Dismay, Disappointment and No Direction? - Brexit

The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in the referendum of the 23rd, June, 2016

The 23rd of June, 2016, witnessed the long promised EU referendum - the grand review of British-European relations which many in the country, and particularly England, have desired since the UK's entry into the ever evolving coalition of states in 1973. It was in the early hours of the following morning that Britain, Europe and the world awoke to the shocking and pained realization of a reality in which the Brexit campaign had succeeded in its attempt to engineer a leave vote: the ultimate result of the night being 51% to leave to the remain campaign's 48% to stay. The gravity of the event having not yet matured over the people and polity, the consequences of this historic decision are already in motion and will inform events, near and far, for many, many years to come. Given the impact of the referendum and its consequences, the discussion - amid the upheaval and discord - has turned to what had so moved an ostensibly mature and measured electorate as the UK to press for such a grand, but foolhardy, leap into the unknown. 

The Four Nations of the UK:
England, Wales,
Northern Ireland & Scotland

More so, the acrimony of which has colored this sharply tempered debate isn't without justification: the consequences playing out at a pace and drama which has left many leave leave supporters bewildered and apprehensive about their ill measured decision just a handful of days before. In these days - the first hours of Britain's emerging, torn relationship with Europe - it remains for those who anticipated this to reflect, and I will take this particular opportunity to muse on the long road to this dismal end - and what, if anything, may emerge from the remains of a once vibrant 43 year long relationship, now in ashes.

A Brief History

The history of euroscpeticism in the UK - principally England - finds its roots far removed from the Europe and wider world of today, but the motivating factors and cultural draw of this tradition - perhaps, indeed, institution - have long endured. It could be given that the 16th century found a popular voice for the entanglement of ethnic identity, religion and nationalism in an England intent on defining itself on the world stage, and heedless of the cost to its neighbors who it intended to either rival or supplant in eminence. Of course, this being said for many of the great nations of Europe at the time, it remained that the English experience would be particularly prickly - and succeeding centuries of reversals, suspicion, resentment and acrimony would do little to warm the now English led United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to their European peers. In fact, of a particularly apt note, a very famous immigrant in Catherine of Aragon - Henry VIII first wife - was a keenly educated woman and was one to describe - in trenchant detail - what she understood of England's self image: a canny insight written in 1516, though which is seemingly all too descriptive of the excesses, fears and problems seen so recently now, some five centuries later.Triumphant forays against ostensibly malign threats to British sovereignty - the defeat of Jacobitism and of Napoleon - would only compound this particular tradition, and the violence and wild remaking of the world in the 20th century would entangle this thread of British culture with other concerns over the post-war settlement and industrial decline too.

The entry of the UK into the rapidly evolving socio-economic bloc of the EU (formerly the EEC) would would serve to seed much of the country's future with often bitter debates over the true extent of Brussels' (capital of the EU) control over British affairs; and following the paradigm shift after 9/11, infused this with an increasingly ethnic nationalism as the role and influence of other cultures was scrutinized - often with a bold and sometimes reckless zeal by populist media and politicians. The financial crisis and subsequent global recession following 2008 and the consequential pressure on national budgets manifested the latent potential of decades past: the increasingly neo-liberal degradation of the state and its welfare organs - including the cultural and economic consensus which upheld them - worked to produce a fall in living standards, pressure on stretched public services and compound popular disillusionment with the political status quo. Come the crisis in the Middle East following the rise of Isis,  the ruinous Syrian civil war and the nascent refugee crisis as so many fled to Europe sparked a reactionary concern which found the British - again, principally English - polity wanting of an effective solution, congruent with both international and other obligations.

Into this toxic, unstable mix we find the British Conservative Party of 2015 - emerging from a period of coalition with their junior partners, the Liberal Democrats, and intent on winning a decisive majority to vindicate their agenda of economic austerity. Fearing the rise of anti-establishment parties, as embodied in the reactionary UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and the upset they could work to bring, David Cameron promised the powerful, though scattered euroscpetic branch of his party that a Conservative government would afford an in/out referendum.

