aice wrote:
Jimbox01 wrote:
Never mind Scotland, what about the rest of us!
I think the UK should be split up on a town by town and city by city basis, so that everyone gets what they want.
e.g. Derby could have a big fence around it, with a single entry point and armed guards keeping foreigners out, and if people from Derby want to go shopping in Nottingham, they have to get a visa first and then pay import duty on what ever they buy.
Also, now the Brexit campaigners have sorted out the foreigners, they can move on to other pressing issues such as anyone who hasn't got the right colour skin. Then maybe Muslims (or anyone who might be a Muslim), then perhaps gays, and finally focus on people with the wrong sort of attitude, strange sounding names, or any other characteristic that's not 100% British.
Ouch! Personally, I think the British are generally a very tolerant nation. I genuinely don’t believe that the majority of people who voted Brexit are inherently racist or xenophobic. And that’s been my personal experience of Brexiters too (I voted Remain). Agreed, the out ticket was often sold on a distasteful menu of negativity towards immigration, but I sincerely believe that the British as a whole do not have a problem with immigrants or immigration
per se. It’s
uncontrolled immigration that’s the problem. We are a small, overcrowded island with limited resources. Excessive EU migration will place extra burdens on our already stretched schools, hospitals & housing stock etc. Perhaps it’s these legitimate concerns regarding pressurised resources, rather than any pure, unadulterated hate for foreigners, that compelled many to vote out. And it’s worth remembering that Brexit did not
only campaign about immigration. Perhaps their other arguments concerning EU bureaucracy, sovereignty or whatever, proved equally as influential for many. I was just reading an interesting article on why support for Brexit was so strong in certain areas. It highlighted Sunderland where 61% voted leave-despite being the recipients of generous EU grants and funding. The response of those interviewed in the article told a different story. It had nothing to do with racism or xenophobia but rather a feeling of disillusionment and near disenfranchisement. Those leave voters who were interviewed in the piece complained that the nation’s power, money & prestige were too concentrated in wealthy London. They felt unable to share in that prosperity and simply felt ignored by the Government and Westminster elite. Voting leave was their way of protesting against this. One interviewee described the referendum as an opportunity to “poke the eye” of Mr. Cameron! Well it certainly has achieved that!

Let’s not fall into the trap of labeling the British or indeed Brexiters a bunch of nasty bigots for voting out. We can all appreciate a wider, more complex picture out there.
Unfortunately the actions of the few (probably more than just a few) reflect on the majority, which is why the rest of the world will view Britain as a bunch of bigoted, xenophobic racists - and hooligans.
The fact is migration (it goes both ways) has benefitted the economy, lowest unemployment in years and highest number of job vacancies since the year 2000, but benefits to the economy have not translated into a benefit for [all] the people. Nothing has been done to mitigate the social problems caused by the increase in immigration, there's been no investment in infrastructure in years, and there has been nothing meaningful done to help ensure migrants successfully integrate into society. Most immigrants are from outside the UK, so we could have taken steps to control overall net migration, but we chose not to because it might harm the economy - we can't even remove the 500k to 1M illegal immigrants.
People are blaming Europe for our own failings, and leaving the EU is not going to solve our problems, it's just going to make things worse - and nastier.
Anyway, Britain never really bought into the EU/Common Market in the first place.
With the exception of free trade, successive governments have fought against just about every EU reform; open borders, free movements of people, single currency, labour reforms, etc., etc., and, judging by the turnout at European elections, the people have completely ignored it (nothing to do with us), until now. The only sectors that have engaged fully with the EU are British exporters, foreign (non-EU) companies, higher education, and anything to do with R&D - because they get huge grants.
We failed Europe just as much as Europe failed us, and our governments (Labour and Conservative) failed the people.
There is a lot of anti-British feeling among Europe's political elite, and the press (at least from what I've seen in France) are stoking this up, but I think most ordinary people just feel generally sad about it and sorry for us. My wife was in the supermarket yesterday in Dinan (Brittany), and she got talking to the lady on the checkout (I think it was because she used a UK credit card), and the whole queue, including an American woman, all joined in to say how sorry they were and they hoped we could sort things out.
All the Expats I've spoken to in France are shocked, angry, and just generally devastated (the ones who have been here long enough are planning to apply for citizenship), and the Polish lady who runs our village shop simply can't believe it. Overnight we went from being part of something that, despite its' failing, had the best interests of the people at heart and was trying to improve society, to being a bunch of incompetent, dithering outsiders intent on wrecking everything - I'm embarrassed to be British now.