While the rest of the world thinks the British Parliamentary debates over Brexit are the best television in a long time for entertainment value purposes, the British don’t find this so much of a laughing matter.
We are in turmoil, individually and all together.
The 2016 United Kingdom European Union Membership Referendum propaganda did a fantastic job of successfully dividing the nation that otherwise could not be easily divided by religion and ethnicity alone.
We are now split into Brexiteers and Remainers. The basic formula for starting a civil war has worked in modern day Britain. People were made to feel their homes were under attack by refugees and that they were enslaved by the European Union.
Questions about the economy were put on the back burner. Any economic hardship is worth the price for our sovereignty and freedom. We did it in World War II; we can do it again!
The British spirit … unbreakable. Anyone thinking differently is a traitor to their country. Consequently, people speaking languages other than English are receiving verbal and/or physical abuse on the streets. Even white British people speaking dialects not native to the region they live in are told to go home!
If words were bullets, there would be many, many massive graves in England today as a direct result of the Brexit vote.
Fortunately for Britain – the great country that gave us William Shakespeare, the Beatles, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Tim Berners-Lee – weapon ownership is illegal. So shooting the migrants seen crossing The English Channel is restrained to verbal expressions of desire on social-media networks.
What do we want?
So what do we, the British people, want?
On both sides of the Brexit argument, people want the government to:
- improve the economy
- guard the borders
- invest in education
- put bobbies on the beat
- improve public transport
- help the more vulnerable members of the society, the pensioners, the war veterans, the rising number of homeless
- provide adequate health services
The National Health Service is seen as religion by many. We all want to see 350 million pounds per week invested into the NHS, but the British people do NOT want to see the NHS privatised. Which now looks to be the likely outcome linked to us leaving the EU and setting up our new trade agreement with the United States.
Food bank usage shouldn’t be on the rise; police officers shouldn’t be physically attacked. Nobody – British or foreign born – should leave their rubbish on the ground behind them after enjoying a picnic on the beach!
The majority of us does not want to see fox hunting legalised again.
We definitely do not want to see the tunnel bricked up nor the United Kingdom split up!
Many families have been broken over the vote; many good friendships are no longer. It is a very confusing time. We are at war with ourselves. People are angry, frustrated. Some of our MEP’s are unashamedly emulating Nazi behaviour minutes after labelling the EU the great oppressor. It’s fighting talk. It’s embarrassing.
Brexit is already causing pain
As businesses continue to close, cut resources, and relocate their headquarters to mainland Europe – entirely unrelated to Brexit negotiations, Brexiteers tell us – more people are going hungry, literally.
In my old neighbourhood, the Salvation Army is providing free lunches to local children during the summer holidays. This is for children who qualify for free school lunches during term time, their only meal of the day in the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Right-wing newspapers and tabloids such as The Telegraph, The Sun and The Daily Mail tell us the panacea to our problems is to leave the EU, for it’s all the EU’s fault.
Not just the migrants taking our jobs and making us poor but suddenly all else anyone can imagine ever being unhappy about their life, such as bananas, for example. We apparently never wanted to sell straight bananas in our market stalls … EU regulations forced us. Also, the bananas that we do sell; well, we certainly do not want to measure them in kilograms. We are English and we should use British Imperial measurements.
It felt like the peace in Ireland got less media attention than the bananas.
Will leaving the EU solve any of our problems? Having learnt metrics at school, will Generation Y and Generation Z share the enthusiasm for learning the “true” British system of measurement as used by their forefathers? Has the world not changed since WWII? Have people forgotten that war?
Yes, “we” won but not alone and a lot of people didn’t individually. A lot of people died and a lot of people lost their loved ones to ensure we live in peace today. It’s what happens in the war.
It’s bloody hard to live through a war, literally. I know. It’s part of my motivation for sharing my own previous, life story of escaping from a war in Europe, in the early 1990’s.
(Editor’s note: See Pt. 1 of “How the rise of nationalism ruined my happy childhood and made me a refugee in Europe” here, and Part 2 here.)
The world used to look up to us British for leadership, not just for Monty Python distribution licenses.
Words indeed are like bullets – life changing. The last laugh is always on us.
About the author:
Lilly Rosier is business analyst, fine-arts lover, baker, wife and a mother who lives near Eindhoven, Netherlands
She’s passionate about travelling and always discovering new, great tasting vegetarian or vegan food.
Lilly’s secret to a happy life: “Spending time with a cat.”
See more of Lilly’s posts here.
