‘Brexit’ is near a reality, and the consequences will be deliberated on for time to come. And for Biznews community member Pieter de Lange, who has been living in the United Kingdom since 1999, the ‘Leave’ victory is even bigger than people let on. He compares the four years he spent in the late 70s to now, and highlights some clear differences. The main factor is ‘immigration’ and de Lange looks back to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘moment of madness’ embracing Syrian refugees, which saw a backlash in other EU countries. But he says leaving won’t solve Britain’s migrant issue. At Biznews, we receive some fascinating insight from the community, and this is yet another example. – Stuart Lowman
From Biznews community member Pieter de Lange
Over the last few weeks I became convinced that we might very well go on to vote to leave the European Union. In this part of Kent there was a palpable leave sentiment, maybe because this is where the main influx of migrants take place. The ‘little Englanders’ as David Cameron superciliously called them, are about to turn Europe upside down. There has been this unfortunate habit of the ‘remain’ campaigners to talk down to the great unwashed who do not want to stay in Club Europa. In spite of all the powerful economic arguments and warnings by national and international financial experts and institutions against Brexit, the rank and file have firmly rejected the status quo and voted for self determination. We will now probably end up with higher prices in shops, an increase in inflation, reduced house prices and the pound has already gone down to levels not seen since 1985.
The Radio Four quoted a survey in Sweden that indicated that the majority of Swedes will want to leave the EU if the Brits go that way. So a leave vote is likely to have a massive influence on the future of the EU, and on the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland as well.
There is bound to be renewed clamour for Scottish secession, as the ‘remain’ vote carried the day north of the border. How they will survive with the low oil price is another matter. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will have to be re-instated again, even Gibraltar might very well become a hot potato again.
Why have the usually very sensible British people make this drastic choice? The overwhelming reason is that they fear their way of life is under serious threat from mass migration. Core values will always trump financial expediency. Jonathan Haidt, a prominent social and cultural psychologist came to the conclusion that “Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second” There will be a lot of futile hot air about racism and so on, but this already a multiracial society and the leavers want to get more immigrants from the Commonwealth, that consists mostly of developing world countries, so that accusation does not really apply.
UK vote to leave historic challenge for Merkel's leadership of #EuropeanUnion. Can she/Germany renew and reshape EU in wake of #Brexit?
— Nicholas Burns (@RNicholasBurns) June 24, 2016
I spent 4 years working in London in the seventies and eighties and I can clearly remember how the Northern Ireland conflict and the battles between Margaret Thatcher and the trade unions always led the grim news category and just seemed to go on forever. Violent clashes between Turks and Greeks in Cyprus and later the Falklands War dominated the news at different periods. South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and the accompanying racial conflicts were also regular items at the time. The buses and underground trains were manned by West Indians, who had to endure a lot of discrimination in the beginning, but were gradually integrated without posing any cultural threats as they spoke the same language, more or less and they derive from a Christian background.
In 1968 Enoch Powell with his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech created quite a stir, and that still reverberated in the seventies and might still prove to be prophetic. The biggest cultural issue in 1976 was the Sikhs who were allowed to ride bikes with their turbans and without a helmet. From 1989 they could also work on building sites without the otherwise compulsory hard hat. This was quite an extraordinary u-turn for a society where health and safety is paramount.
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But since we arrived in 1999, there was a different slant to the news, it had shifted to the imams preaching hate and violence in mosques and prisons, honour killings, female genital mutilation, and later the grooming of and sexual exploitation of young girls on a massive scale in Rotherham and elsewhere, mostly by men of Pakistani origin, rising anti-semitism and even breast ironing of young African girls. These were serious cultural threats that could not be ignored, for example in 2012 even the Queen felt compelled to remark on the fact that the notorious Abu Hamsa was allowed to carry on with his radical sermons in the Finsbury Park mosque, and this led to inevitable political consequences as the growth of UKIP has demonstrated.
However leaving the EU is not going to solve the migrant issue on its own as just as many migrants came from elsewhere and the biggest cultural threat to woman’s rights for example does not come from the Eastern European nations anyway. The UK governments migration policy on border controls is clearly in trouble even without the EU. David Frum the chairman of the US think tank Policy Exchange emphasizes that “Borders are as necessary to a free society as laws; they are the first law that makes a country a country.”
Migration should mainly be mainly a managerial challenge in a mature developed economy. You should be able to import the skills and experience that your particular situation requires and then have scope to accommodate real refugees as well. Now that we are leaving there is still the need for willing and able hands in the building trade and in the fruit industry. Jobs that the unemployed Brits do not seem to want to do.
Scottish independence now certain – 62% voted to Remain inside European Union. Brexit vote will trigger another election Scots to leave UK.
— Alec Hogg (@alechogg) June 24, 2016
Australia’s system of awarding points has featured quite a lot in the EU debates. The UK have a long way to go before it will reach that point. The EU’s inherent flaws of trying to enforce a common monetary policy on such diverse economies as Greece and Finland and secondly of chasing the chimera of free movement of people in the Union when it cannot even secure the outer borders of Europe have drastically diminished its credibility.
Is there another economic block in the world were the borders between the member countries have been eliminated?
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No single country can offer refuge to all the economic migrants from the poor countries. Angela Merkel made a brave but rash decision without even bothering to inform the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) or Germany’s neighbours, before doing so, and subsequently triggered a wild influx of migrants that mirrored a scene from the Old Testament. Her motives might have been honourable but there is clear evidence that mass migration is a serious threat to a liberal society. The backlash in France with Le Pen, in Holland where Geert Wilders is prominent, in Austria where the Freedom Party came close to winning the last election, in the UK with UKIP making huge strides and indeed in Trump’s unfortunate rise to fame in the US is there for all to see.
Simon Reeve, a television journalist, is well known for his worldwide travel programs and in February he was on the Greek island of Crete where he was astonished by the arrival of boats loaded with refugees whilst they were filming. Simon listened with obvious compassion to the stories of hardship and suffering and ended up tearfully hugging the individuals. As he drove off in the baking heat he remarked on the fact that these exhausted refugees now have to walk 30 kilometers to a refugee centre, and he then noticed two women, one of whom was carrying a baby. He stopped and told them to get in which they promptly did. But as he tried to speed up their male compatriots bumped violently on the car and ordered the women out of the car, as they had no permission to travel with a single male.
These Syrians were exhausted and seemed desperate but it was a stunning demonstration of their take on women’s inferior role in society. The spectre of a million Syrians with German passports in a few years time featured prominently in the hectic debates. We might be witnessing the beginning of the end of the European Union and history concluding that Angela Merkel’s moment of ‘madness’ was indeed the straw that broke the camel’s back.