Here's Susan Hill in the current Spectator:
'Brexit has been as bad as any surge [her previous paragraph is about tidal surges] in washing away hitherto strong foundations. I am talking about friendships. I have never known the like. To be called a racist, a 'little Englander' and worse was bad enough, but to have people one has long known and liked say they could no longer be friends with 'someone like you' was very shocking.'
Shocking it is indeed, but all too common in the wake of the referendum. It's a terrible reflection on how low the level of discourse has sunk in this country, and how completely many of our fellow citizens have lost all sense of proportion, let alone basic human decency.
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It's frighteningly polarised. I voted Remain largely for economic and geo-political reasons but can sympathise with the revulsion against the liberal 'theft' of 'the truth' felt by many Brexiteers and this has helped me keep my Brexit friends thankfully. For many it's an either/or choice regrettably.
ReplyDeleteAnd a facile choice at that...
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I haven't come across this in my everyday life: all my acquaintances are studiously tight-lipped on the grand events of our times. We just get on with organising litter picks and so forth.
ReplyDeleteI cannot see what the big deal is ... before the EU (a mere 40 years ago) Europe bought from us and we from them. I cannot see that changing aside from the paperwork.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I don't think the problem will be the flow of goods, but rather the flow of labor. Will Britons be willing to fill the low-paid jobs -- cleaning, nursing aides and the like -- now done by Eastern Europeans? And will Britain be able to create enough well-paid jobs for its population of university graduates, many of whom are now employed elsewhere in the EU?
ReplyDeleteI am concerned about the flow of goods given the unaccountable decision not to remain in the EEA. (Negotiating separate arrangements is an unbelievably difficult and lengthy business.) Flow of labour should not be an insurmountable problem - we already have work visas to fill our labour needs with those from outside the EU (not to mention our youth mobility provisions), and EU nationals can be included. Other countries also operate such provisions and they are of course applicable re graduate employment should graduate opportunities not be filled by nationals and residents.
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