Let's talk Brexit - The beginning of the end
June 23rd is a date that will go down in British history. While people like Boris Johnson, Conservative member of Parliament in the UK and former London mayor, boldly state ‘The verdict of history will be that the British people got it right’, others reckon it’s the beginning of the end of the EU and possibly the UK.
Mere days after the inconceivable vote to leave, chaos has rippled through the entirety of the western world. Stock markets plummeted globally, the British pound fell to its lowest point in more than 30 years and David Cameron honourably tendered his resignation the next morning, leaving the job of handling the divorce proceedings with the EU vacant. Both right and left wing parties find themselves somewhat leaderless and a very angry Scotland is determined to get a second referendum (though they first need to gain independence from the UK just two years after a solid vote to remain in the UK).
Personally I didn’t think I would be writing about Brexit. I didn’t think I had to. The UK has enough intelligent voters’ right? I so wrongly thought. I was summiting mount Rinjani in Indonesia (If you have the chance it is definitely worth going) while the vote happened and expected to come down and see remain win by a landslide. I shook my head in disbelief when I saw the counter: 52% to 48% in favour of leave with an astonishing 72% turnout rate. The issue with majority votes is that it should really be called an informed majority vote, which I believe is not entirely the case with this referendum. Now I’m not saying that all people who voted leave are ignorant but I do feel that some were selfish and perhaps overly optimistic about hopping onto the leave bandwagon.
48% to 52% is a very surface empirical and upon closer analysis most voters over 45 (who generally have larger turnout rates) opted for Leave, as did the unemployed. Most voters under 35 chose Remain, as did those with jobs and higher education levels (Source: BBC; Lord Ashcroft). A trend is quite clearly visible with a correlation between age groups – as age increases, so do votes to leave. Across the UK, only about 19% of people between ages 18 – 24 supported Brexit. Among those of retirement age, who grew up before the EU was created, an unsurprisingly large 59% opted out (Source: YouGov polling agency).
So did we let the unemployed and elderly shape my generation’s future? Perhaps so, but as David Cameron rightly said, the will of the British people “must be respected”. It saddens me though to see how stuck up some of Britain is, proudly seeing themselves as some unshakable nation with no sense of belonging. It could be however that my generation is simply more interconnected (with social media to thank). Personally I spent most of my life overseas in an international school making assimilating with different races, nationalities and religions second nature. To me racial intolerance is a barrier towards development, progression and ultimately globalisation.
The crux of the EU referendum stemmed from a quiet anger that has been brewing in many with regards to immigration, liberalism and the excessive red tape that the EU keeps churning out. Many who voted leave were under the belief that Britain can and should take back control and leave the sluggish and outdated political union that is becoming increasingly irrelevant in today’s economy. Many who voted leave were also told they could have it all - access to the EU’s single market but with none of its obligations. They cannot. Personally, I feel that that this started because policy makers have not done enough to help the losers of globalisation.
Brexit has plunged the world into an economist’s worst nightmare – uncertainty. Well at least it made my summer holiday in the UK cheaper.