I'm conflicted and I'm still wide awake so I figured that I need to write down my thoughts. I would have never expected this to go through, I'm shocked.
I was not in favour of Brexit and I'm not happy about the result, yet the EU is not sustainable the way it is. Something needs to be done and maybe it takes something extreme like this referendum to wake them up. These extreme right swings in almost all Western European nations are no accident, and they are scary as fuck.
I also think it's way too simple to say the pro-leave voters are all nationalist xenophobes. The campaign was ugly, but the issues are very complex. Just how are you going to integrate millions of migrants and refugees? There was just an example in the Swiss media the other day about a single mom working two jobs trying to get by and making less than an immigrant family from Ethiopia in which nobody works. Can one really blame people for getting angry?
Just today 4500 people were picked up in the Mediterranean. I want to help as much as the next person but how can this be sustainable long-term?
And worst of all, the actual refugees who desperately need immediate help? Those are the ones that can't get out and are still starving in Syria.
So yeah, I'm sure xenophobia played a role. The UK has never exactly embraced its multicultural society, but the issues are far more complex in my opinion.
I also don't think this will have hugely catastrophic consequences for the UK. The volatile markets are no surprise but it'll stabilize. It'll be years before the UK actually exits.
I realise that Switzerland is not nearly as important to the EU as the UK is, but time and again when the Swiss voted against the EU, the mess with the immigration referendum or the decoupling of the Swiss Franc and the Euro, disaster was just on the horizon according to the media. Highly skilled workers would leave, big corporations would leave, trade would be near impossible due to the strong Franc and none of it came true. Panicky markets sure, long-term serious consequences not so much.
I don't know enough about the Scottish and Irish situations, but that certainly has the potential to be messy to say the least. But again, I suspect over the next few years there will be a bilateral agreement between the EU and the UK similar to the Swiss and Norwegian and not a lot will actually change.
Apart from the migration issue, I don't think the European super-state ideas can really work on a continent so rich with history and culture. In the grand scheme of things, peace in Europe is a very recent phenomenon. If different cultures could easily put aside their differences, we wouldn't have half the wars we have on this planet.
And yet despite all this, I like the idea of a unified Europe. I want it to work, but I don't have much faith in the human race these days.
Alas, it remains to be seen what will happen.
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