Just some thoughts on leaving the European Union.

Before I start this piece I want to make one thing absolutely crystal clear – for at least the last 35 years I have believed that the United Kingdom would be better off out of the European Union. I try to avoid using the terms 'Leaver' or 'Remainer', except for the sake of brevity, as these are collective stereotypes that pre-judge people in an extremely oversimplified manner.

I will also state that I am an old, white, English male and, therefore, to be ignored and put up against the wall as soon as possible. My opinions mean nothing in the great scheme of things. But they are my opinions.

While I believe that 'democracy' has a lot of problems and issues I agree with Churchill:

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”

The issue of 'democracy' is for another time. However, in 2016 the Brexit referendum was specifically pitched to the electorate as a one-off 'winner takes all' vote and that the government would implement whatever the majority voted for.

They didn't, and here we are 3 1/2 years later finally getting Brexit implemented. If the vote had been implemented at the time the worst would now be over and the UK would be safely out of the EU. As many have argued I, too, believe that the result was a real shock for the elites, our so-called 'betters', and those within the 'London bubble'. They have, it seems to me, tried to change that result or minimise it, or blur it in so many ways.

And that is the real problem with the delay I think. It created a space where those who lost the vote could begin to build up a head of steam of opposition, and the failure to implement the result also created a space where those who won the vote could begin to build up a head of steam, largely as a response, admittedly, to the incaltricant losers, and this has created the deepest rift, a chasm in fact, that I have ever seen in British society in my entire life.

And it worries me.

The two sides are stereotyping and vilifying each other, and as a result, the rift widens and hardens. Almost as in a war, each side begins to dehumanise the other. I am not saying that this is a majority of people by any means, in fact in my own personal experience ordinary people just want to get it done. But enough are making enough noise, on both sides, to create two trenches facing each other and continually sniping. And this is destructive and dangerous.

I have never seen so many people, chiefly amongst those who wish to remain in the EU, apparently on the verge of major psychological breakdowns, spewing emotional diarrhoea and generally tearing their hair with a great wailing and gnashing of teeth. One would think that the apocalypse was upon us.

But it isn't.

Leaving the EU is not some overwhelming natural phenomenon approaching from a dark and gloomy future about which we can do nothing. It is an event that will have economic, political and social consequences certainly. I do not think they will be as bad as some say, but there will be an impact. I really think that both sides should try and come together, find their common ground, and prepare, together, for this uncertain future. It is an event created by human beings and can be dealt with by human beings who are prepared to work together. It is not a tsunami or an asteroid sweeping in upon us that we cannot deal with. We can deal with it. But we must really try and breakdown those walls, abandon those trenches, overcome those stereotypes and find our common humanity, and work together to build a society and an economy for after the UK has left the EU. Too much energy is being used to attack each other than to deal with the real concrete issues of a post-Brexit Britain. We have many more similarities than differences and we must, I think, work together.

This is not yet another snipe, but at the moment the most obstructive individuals seem to be those who wish to remain in, or should it be to rejoin, the EU, but not exclusively.

We can work together on this, but if this rift continues and deepens even after the UK has left then I think the future looks bleak indeed.

I may be overreacting. I hope so.