This anti-elite uprising, however, has been carefully guided and spurred on by media and political elites in Britain for years. Scapegoating of migrants, particularly those from the EU, forced on the UK by supposedly draconian policies from Brussels, has reigned supreme for well over a decade. The familiar argument that migration is a drain on British jobs and resources has been spurred on by the most widely read newspapers in the UK, with centre, right, and sometimes leftist politicians fanning the flames.
week has passed since the British
public voted in their majority to leave the European Union. The
referendum on EU membership began as a populist promise to a people
long incensed by EU democracy and immigration. It’s now clear that
both the campaigns to leave and stay transitioned into a series of
mangled battles over party leadership and tragically misjudged
efforts to guide a swift exit on British terms.
Not a single leave or remain voter, whether they be of the ordinary working classes or a high-ranking politician leaving the campaign, predicted the division prompted by Brexit. Looking at a map of the UK, the vote has cut Scotland and Northern Ireland free and left London as a remain-supporting city state, alongside a few other isolated pockets in a sea of leavers.
Interpretation of the left wing
Commentators on the left are describing the 52% victory of Brexit as a form of populist uprising against the elite - a rejection of traditional politics in favour of the weight of the working people. Last Thursday’s vote was a popular one, with a turnout of 72%, Britain’s highest since 1992. The metropole may have voted overwhelmingly to remain, but the abused and underfunded regions beyond voted to reject the status quo.
This anti-elite uprising, however, has been carefully guided and spurred on by media and political elites in Britain for years. Scapegoating of migrants, particularly those from the EU, forced on the UK by supposedly draconian policies from Brussels, has reigned supreme for well over a decade. The familiar argument that migration is a drain on British jobs and resources has been spurred on by the most widely read newspapers in the UK, with centre, right, and sometimes leftist politicians fanning the flames.
The fact that the local corner shop had transitioned from British ownership to that of a Pakistani family - half of whom were born in the UK - or a couple of Polish EU citizens, signalled the demise of the economy for many. The economic destruction of the nation, evidenced for many in the rising number of migrant workers, was, too, the fault of the EU.
The European Union is indeed undemocratic. However, the entire concept of democracy comes under question when a narrow margin of 4% splits the country into not only national and regional factions, but also by age and ethnicity as well. Where 73% of Black Brits and 67% of Asians voted remain, White voters swayed towards leaving by 53%. Where 18-25 year olds voted 75% to remain, those 65 and older voted 61% to leave.
The time for EU reform has long passed. It empowers the neoliberal capitalist elite, particularly with trade deals such as the pending TTIP agreement. It practices extreme and arbitrary border control towards non-Europeans. As a symbol of unity and internationalism, it remains in the hand of xenophobic leaders content with enriching multinational corporations while forgetting the struggles of southern European countries like Greece.
The real target
The rallying cry of the campaign to leave the EU was ‘we want our country back.’ Much of this anger was pointedly directed against the EU, but more specifically against open border policies necessitated by the European Common Market. Campaigners and voters for leave diagnosed the UK’s situation quite well: a failing economy stretching divisions between rich and poor.
They had the correct diagnosis, but the wrong estimation of the cause and cure. Britain’s crumbling economy, triggered by Thatcherite policies from the 1980s and kicked to the curb by the global recession beginning in 2007, was ultimately demolished, not by EU policies and supposedly untempered migration, but by an almost decade-long policy of austerity.
Consecutive Conservative governments since 2010 have ransacked the poor and disassembled and cut at the British welfare state. Underfunding, not mass migration, has decimated the National Health Service (where 26% of doctors are non-UK nationals). Ruthless cuts have seen a lack of council housing and poor standards of education.
This battle for popular opinion essentially became an argument about immigration, led by politicians fighting it out for leadership of the Conservative party. Where Prime Minister David Cameron sought to secure his place in political history, ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson battled to take control of the party.
This political battle of elites, painted as an anti-elite uprising, has led to the legitimisation of racism. Not all who voted to leave are racist. Many have legitimate grievances and concerns with the EU. However, those whose racism was once restricted by a society that told them ‘immigration is for the best’ have now been unleashed to petrol bomb halal butchers in Walsall, graffiti Polish community centres in Hammersmith, smash windows of Spanish and Turkish restaurants in Lewisham, and even in murder pro-EU MPs in Birstall.
The ignored aspect
Brexit campaigners, thinking that they could manipulate the nation and the EU, promised that we could control the exit from the EU. It looks unlikely that an EU under German and French control will allow Britain to remain in the Common Market while also maintaining its own immigration controls. Campaigners ignored the likelihood of an outcome that leaves Britain stranded economically and politically at the edge of the continent.
Likewise, Brexit campaigners foolishly forgot about Scotland and Northern Ireland in their battle to ‘make England English again.’ Now, independence hopes are renewed in both nations, leaving the country that so many wanted ‘back’ splitting apart. In their attempt to win the popular vote and a place in political history, politicians have thrown Britain into the unknown. With many asking for a second referendum, it’s unsure what Britain will look like in two years’ time.