Though UKIP failed to make a parliamentary breakthrough that year, the pledge was realized when the government prepared to host the historic vote in the summer of 2016.Though prepared for a win with the arguments to remain in the EU - measured, sensible and just - the leave campaign afforded one of the greatest - and disastrous - results in modern political history: the consequences beyond the immediate far from promising and very much unknown as Britain's place in the world faces dire questions.

An Answer, but not a Real Question?

The outcome of the referendum now beginning to unfold at a prolific pace, it would be that the result of this process has been - at least to more reasonable and temperate voters - been framed by the cluttered, but provocative and increasingly intemperate narratives of the right wing: the particular constellation that assembled to achieve this being a mix of the neo-conservative, ethnic nationalist and social reactionary, compounded by radical populism. The economic argument sound, it remained for the brexit campaign to focus upon a favorite bugbear of the right in immigration - the issue tempered by populist and often wild narratives which sought to direct working class resentment, better suited for the failure of successive Conservative and Labour governments, towards the subject of Britain's migrant communities - and those considered to be more ethnically removed from the whole than is popularly acceptable. 

A popular strength of right wingers for years, the advent of the refugee crisis and of fears regarding national security afforded this argument a popular edge, and it soon transformed the referendum - ideally a critique on the transparency and accountability of the EU - into a specious, often odious and even deadly platform for ethnic nationalists, reactionaries and even those with fascist sympathies. And no incidents more so than the terrible assassination of Labour MP Jo Cox: shot and stabbed before dying hospital - her murderer one Thomas Mair, an unassuming local man revealed to have Neo-Nazi and white nationalist connections before the incident; the same man proclaiming "Death to Traitors" at his first court hearing.

Jo Cox MP - Assassinated by Thomas Mair on 16th June, 2016

Even in the shock and cooling of rhetoric that followed, the ethno-centric and populist narrative continued; the incident seeming to work the edge off the leave campaign up until the referendum on the 23rd. After an initial boost to remain, the night gradually went to leave: working and middle class regions of England voting to leave while only London and a few scattered, cosmopolitan bastions remained. But, outwith the cultural and ethnic economy of England and Wales, it seemed that the more northern nations of Northern Ireland and Scotland described a vastly different ambition in their voting habits. N. Ireland voted 18 to 7 to remain, while Scotland - the entire country - voted to remain. The ultimate result come the weary and resigned morning that followed found about a million votes in difference between the respective camps, but a jagged victory for leave. The results of this were immediate in their controversy and the effect remains to wholly unfold: the value of the pound plummeted to a 30 year low (last seen in 1985), economic uncertainty pulverized markets world wide and immediate ambiguity over the next step in the abysmal process of tearing Britain from the wider fabric of the EU brought the resignation of PM Cameron; Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition leader of Labour, also faces calls to resign.

Example of an Anti-Polish pamphlet posted in
 Polish migrant communities 

More so - and in a stinging reverse for the compelling, ebullient reputation for English culture - the incidence of racially aggravated and outright motivated crimes has increased sharply after the brexit vote: Poles, Muslims and other groups of ethnic description having been subject to remarkably overt abuse and discrimination. In the case of ordinary citizens, to medical professionals, media officials and others discriminated against, brexit seems to have spurred a rampant new consensus among those suspicious and outright hostile to other groups as the vote's outcome seems to have vindicated their reservations openly, and without regret. In all, as of the 30th, the Metropolitan Police have witnessed a 57% increase in the number of post-brexit related incidents involving ethnic groups of one description or another; a disturbing and remarkable trend which punctuates the emerging dimension of a post-EU Britain, and the cultural discourse which informs it.

A State of Disrepair?

The singular consequences of brexit manifesting to the affront and pain of so many - to to mention the future depredations promised and the social legacy engendered by this act of self-mutilating jingoism. The unfolding story of brexit as unsavory as the campaign for it, the myriad of new challenges and trials facing the UK - still marred by failed austerity and neo-liberal consensus - finds many actively puzzling over the future of a country so seemingly divided upon itself: the cleavage of ethnic nationalism, disparity, inequality, representation, social justice, economic pressures and the increasingly removed, populist English narrative in British public life. The economics of the situation baring out the fears of experts, some of those supportive of brexit have been known to express doubts, regrets and reservations - citing a lack of understanding or appreciation for what the referendum was. In this sense, much can be said, though this is a painfully singular measure of systemic issues made one. 

