Tag: Result

Difficult to put into words but here goes. Let’s be clear, this is NOT a minor political disagreement.  It’s right to be angry on behalf of the people who were deceived.  It’s right protest against the legitimisation of xenophobia.  It’s right to disagree with the referendum result.  If we had just voted to restore the death penalty or instate apartheid, I’d continue to be strongly against it whatever the chance of change.  Especially if that change happened by a vote with a small percentage margin.

Some are feeling helpless and disillusioned but that’s not me. I sit with tempered anger and a seething fury with the dishonesty of the LEAVE campaign.  A lot of the LEAVE campaign leaders are scoundrels and they should not be rewarded for their actions.  There’s also the terrible feeling of – couldn’t we have done more – that’s always there when the clock stops.

Transforming the raw emotions of the last few days into motivation and action is going to happen. It just might take a little more time of pain and grieving.  I haven’t lost the last four decades but may have to reflect of them as a golden era.  A time when grand ambitions could be realised. Yes, I know I have been exceedingly fortunate in life. Being in the right person in the right place at the right time.  That was back in mid-2004 at the interview for a job in Europe.  I then joined a new organisation that was starting up in Cologne in Germany.  For a decade the comradery and sense of common purpose we had was exceptional.  I don’t use that word lightly; it truly was exceptional.

My own experiences of working in a multicultural place is that its complex. When it’s well managed the results are world beating.  Overall the rewards far, far ever outweigh the difficulties or the costs.  I’m not just being selfish and talking about personal rewards.  The whole of our society reaped the benefits of the work that we did and will continue to do so.

Now, with this vote to leave the EU we are stuck in a “No Man’s Land”. There are no solutions in a kind of British mono-culture.  Similarly, and taking note of why people voted the way they did; there is no solution where big business and newspapers owners get to dictate Government policy.

The fight for this referendum may be over but the fight to determine the kind of Britain we want to be has only just begun.

I’m suffering the tail end of a summer cold. It’s an annoying inconvenience which, at least, thanks to nature has a beginning and an end.  I started to feel less than 100% on Wednesday and Today; Saturday it’s on its way out.  Ironically, this morning was my first NHS health check-up in a while.  That took place in the surgery around the corner.  Basically, I’m happy to say that was a – you’re fine come and see us again in 2021 affair.

That’s my physical health. If only everything was so simple because early Friday morning it felt like I’d been hit by a large truck.  Went to bed on Thursday night in the expectation of waking-up to a predicable radio alarm and the BBC news rattling off the referendum results as; REMAIN win closely followed by LEAVE.  What I got was exactly the opposite.  What I got was a violent hammer blow.  What I got was frankly unbelievable.

What a blind idiot! I’d said; “trust the people” not knowing the naivety of that remark.  I genuinely thought that there was enough collective wisdom out there to mean that the British people would make a good choice.  The vote didn’t worry me.  I never thought we would all have to live with a result that led to Great Britain leaving the EU.  Hell no – together we couldn’t possibly be as crazy as to make that irrational choice.  Everyone would laugh.  Then everyone would panic.  Then a heavy cloud of sadness would fall.

Here we are on these islands in a truly incredible place. The gravity of events hasn’t yet sunk in.  Monumental changes have been set in motion.  I live in a Country that’s as ideologically divided as North and South Korea.  As divided as East and West Germany was in the past.  As divided as the English were in 1642.  Two completely opposing visions of Britain stand facing each other.  Only one has been given the green light to move forward.  I’m sorry to talk in such binary terms but there’s no other way of looking at the lay of the land.  A small three letter word keeps going around in my head – it’s sad.

Next, I’ll pen some words on why this situation is wrong looking at it from a rational, emotional and an ethical perspective.