David Bennett

The Mood After Brexit

Were you here for the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union?

Edinburgh, where we live, had one of the highest turnouts and votes to Remain in the whole of the UK. Scotland as a whole voted overwhelmingly to Remain.

So the mood on the street in Edinburgh in the aftermath – the few days to a week after the vote – was palpably strange. When you looked around, you could say almost for certain that most of the people you could see had voted to Remain.

So where were the people who had voted to Leave? They weren’t in Northern Ireland, that was for sure. They were in England and Wales. That’s where they were.

So in Edinburgh, the mood on the street was quiet. People stayed off the streets. When they came out, they dragged themselves around. The buzz of chatter was gone. There were listless movements. Where was the energy?

A post-apocalyptic mood. The mood after Brexit.

If people weren’t on the street, where were they? We sat in rooms, staring into space or wandered about aimlessly making another cup of tea. Our brains wouldn’t function.

We tried to claw themselves into getting on with things, but it would take a few days. Meanwhile, we were drained. So unhappy – and over such a senseless self-inflicted thing.

Bigots To The Left Of Me, Bigots To The Right

Not everyone, but a lot of the Leave voters were narrow minded and closed off to ideas. The deeper polls and analyses said that was what it was. We gobbled up the news. That was it!

It didn’t matter whether you were rich or poor – what mattered in the end was whether you were open minded or close minded. That’s what decided which way you voted.

Well that would be in keeping with the slide to the Right across Europe. The great experiment was falling apart.

Le Pen in France, a re-run of the Presidential election in Austria where the far-right candidate might still win, the rise of the Right in Eastern Europe. Was history going to repeat itself?

Stick It To The Man

Of course, not everyone who voted to Leave was a bigot. That would be too hard on people. There were those who thought we would do better economically out of Europe. And those who thought we would make a fairer society outside of Europe.

And there were those who just wanted to ‘stick it to the Man’, just because he was the Man. Resentful of the widening gap in wealth – anything was better than that.

Anything that would upset the apple cart and take us back to ground zero was better than plodding along and getting a bit deeper in debt.

The Cost Of Housing

This might not be the time to talk about it, but there is a huge, seemingly insurmountable problem in the UK.

It costs too much to buy a home. The asset value in the banks’ books couldn’t handle a huge fall in prices, so the market has every reason to keep the prices propped up.

But it is all, surely, unsustainable. Or are we heading back to serfdom?

Memories Of St. Petersburg

What did I enjoy about St. Petersburg? Well it was 1992, so things were just opening up. The main boulevard in the city was lit by what seemed like 50 watt bulbs strung across the street. In the early evening it cast a feeble glow over the street that was comical and gentle.

And there were pebbles sticking a finger joint’s length up out of the tarmac on the pavements because it was so long since the tarmac had been laid and it was worn away.

There were big trucks belching black smoke. I mean big as in the kind of truck you would only see in a quarry or a construction site in the UK. And there they were, big and unbreakable, thick metal plate, no finesse and built to never fail, belching smoke on the streets right in the city centre.

In a cafe where I ate, I recall a conveyor system for taking away the dirty plates. It was right there in the eating area and it led off to the kitchens behind – except it was very old and it creaked and rattled like a Heath Robinson contraption. The energy needed to keep that creaky old machine going must have far outweighed the benefit. I read into it a kind of sublimated desire on the part of the people to prove that they had technology and that it worked.

And among all this the people were really bright and quick on the uptake – a big change in the way they interacted socially from the people in Finland where I had spent the previous three months.

The women – a lot of them – seemed very sensual – aware of their sexuality – and it made me wonder how the Russian revolution ever took hold.

There were a lot of bookshops and they were full – people seemed genuinely interested in culture and in learning – about everything.

And I recall see men speaking in tight groups, inches from each other’s faces – either because of the cold (it was December) or because they didn’t want to be overheard. I got the idea it was a hangover from the previous regime. I wonder whether people still do that?

And the ice in the Neva had been broken up (by icebreakers, I guess) and was about a metre thick – in huge chunks against the river banks.

And the buildings – the decrepit and the refurbished – were lovely with lots of pastel colours.

