Anthy!!!!!anthriel wrote:Hi, all! *
That's definitely what I'm mourning. (Also, leaving the European Union is not the same thing as being anti-Europe. Although for some people that is undoubtedly the case. ) I see myself as English, British and European - I see myself as all those three things.Again, in my toe-in-the-cauldron kind of outsider-who-knows nothing way, I wondered this exact same thing. From what I have read, the EU may seem to many people as an important symbol of European unity, rather than a favorable political construct. The loss of perceived unity may be something people are mourning, aside from the change in trade alliances. Again, no dog in the hunt there, but I wondered.
My father did a lot of work for the Common Market back in the 1970s and 80s. I'm glad he didn't live to see this. That was his life's work. My mother was a child during WW2 and remembers the war very well, remembers the bombs dropping in the London suburb she lived in. I asked her what SHE thought about the vote. She said, wistfully: "Well. It seems a great shame to me, to be turning our backs on Europe like this. All the work that was done to bring us together."
I do not automatically regard everyone wanting to leave the EU as some sort of Little Englander. That would be quite wrong. But arguments for leaving the EU have to be made calmly and rationally and NOT in this ghastly "up yours" attitude to our European cousins. And there were no solid, substantive arguments from the Brexit side, just shallow, empty populism ('take back control' and 'take our country back', rah rah rah) with a very nasty streak of xenophobia which has emerged. Yuck.
And there is no Plan. Leaving the EU would be a complex business. Clearly this has not occurred to many Leave voters. Give me strength.
I am furious with the people who have so thoughtlessly plunged my country into such an outrageous mess. Furious with them for not taking enough heed of the deep divisions that have emerged.
Let me say this though: I live in Greater London and work in central London, and the atmosphere everywhere is calm and normal. The ordinary people are getting on with their lives, while our political elite implode and make fools of themselves.