The long standing issue of English ethnocentrism, and more so, the casual conceits such a sub-culture engenders, has been fed by an education system sorely lacking -in fact failing - to impress successive generations - of their European identity, and their place in the European experience because of and not despite the European Union. More so, it remains that a legacy of a country ravaged by neo-liberal political and socio-economics is often dire and painful, in the very least. The erosion of the welfare state, insensate and disingenuous discussions over the role of government and the influence of the much disparaged "Brussels" in British life has reinforced the populist - and ethnic - narrative of blaming the interference of foreigners, while private interests, corporate entities and other bodies increasingly bastardize the public sector and other vital organs of the state. Indeed, the neo-liberal consensus - compounded latterly by the conservatism of Cameron's governments - have instilled an increasingly reactionary, angry response from many working and lower middle class communities while what remains of the British Labour and Liberal Democratic parties has been loathe to address, explore or actively champion much of what constituted left wing politics: universalism being one of the greatest - perhaps the paramount - victim of this caustic paradigm in British politics. 

The advent of the war on terror after 9/11, the successive wars in the middle east and the ongoing Syrian civil war in which hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere have flocked to Europe was the final, major catalyst for the outrageous, dismal and dangerous situation that has overtaken the UK as populist, reactionary and right wing interests rallied in the singular pursuit of what they perceived to be a unique opportunity. The consequences - more broadly - afterwards may not have been intended in manner, but the tone of the what is evolving, even now, has brought to bare so much of what has troubled England for centuries - and so little of what was once promising about that culture.

England & Wales vote to Leave,
 but N. Ireland & Scotland vote to Remain

More so, the constitutional dimension - for indeed, there is one - suggests a far more fractious and disordered future for the UK than governments of the past could have dreamed. Whereas much of England and Wales did vote to leave, the majority of Northern Ireland and all of Scotland voted to remain: incidents which promoted debates over democratic deficits and potential solutions to the seeming inequity of both nations being pulled from the European Union against the mandate of their respective peoples. The case of N. Ireland finding calls for a referendum on Irish unity as the economic and social issues posed by brexit amount to serious challenges to a post-good Friday society in the country; the question of border crossing a sensitive one as though the Republic of Ireland remains a EU member, it may be required to harden its border with the north - adversely effecting trade, travel and the social situation of the respective Protestant and Catholic communities there. 

In Scotland, the issue is one not without a certain irony. The original Independence referendum of 2014 defeated over doubts concerning the economy - especially links to the EU - have effectively defeated themselves; as have those who once championed them. The ruling SNP's statement that another referendum would not be considered without a drastic change in material circumstance has been indubitably met and the nation's whole hearted support of EU membership - the entire country voting to remain with no exceptions - poses questions about Scottish sovereignty, and that future prosperity may very well lie with that nation becoming an independent country to remain within the EU. In these respects, we find that - far from preserving and harnessing British sovereignty - brexit may very well have been a historically unique and ironically effective catalyst for serious debates over a future where the UK is far from united.

In these hectic days after the historic vote so much has been said, so much done and yet so little thought between them. The declining financial situation and the forbidding prognosis regarding Britain's economic prospect not seeming to - as yet - deflate many brexit supporters, the troubling social situation has been one of alarm and astonishment while British politics lurches.The Conservative Party spotted by a not unusual usurpation from within as a leadership race begins, with Boris Johnson - whose ambition was a prime element of brexit's internal politics - emerges as favorite to succeed Cameron. As regards Labour, the party's shocking and mortifying disconnect from political reality continues as MP's resign from the shadow cabinet in hopes of unseating the left wing leader Jeremy Corbyn: their actions a sad testament to their bastardized politics and an imperious desire to emulate the social and philosophical values of the supposed adversaries in the Conservative Party. As the situation is not yet wholly played out - quite literally a new story or page turned everyday - it remains where and in what sorry, sad state brexit will leave Britain in - and that is before what remains of the country tries to fashion some future beyond the climes of Europe, and with no direction to speak of beforehand either.

Clark Caledon.

