May you Live in Interesting times (Chinese Proverb)
Since June 23, 2016, the day that the British went to the polls to vote as to whether or not they wanted Britain to leave or remain in the European Union, times have certainly become very interesting.
As you’ll probably guess from my pre-Referendum blogs, I was in favor of remaining in the European Union. I had read all the arguments pro and con and read all the fact checking websites I could. I made the best informed decision I could despite the fact that neither side covered themselves in glory in terms of making a positive case for their view. I voted to remain, despite, not because of the poor case Cameron and the “remainers” made. I was swayed by arguments made by experts in European law, by scientists and by most leading economists, who all spelled out factual evidence to support the case for remaining in the European Union.
On the leave side, the Justice Secretary, Michael Gove who campaigned for the leave side, dismissed experts and said effectively, ‘we don’t need no experts.’ He then went on to say that the 5,400 scientists who signed a letter to the Times in favor of remaining, were much like Einstein, who was coerced by Hitler to sign up to the Nazi regime or some such nonsense. Note this man was the former Education Minister, someone who should know history and should know better than to pull the Nazi card out to make specious arguments. He’s apologized since, but now he’s on board to be one of the lead negotiators for the Brexit!
So, despite the accusations that the remain side were fear mongering, reality post referendum is just about what the Remain campaign said it would be. And the promises made by the leave campaign, to control immigration and the borders and to use the money we would save by no longer paying £350 million a week (an erroneous figure which has been discredited), are already being broken. In public statements over the past few days, Brexit leaders like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage, are swiftly backing away from them.
Meanwhile the pound has dropped to the lowest it’s been against the US dollar in decades, the stock market has lost billions, the UK temporarily went from the world’s fifth largest to the world’s six largest economy, and Standard and Poors and other rating agencies have cut the UK Credit rating from AAA to AA and in some cases to AA negative. Meanwhile the Prime Minister has resigned, the Chancellor of the Exchequer went missing for three days, and the Labour Leader has just undergone a no-confidence vote meaning a Labour leadership contest is inevitable. Meanwhile, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and London, who all voted overwhelmingly to remain are threatening their independence so that they can rejoin the European Union and racist attacks on immigrants are on the uptake. And many who voted for Brexit are having buyers remorse. Apparently they just wanted to signal they were disgruntled with the political elites but they didn’t want the cost of their European vacation to increase!
As I said in my earlier blogs, an in or out vote on the referendum was never going to solve the immigration issue. And it’s not. The best trade deal Britain can get post Brexit is the Norway model which means freedom of movement!
Anyway, everything is being thrown up for grabs! It’s a very exciting time and full of potential. Chaos is like that. It can be creative chaos for the good or can be destructive chaos. I don’t think the correct choice was made, but now that it has been made, people who are entrepreneurial and risk takers can seize the moment and take advantage of the opportunities it throws up.
One thing I think is that it means the pressure on reforming politics is there like never before. We reform politics and get authentic politicians who have the guts and courage to lead or we perish! We also can’t expect our politicians to save us. We need to save ourselves and be resilient. We need to look at what opportunities are being created in the current environment. For some it might be running for office or helping someone run a political campaign. For others it means helping to draft all the new treaties! There’s a need for experts in this area. What other areas might we now need experts in? I don’t have the answers yet, but I want to think more about it and think how can this be an opportunity for greater flourishing rather than for despair.
What do you think?