Jun 26, 2016

Brexit, the musical

Now that this snazzy title has your attention, continue reading.

Disclaimer: I wanted to try and make this article as appealing to as many people as possible, so I have tried to not make things complicated and use humour. It doesn’t go into fully explaining everything as this is a big and complicated issue, so please forgive me if doesn’t address everything you think it should. It is long, so rather than abandon it half-way, please take a break if you need to.

I’ll admit, when I woke up on Friday June 24, 2016 I was angry. Mostly because my husband came in at 4:30 and said “You probably shouldn’t wake up today”. It was a little too late for that. However, now that this anger has burnt through my soul like heartburn after eating hot dogs, it’s time to take a deep breath. That’s why this post is called Brexit, the musical. We all need to take a deep breath together and just imagine a world where Brexit will be a distant past, with David Cameron pirouetting and doing jazz hands. Some day there’ll be a musical and we’ll all enjoy it. Even if it’s not for 150 years. Because even Nixon has an opera.

Now onto the real show.

When the UK woke up on Friday June 24, 2016, Remain supporters felt like this:

And Leave supporters felt like this:

But really we all should have felt like this

We should feel like this because we’ve all let each other down. Why did we let things get so bad internally that the only way to address our problems was to make a laughingstock of ourselves on an international level? People would rather pick a future of vast uncertainty than a certainty where they knew they would continue to be ignored. But somehow I can’t help but feel that with this referendum, we’ve let the upper class win, yet again. We let ourselves sneakily be divided. And I hope we will use this opportunity to learn our lesson. As the saying goes “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

I’m not going to speak too much on the massive age gap there is in voting Leave v Remain but it needs to be addressed. I did say to my friends before the referendum that anyone who voted in the first one 42 years ago should not be allowed to vote in this one and I still stand by my ageist statement.

And yes it’s hard to listen to baby boomers laugh about how certain much needed local projects were ‘funded with a European grant, but that’ll never happen again’, or how they are ‘so glad they’re not going to have to help fix this’. Because in reality, rather than the UK government stepping up, those much needed projects simply won’t happen. To some extent, it felt like Europe was the only ones looking out for the poorer parts of Britain.

Listening to these baby boomers requires a lot of teeth gritting and blinking back tears, especially when I think of how the older generation’s opinion of the younger generation is so low that they are willing to use their votes destabilize the lives of millions of young people. I could sit around and let myself be on the roller coaster of depression and denial, but then I wouldn’t be able to use that energy on something positive, which will be much needed in coming days.

Now this article is going to serve two purposes. The first is offering some insight to my friends in Canada. I noticed some people are posting smug memes and talk about how ‘disappointed’ in us they are. So I wanted to try and explain the situation for them. The second is making suggestions about what we can do going forwards.

While culturally similar, the UK has significantly different problems than Canada, which is why I don’t expect Canadians to fully understand, because it’s not their lives or nation.

Things Canadians need to understand about the Brexit situation:

The refugee problem is a lot more real here. They risk their lives to reach us by boat and that makes people uncomfortable
People can leave school at 16 and generally have less access to quality education
There is a class system that doesn’t seem to exist in Canada
The upper classes control a lot more than they do in Canada
People cling to a faded history of nationalism because it’s all they have
During this campaign have been lied to on a much grander scale than I have ever seen in Canada
Canada has immigration on a much smaller scale and a points based system that allows you to control who enters
The UK is a lot more London-centric than Canada is Ottawa-centric

So while you may have been to London on your holidays and ‘loved’ it, you really don’t know what it’s like to live in the UK (especially given that you’ve never seen the rest of the UK). Before I moved here, I thought the UK would be tea parties, Sherlock Holmes and stately manor homes all the time. When I arrived, our student housing was located in a neighbourhood where betting shops, off licences (alcohol stores), pubs and shabby charity shops were all that lined the streets. I see poverty and disparity every day and it’s hard not to be still shocked by it, even after five years of living here.