Dignity and Tragedy: A Call to Remain in the EU

To Stay or To Leave: The UK European Union Referendum on 23rd June, 2016

Hello there,

Writing today, being the first blog of 2016, it's my intention to give voice to an important occasion which is looming in the British political calendar: that being the European Union referendum, in which the UK will decide to continue or terminate its 43 year membership of the group. This a pressing and significant subject to speak on, recent events have given it a tragic and more so pressing power with the circumstances that unfolded in West Yorkshire. In all, with events gaining a remarkable momentum, I think it necessary to openly consider this subject - and hopefully clarify a few positions which will become pressing for Britain's future, as well.

Helen Joanne "Jo" Cox, MP and Remain Campaigner - Assassinated in her constituency on 16th June, 2016

A Brief History...

The beginnings of this sad, pathetic and dangerous chapter in British political and social life is myriad and disparate, though perhaps the best reading of its significance can be found in two factors which have become pressing over the last ten years. The first has to do with the somewhat strained and sometimes difficult relationship the British - and principally English - institutions have had with more centralized European counterparts for some decades. More so, this has impressed and colored a good deal of debate within Britain's political mainstream, and particularly so in the ruling Conservative Party: long drawn between eurosceptic and pro-euro factions and whose battle has occasionally spiraled out of control, into the public arena. Of course, many other British parties have had similar schisms too, though it has remained that recent events - principally since the financial crisis and economic disaster which prevailed after - that this narrative has become more prominent as many populist, reactionary figures turned to apportion blame, and particularly upon the growing number of migrants or foreign elements arriving in the country - their number distending in the face of successive international crises, regional turmoil and instability elsewhere in the world.

In the face of this, the formerly peripheral, reactionary UKIP (UK Independence Party) was bolstered and the election of 2015 was colored by promises and acquiescence towards those crowded around a hardened, eurosceptic right in hopes of winning a Conservative majority in parliament. Though UKIP failed to make a substantive breakthrough, Prime Minister Cameron was held to toughened negotiations with the EU and the intention of carrying off an in/out referendum on UK membership. This was made good in 2016 and both campaigns - christened "Brexit" (British Exit) and "Bremain" (Britain remaining within the EU) - undertook their task.

The Present...

Initially met with lethargy, the respective campaigns have become increasingly jagged and vibrant in their actions - Brexit more so on the subject of immigration and of cultural or ethnic presences within the UK, and principally England where the issue has become popularly contended. Of course, this may be considered orthodox for political campaigns, though it will remain that the reactionary and right wing elements have deployed intemperate or questionable means of impressing their message on the electorate. Without the space to more fully elaborate, it would be safe to say that such arguments have presented much in the way of adversarial politics: a zero-sum game of everything or nothing. Ironically an accusation that has been leveled at the Remain camp, though it has been that much of what's proffered with the former is a vague - suggestive - promise of "Taking our country back!", "Restoring Sovereignty!" and other associated expressions of jingoism which have found little purchase with other authorities. Be they economic, social or political - who have a more holistic eye for the picture unfolding - the overall conclusion indicates a perilous future for those entertaining a departure from the EU. Of course, a taste of such latter opinions can be found in such as "The Daily Express", "The Daily Mail" and "The Telegraph".

In this particular air over the last few months, the debate has proceeded; opinion polls rocking each camp back and forth, while the Brexit group indulges whims of a post-EU UK - visions crowned with glory and promise, though who's principal qualification is built about insecurity, political ambition and jingoism. It's in this context that a particular Labour Party member - the Member of Parliament (MP) for a region of West Yorkshire, Jo Cox was departing a local function when she was attacked by one Thomas Mair - shot three times and stabbed too as chaos unfolded around. The assailant eventually arrested, Mrs. Cox was rushed to hospital but died some hours later of her injuries. Subsequent investigations indicated that Thomas - until then an unassuming member of his community - has entertained reactionary white nationalist, Neo-Nazi and anti-multicultural sympathies in the past; the same man reputed to have screamed "Britain First!" as he attacked taken to be a slogan, though links with a far right group of that very name have been considered as well.

