Brexit: Did ‘HMS Great Britain’ manage to sink itself?

It would be underwhelming to say that the past week has been fairly eventful for the United Kingdom and the union’s leadership at 10 Downing Street in London. Britain, led by England, decided to withdraw from the European Union (EU) as a referendum gave majority to the ‘Leave’ campaign catching everyone, amazingly including the British themselves, by surprise.

A few weeks ago, a German diplomat told me that he expected the UK to stay in the EU by a comfortable margin in the referendum vote. “They’d have to be absolutely crazy to opt out”, he told me. Turns out, the British did not fancy being part of the ‘European’ frame anymore and they preferred to turn into an isolated island with bad food and worse weather, parked on the far away fringes of the very idea of ‘Europe’. While this decision by the British, in a very democratic outcome of people’s choice, caused tectonic reactions around the globe, the most important question on this outcome is not ‘what now?’ or ‘when?’ but ‘why?’

Oddly, even most British diplomats seem to have not seen this coming and most within its polity seem to also agree that the very idea of conducting a referendum was misplaced to begin with. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation after this, seems to have managed to create what could possibly the most infamous and criticised legacy of any British Prime Minister perhaps since Margaret Thatcher. ‘Well, at least putting his private parts inside a pig is not the worst thing he has ever done now’, one social media user quipped referring to last year’s ‘piggate’ controversy.

David Cameron

But this “victory” for the ‘Leave’ campaign in the UK has far-reaching repercussions and not just ones for the union itself. The fact that political leaders such as Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (the jury is still out on what exactly the UKIP is seeking independence from) who have more than often led anti-EU campaigns with xenophobic and racist undertones will now seek more power within the British political system. This has been a victory for right-wing, anti-immigration and anti-globalisation politics in the UK, and will also empower similar movements currently plaguing the European Union itself.

However, this time I would also like to take a minute and place a huge part of democracy under the interrogation light for bringing British politics to this point— the voters. It is always very easy (and often just right to do so) to blame politicians for managing to screw things up, but this time and specifically in this case, the British public will have to own up to its fare share of blame. The repercussions of Brexit in a fast globalising world will be an anomaly that could eventually work against British economics, and in turn political interests. Even though, in my opinion, the financial fallout of Brexit on global economics is being over-stated, it is not just about that, but the very principle of exclusionist and ‘bubble syndrome’ economics and politics, which it is propagating in a world where such movements are already gaining traction. There are already political parties making inroads in other EU nations with similar politics in mind, and this does not bode well for anyone around the world, let alone the EU nations itself. Beyond the EU, across the ‘pond’, a certain Donald Trump who has similar political ideas will now also feel more empowered just months before the US goes into elections.

Nigel Farage

Why the Brexit outcome seems, at times, even more a hands-in-palms moment is that a lot of people who voted for exiting the EU did not seem to even understand what was to unfold with such a decision. For example, Britain’s largest tabloid newspaper The Sun rallied behind the ‘Leave’ campaign vehemently. It ran articles, opinion pieces and reports supporting the campaign and uplifted leaders such as Nigel Farage and former Mayor of London and Britain’s homegrown competition to Donald Trump’s world famous Cheeto inspired puff of hair, Boris Johnson of the Tories, to make most of the situation to push their own political agendas ahead, the state of the union be damned. Now, the same paper is running articles on how adversely the British population will be affected after they all leave the EU, sending some of The Sun’s readers scrambling to the newspaper asking why they were not informed of all this properly before the vote. The propaganda of the ‘Leave’ campaign seems to have gone unchallenged by a large section of English voters outside the spheres of metropolis areas such as London and it’s almost possible that many voted even without understanding what the repercussions were going to be. ‘The rich voted for remain, the poor for leave’, is seen as a common explainer now.

In the days after this verdict, London politics have gone into turmoil. While Cameron has said the UK will get a new Prime Minister in October, both Labour and Tories have gone for political cleansing within their own homes, sensing a general election being not too far away. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced resignations from his shadow cabinet members while among the Tories, a similar situation faced by the Republicans in the US has surfaced, as Tories leaders look to come together to stop Boris Johnson from channeling his ‘Leave’ campaign success and turning it into a coup within the Tories.

Boris Johnson

In some way, it is heartening to see that such petty and divisive politics which flourishes in India all the time, has finally made its way into the erstwhile motherland’s political veins as well. Even Mahatma Gandhi must be thinking somewhere about his massive struggle to send the British packing from India when apparently all that was probably needed was a referendum vote.

Now, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is often seen rushing to the Middle East to put out political fires, is rushing to the UK to try and pacify the situation, something he probably never expected to be doing. Meanwhile, EU members, livid with the UK, have said a verbal conclusion from London of the UK opting out will be enough to start the process of sending the British packing, while Germany, the de-facto father of the EU, has asked for a possibility of reconsideration by Britain. The union of the United Kingdom, that only just had a referendum to keep its very union together, is now being existentially threatened by its own very self.

As the British so popularised themselves, keep calm and get your house in order, Britain. And read a good topical book, instead of The Sun, before your next referendum.