Yes it is easy to paint us as an nation of ‘uneducated racists’ but I ask that you don’t. These are real people with real life concerns that shouldn’t be ignored or dismissed. British people, for the most part, are like people from any other nation. They are hardworking, generally friendly and have their prejudices. We all do. Brits are only human and because they are human, politics is not at the top of their list of things to take up their time because it can be time consuming, confusing and boring. In fact, I’ve compiled a list of things on average British people do care about:

Going to the pub
Football
Pies
Getting a proper brew
Coronation Street/East Enders, Geordie Shore or Game of Thrones
The price of Freddos
Whether or not to have a cheeky Nandos
The weather

I don’t blame people for being interested in these things. You work hard to earn your wages and at the end of a long day’s work, your brain is ready for a well deserved break. And the people in power know that and take advantage of that. We live in a time where there are thousands of things competing for your attention every day. Politicians know this, and instead of treating you like an intelligent person, they play on your fears. This is where we come to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

At the bottom of the pyramid are humans’ physiological (need for food, water and air) and their safety needs (a secure home, job, and health). And if those needs aren’t being met they people can’t focus on things at the top (love, self esteem, confidence, respect for others). From what I can see there are currently a lot of people in the UK that struggle to have either of those needs met. These are the working poor, the ones who struggle pay cheque to pay cheque. Even people who have an education and a relatively comfortable life find themselves in situations where they may struggle to meet these needs.

I have had two periods of unemployment in the five years I’ve been working here due to redundancy (or being laid off as they would say in Canada) and another one where a contract had run out (contracts are popular options in this economy because they make it easy to get rid of people). I’m lucky that my husband and I were able to live off of his wages and our savings until I found a job. Not everyone is that lucky.

Every time I hear of a plant or factory closing, I cringe. Because those people have dedicated their lives to those jobs and now they have nothing. And it’s not fair. I get that life is not fair, but I can only imagine the amount of shame these people feel at having to go on benefits to support their families when they were once gainfully employed. This is why people feel like they have no voice and no one is looking out for them. It doesn’t make them bad people to feel bitter and disillusioned by the government, especially when the government paints the EU as the problem. There have been lots of factories and employment brought to the economically depressed parts of the UK, but the Leave campaign never mentions that.

Immigration here is incredibly complicated and it is unfair to cast people that want to see immigration reforms as racists or bigots. If it’s racist to have a points based system, then I guess the Canadian system is racist too. I’m currently one of the immigrants that is disadvantaged by the EU system, so I’ll do my best to explain my situation as clearly as possible.

As an immigrant myself, I’ll admit, the immigration system doesn’t feel very fair for people in my situation. The spouse or partner of an EU citizen does not have to pay any fees to enter the country on an EEA family permit (https://www.gov.uk/family-permit/overview). I have to pay to renew my visa every two and a half years and pay an NHS (National Health Service) surcharge, despite having studied here as an exchange student, being married to a UK citizen and having worked here for 5 years and paid taxes. People on an EEA family permit also have access to benefits after a certain amount of time living here, while I will not be eligible for benefits for another until I have lived here for 7 years. This is despite having worked, paid taxes and been married to a UK citizen.

I once read a story about an American woman who was living in Spain with her Spanish boyfriend (common law) and was sick of Spain so they decided to move to the UK. Easier visa application than mine and no fees. And yet she had the gaul to complain about how it’s so difficult for Americans to stay in Europe. I felt like I was going to have a meltdown. My husband and I would have loved to have not paid thousands of pounds in fees and have an easier application process.

And if for some reason both me and my husband lost our job and we failed to meet the minimum income standards, instead of being given access to benefits like we would if we were here on an EEA family permit, there is a very real chance that I would not have my visa renewed and would face a deportation order, even though we’re married. And if you think that’s just something the Daily Mail has made up, here is a story by the BBC from 2014 about spousal deportation. The families of UK residents are being torn apart, while EU families are offered support.

But I realize that this is the UK government’s choice to make these laws. They’e not the fault of any individual EU national and their family who are here on an EEA family permit. The UK government chooses to make the fees as high as they are and the minimum income standards as high as they do because it is the only thing they have control of immigration wise. It’s fair enough. I try not to think about it too often because I can’t change it. And because it’s not always all about me. The government treats legal immigrants as a cash cow and leaving the EU means that now EU immigrants will potentially be treated as a cash cow as well. Nothing will change for me in terms of immigration. It just means all immigrants will be treated equally as cash cows (potentially).

Nigel Farage said in an interview that now that the UK is leaving the EU, there will be a chance to reconnect with the Commonwealth. Sorry if I roll my eyes at this but a) the Commonwealth shouldn’t exist in the first place and has no real significance in the modern world (my opinion) and b) the Commonwealth is full of countries with immigrants that they are trying to stop anyways.

People seem to conveniently forget that the Commonwealth is India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, the list goes on. When I speak to people about my immigration experience, a common reaction is ‘You’d think they’d make it easier for Commonwealth citizens’. Well if they did that, then it would need to be equally easy for ALL Commonwealth citizens. A lot of people seem to forget that the Commonwealth is not just Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I’m kind of sick of people using the term ‘Commonwealth’ as a blanket for white immigrantion.