A Small Rally(?) of Uniformed BF Members for Propaganda Material

In light of Jo's assassination, the respective campaigns have been suspended until the following Monday (20th June) and just a few days before the historic vote on the 23rd. The story spreading across the world, reaction to the brutal killing has been - mostly - one of spontaneous grief and condolence, though it remains that reactionary elements persist in asserting this as a conspiracy by anti-nationalists to undermine the momentum of Brexit in the last days of the campaign. A curious, if poisonous, belief as presently understood.

The Future?

Boris Johnson: The Man who would be King?

Given the remarkable and astonishing events of the last few weeks - and particularly the preceding three days - it remains to take stock of what has so colored this narrative and what conclusions might be reached on the fateful day when - for better and powerfully worse - Britain will decide to remain in the EU or draw away towards an uncertain future. In my own case, as it may be, I will propose a measured, but optimistic, vote to remain. I appreciate the the institution of the European Union is not perfect - and does suffer from a considerable democratic deficit - though it remains that a concerted and compelling effort by members will work to reform the EU into a more social union for the express benefit of its principal constituents. The converse of this argument I haven't found impelling in the least - a conclusion compounded by the tangled and frightening array of interests who find a disconnect with Europe as the principal voice for their ambitions. For instance, Boris Johnson - former Mayor London and potential PM in waiting - may consider this an ideal platform to advance his faction's ambitions: and more, his own of ultimately usurping his rivals Cameron and Osborne in the Conservative Party. An event which could ultimately see a change of government, but not seemingly subject to democratic account or transparency.

More so, his supporters - some of the most prominent of the eurosceptic and social conservative ranks - can be found indulging affectations of a post-Cameron government while their own ideological agendas have never been far removed from the surface. This especially the case as with Micheal Gove - an arch neo-con on both foreign and social affairs - and Ian Duncan Smith, one time leader of the Conservative Party who went on to become controversial Secretary for Work and Pensions, and a bludgeon for the Austerity agenda notorious for such things as the hated Bedroom Tax and strangling an already strained welfare system. It would remain for him to resign before the campaign got underway: a bizarre irony in which he proclaimed a protest against the welfare system he spearheaded, in support of those he exposed to so many depredations since the Tories (British Conservatives) came to power in 2010.

Clowns they may be, but very dangerous...

Lastly - but certainly never least in those seeking a hard right remaking of Britain - is, of course, Nigel Farage: a court jester when compared with his more stayed patrician peers and leader of the reactionary UKIP.

Nigel Farage, 2015: Close, but no Cigar

A figure delighting in controversy who capitalized upon the mainstream conservative's seeming weakness on Europe, his populist, deeply reactive and provincial brand seemed set on upsetting the 2015 election - an outcome seeing a frightening trend of UKIP coming second, but failing to make a definitive breakthrough in winning only one seat in Parliament. To this end, UKIP have remained a focal point for discontent with mainstream conservatism and euroscepticism, in favor of a more ethnically charged, unabashedly adversarial mode of social conservatism leveled against the disadvantaged, foreigners and other cultures - particularly Europeans. Though it has fallen to him to try and reform or refine the most coarse or outrageous elements of his party, it remains that UKIP has become - and seems set to remain - a bastion of provincial, ethnic and neoconservative influence in right wing, and wider British politics. Sadly, this same group menaces a Labour Party and movement which is as conflicted on issues of philosophical motivation as the Tories are on European identity, and which has further cast a creeping shadow over traditionally working class and progressive regions of Britain's polity.

In this context - a thoroughly polluted, exploited and ill informed discourse which has seen some of the worst, bloody impressions of ethnic nationalism to date - I would strongly advocate for a invested vote to remain in the European Union. Though the task is difficult, it remains that the fruit of a socially just, collective endeavor can and will prevail over the politics of reactionaries, corporate populists and patricians in a world increasingly marred by inequality. The inverse of this is an unknown quantity - unstable, unseemly and unbecoming of an advanced, ostensibly liberal society in the 21st century which has much to offer a progressive world, as part of a common culture of social justice and democracy across the societies of Europe.

It is with this, albeit tempered prescription, that I would very much advocate for a remain vote on the 23rd of June, in pursuit of a more just society and in opposition to reactionary, isolationist interests who would only see their fortunes buoyed otherwise.

Clark Caledon.