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.
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.
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.
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| The Four Nations of the UK: England, Wales, Northern Ireland & Scotland |
A Brief History
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