A lot of British people don’t even seem to regard me as an immigrant, which is also kind of part of the problem. Someone asked me, ‘Why do you consider yourself an immigrant?’ and I said ‘Because every time I turn around, the government reminds me that I am one.’ But I choose to identify as an immigrant rather than pretend to something that I’m not — a British citizen.

Calling other people ‘scum’, ‘uneducated’, ‘racist’, at this point in time is not helpful. Because I see the people you are talking about every day and their struggles are real. Part of the reason we are in this pickle is because of smugness on both sides. The Remain side, being propped up by younger intellectuals smugly thinking ‘no one would be so stupid as to vote Leave’ and older more working class people thinking ‘finally, we’ll show them’. Really both sides have been conned and now it is time for us to put name calling aside and work together.

I don’t ask that people suddenly become political experts or follow your MP on the campaign, but we ask that you try. You don’t need to have gone to university to care about politics and try.

Now that we realize we’ve been lied to, let’s unite against the people that are the real problem. The UKIP symbol is a pound sign £. And Farage is not intending those £ going to you either. People were promised a lot of things by people who have no actual power. Let’s not let that happen again.

This whole situation has happened because instead of talking about the elephant in the room, we let the elephant fart and we all have to deal with the smell. Next time, let’s all be bigger people and push the elephant out together. Let’s never let our problems get so big and out of control that we have to drop rock bottom in order to work together.

As one guy I spoke to said, ‘The people never should have been allowed to vote on this in the first place. This is why we vote for MPs who act in our best interest.’ So let’s engage more with our Members of Parliament. Let’s demand more action, transparency and accountability.

And remember, your vote matters! It always has. Why do you think the rest of us try to get you to come out and vote in the general elections? There have been loads of people coming out on the news saying ‘I didn’t think my vote mattered’ and they are becoming the butt of jokes, memes and malice. It’s not logic that caused this disillusion but actual real emotions because they probably have never seen that their vote mattered before. Someone else I spoke to said ‘This is the first time in my life my vote has counted for the same as David Cameron’s.’ And it’s true. Britain largely functions on the majority working hard for the wealthy minority.

This country has a history of being run by privately educated people, who largely don’t get what the ‘common’ people need. I don’t know how I can try and put this into perspective more other than by comparing the tuition cost of Eton with the national average wage to explain this disparity. The average UK salary in 2016 was £27,600. The tuition fees for a year at Eton is £37,062. So this is why class structure is incredibly dangerous. I struggle to see how David Cameron and Boris Johnson, who were educated at Eton, would be able to understand how an ‘average’ family lives because their parents were able to spend more on their school tuition than an ‘average family’ earns all year.

So no Leave voters, I don’t blame you. I just think you wanted your voice heard and that voting leave was the only way to show it. You were frustrated and still are as there are no clear solutions to any of the problems in your life. The average person isn’t full of radical xenophobia and hatred. Some are, but not most. And for the younger generation — we have to realize how it feels for the older generation. Imagine working hard your whole life, only to turn around and see a Britain you don’t recognize. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just scary and people react that way. And extremism exists on both the left and the right, we must remember that.

Now is the time for clear minds, strong leadership, accepting consequences and taking responsibility. It’s only going to be the end of our world if we let it be. Let’s use this as a learning experience. And we need to respect the very real possibility that Scotland and Northern Ireland might want to separate from us. We need to be okay with that. The UK isn’t the empire it once was and we need to be okay with that too. It doesn’t make you weak but if you keep mooning over a past that is no longer a reality, it makes you look like the sad quarterback that keeps going trying to hang onto his high school glory years. Don’t do that. Look boldly into the future and try and make it the best we can for all of us instead of throwing a paddy (temper tantrum) because you’re not in control anymore (you haven’t been for awhile).

Here’s what I think we can all learn from this/work on to move forward

We (the younger generation) should learn from this and try to create a more civically active and engaged society (across the board)
Keep building ties with Europe and the rest of the world (as individuals and campaigning our government to do the same)
We need to examine the possibility of reforming our electoral model (aka the way we are represented)
Let’s listen to each other from now on
Let’s educate people on their level — democracy is not a right of the university educated
Accept that the face of Britain and the world is changing and see that as a positive rather than a negative
Try and keep the blame to a minimum because we are all responsible, regardless of how we voted

Let’s not let lies come between us again. Let’s do something. Let’s do something now.