The referendum result has been devastating for the ‘Remain’ supporters. The ‘Leave’ supporters have not realised the dire consequences both short and long term of quitting the European Union. It is retrograde step.
What contributed to the defeat of ‘Remain’ was the acrimonious in-fighting between the Tory heavyweights throwing killer blows at each other and hogging all the media attention. They were backed by right wing newspapers and tabloids who were peddling misinformation and playing on the fears of the people by highlighting the imminent danger of mass migration into Britain. Brexit very cleverly played the emotive immigration card, their trump card, in diverting the attention of people from the important economic, social, environment, security and culturally issues.
It will take at least 5 to 6 years to complete the divorce proceeding with the E.U. This will be at a heavy cost to the economy and stature of U.K. for quite some time. The stock markets have fallen worldwide, pound is at its lowest, this has sent shockwaves globally. No doubt the future is uncertain and worrying.
The ultimate sufferers will be the working class and ordinary hard working people who will bear the burden if higher cost of living, lower wages, increase in taxes and higher mortgages. I hope Brexit will be able to fund the NHS by £35 million from weekly saving accruing from the E.U. They had made a firm promised to do so during their campaign. I very much doubt they will be able to do so. They have not seen the books so far. They have been strong on rhetoric but will they be able to deliver as promoted. I don’t think so.
Exit by the UK has removed one of the main pillars of European Union, thereby making it weaker and unstable. This also gives impetus to Scotexit. By exiting from E.U. the seeds for the break-up of United Kingdom have been sown. It will be difficult to stop the domino effect in Europe and United Kingdom. Nigel Farage (Ukip) says it is ‘Independence Day’ for Britain or is it ‘Isolation Day’. Britain has been independent for more than 300 years, what independence Day is he talking about? Did E.U. colonised UK.?
The young generation have lost big time, they will not be able of live, study, or work in Europe as they did before the break-up. The older generation in U.K. were not inclined towards Europe from the beginning and they got what they wanted at the expense of the younger generation.
Multinationals, finance companies, manufacturing industry, service industry, banks will have to restructure to fit in with the new situation. British pensioners, workers, ordinary people, young people and the British people settled/retired in Europeans will be the losers.
Baldev Sharma
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