Opinion of a British citizen
I believed to know quite a bit about Brexit, thanks to the news and the internet. However, I noticed that there are many things I am missing.Things that only take place in Great Britain and only matter to the British citizens. So I asked a British woman, living in England, about Brexit:
1.How is Brexit promoted in your city? Are there posters, stickers, meetings? Have both camps done enough?
I have noticed people putting up posters in their windows. The Brexiters are also going in for flags. I’m not aware of any meetings that have taken place locally. There has been a lot of criticism within the Labour Party that they haven’t done enough to support the Remain campaign. I think there is a suspicion that Jeremy Corbyn actually has rather ambiguous feelings towards Europe even though, officially, the Party is behind the campaign. I also wonder if the Labour Party isn’t engaging as fully as they might do because Europe is traditionally a divisive subject for the Conservative Party. It almost seems like Labour is sitting back to watch the Tories pull each other apart.
Of course, there has been a hiatus in campaigning because of the tragic murder of Jo Cox who was a Labour MP. It seems, at the moment, that a far-right sympathising Brexiter was responsible for killing her. It is being reported that the murderer may have had a history of mental illness. Even so, it seem indicative of the extreme reactions that the Europe question can provoke in this country.
2.Do you believe that a Brexit will settle UK-EU relations once and for all?
I very much doubt it. I think that if vote Remain wins there will be pressure for another referendum at some point down the line. If Leave wins I think it very likely that the economic reality will force whoever is in Westminster to rethink whether being outside of Europe is viable.
I also think whatever the referendum result neither side will be willing to put down and arms and conceded defeat for long because of the force of feeling.
3.According to the latest poll in the Financial Times, the number of British wanting to leave the EU is higher. Why do so many British want out of the EU? https://ig.ft.com/sites/brexit-polling/
Search me! I wonder sometimes if it is something to do with an island mentality. We feel that we are apart physically from “Continental Europe” and our imperial past coupled with our perceived role in the Second World War seems to engender a sense of entitlement, which is particularly expressed in the right-wing press. The press also tout a lot of rubbish about the restrictions imposed upon Britain by Europe. Lots of stuff about the curve of bananas and the size of cucumbers, which if you actually look at the details is a load of rot. Not that it stops Boris Johnson from repeating it!
4.What is your opinion about the Brexit boat battle between Nigel Farage and Bob Geldof on the River Thames?
Well, it was all a bit of a farce, wasn’t it? Farage was trying to recreate some sort of Dunkirk flotilla — harking back to all the “plucky little England” imagery of the Second World War. To be honest, if I had had a megaphone, I might have been tempted to shout him down too!
5.What effect would Brexit have for Britain?
Well, it really is hard to say which is probably one of the scary things about it. I think that Britain would struggle economically. It seems that the Brexiters have the expectation that the “Special Relationship” with America will come to their rescue. This is undoubtedly misguided. Britain will be less useful to the US if it rejects Europe because it won’t have the influence that staying in the club would have. The Brexiters are also pointing towards Canada and Norway as examples of how things might work from Britain post-Brexit. Canada has negotiated its own trade agreements with the EU and the Brexiters feel they could do the same. This overlooks the amount of time that it would take to negotiate such an arrangement and that Britain would also have to made new arrangements with all the countries that the EU currently has arrangements with. While those negotiations were taking place there is no doubt that Britain would be losing money that it can ill-afford to lose. Norway decided not to join the EU fully but has made concessions in return for trading rights, such as joining Schengen. As the Norwegian Prime Minister herself has pointed out, this would mean that the EU would have more control over Britain and Britain would have no say in how the EU is actually run. Surely, that is totally contrary to what the Brexiters are campaigning for and really in nobody’s interests.
6.And last question: Are you in or out of the EU?
I think it’s probably pretty obvious from the answers above! Je suis européen!
