other people’s betterment is more important than our own.  In my view, international diplomacy, security, communication, cooperation and compromise are all worth more than total control.

I believe that Brexit will have catastrophic economic consequences, and I believe many or all of the promises made by Leave will never come to fruition.  However, that’s not what this is about, and I won’t elaborate on that.  That’s not the reason I’m hurting and disappointed.  If the country suffers, then it suffers; there is nothing we can do about it now.

I’m disappointed because this was a decision made on the wrong terms, and – it seems – for the wrong reasons.  I’m disappointed for the sake of unity and solidarity.  And as our exit approaches, I can only hope our inflated national pride does not take the rest of the EU down with it.

Es lebe Europa.  Je suis désolé. Tack så mycket.  Adios y buena suerte.