As my country seeks to extricate itself from the EU, I wonder what their expectations are and what they will be satisfied with.
Leave the EU completely and retain complete control of state. With its control over our economy and the self inflicted wound that goes with it.
Or leave the EU but retain connection to the Single Market, but have to deal with the free movement of people. This is the one I don’t think the people who voted leave would be happy with. They will cry foul and go even further into the bosom of Nigel Farage, UKIP and their fellow hard right groups.
Now to be honest I understand how they feel. To be disinterested, ignored and left behind. The North of England has had a rough time for the last 30-40 years. Since mining industry was closed in the eighties and manufacturing became less important to the Nation’s economy as a whole. It has been poorly invested in over the past few decades.
Some of the poorest areas of Western Europe are in the North of England. They have received a lot of support from the EU but they have seen immigrants getting jobs when they can’t get jobs themselves or lost jobs to only be replaced by cheaper labour.
It is easy to blame immigration for all your woes but that undervalues the years of systemic underinvestment from Westminister. This will not change anytime soon and will probably made harder with the economy weakened or possible recession.
My only hope is that the people who voted to leave the EU don’t lose hope when the impossible expectation they were given fails to materialise. Don’t give in to the hate and let others make their decision for them.
Ad XO