And the best memory is the swing doors to the department stores, and people coming from the stores onto the streets like a ballet – a ballet of normality – of going in and out of the stores with the soundtrack of the doors swinging.

The Immigrant In The Room

The experts never had a chance against the threat of the immigrant in the room.

It truly didn’t matter how much the experts told Middle England the economy would tank if Britain left the EU. All Middle England heard was that leaving would stop those bloody immigrants and that’s what mattered.

Yes, they can allow London to be a melting pot. But Middle England doesn’t want immigrants messing up its vision of English life in the provinces.

The immigrant in the room is OK as long as the immigrant is in someone else’s room.

How can you counter that when the free movement of people is a fundamental pillar of the EU?

With hindsight, the architects of the EU might agree that the idea of the free movement of people is flawed.

They might recognise that giving people the right to work anywhere in the EU doesn’t take account of the fact that people are not just workers, they are people.

With hindsight they might see that people are not nomads floating like specks of dust to the nearest work hotspot.

In fact, say the Left, that was the idea. Corporations want to treat workers as faceless, replaceable units.

Jeremy Corbyn thinks the EU is a creature of corporations who use it to outflank collective bargaining.

When a workforce isn’t playing ball, both sides know that threatening to move production to Poland is a hollow threat but importing Polish workers who will work for less pay is a real threat.

Game, set, and match.

Corbyn Got What He Wanted

That’s why Corbyn made such an obvious dog’s breakfast of saying the opposite.

It was patently obvious during the lead up to the referendum that he was at war with his own Cabinet.

First he tried hiding in small venues up and down the country. Then he came out and delivered his message with such reluctance that anyone wondering where he stood could see he had a gun to his back.

Corbyn was sly by winking to his audience to tell them he was being forced to take a line he didn’t agree with.

The risk he ran, and the race he still has to run is whether he came across as muddled at best and disingenuous at worst – or whether with the old cadre gone he can forge a new face for Labour.

Personally I don’t like what he did. By all means be disingenuous with your political opponents. But don’t do it to your audience.

Nigel Farage sensed the zeitgeist; he knew what bigotry there was in the heartland of England. He knew he could swing enough votes to make a difference. He just didn’t imagine it would be enough to swing the decision.

So when Corbyn’s tactic coincided with the Middle England anti-immigrant voice, it created a storm that took the Leave campaign over the finish line – to everyone’s surprise.

Corbyn got what he wanted – and we are out of the EU. He was very quick to say there was no backtracking from that.

So where are we now?

Corbyn thought the overwhelmingly important issues for the populace were fair working conditions and a fair society.

It turns out that immigration of the ‘because they’re different’ kind was the most important decider for a lot of voters.

The elephant in the room after the referendum is still the question of immigration.

So now we have Corbyn’s version of the Left against Farage’s version of the Right. It’s a contest that Europe has seen before.

Strangely, the marginalised group are the moderate Conservatives.

Coda

Things are moving so rapidly that by the time I hit Publish, Corbyn may be either undisputed leader or out of the race entirely.

Brexit the Unthinkable

People sticking it in Cameron’s eye as payback for all the hurt and pain he showered on them. People not knowing that the other eye was theirs and they just struck themselves blind.

Or was it Middle Englanders, sure of the way we can forge a new path. Ha!

Cameron – well he got his comeuppance. And that tiny spark of pleasure is no pleasure at all compared to the pain he meted out with his last gasp.

I should have known. For years I said that I didn’t want to involve myself in any social or political movement in England because I didn’t think it would do any good because people just seem to want to be mean-spirited. What is it with them?

I should have known. This is the people that complained about the Tories and then elected them for a second term. I’m alright Jack, I’ve got mine.

Everyone wants to know ‘why’. Well it’s the same reason they voted the Tories in. The English voted in the meanest people to do their dirty work for them.

Does no one recognise that it’s just a bloody accident of opportunity as to which minority group gets it in the neck? It’s the scroungers ruining the country. It’s the immigrants. It’s the scapegoats. It’s always their bloody fault.

That’s Britain to a T. Sweep it under the carpet and pretend the place is clean.

I keep coming back to the class system. Look at Cameron and Corbyn. They could be characters from the Two Ronnies. “I look down on him because he’s working class…”

Is that where the pain comes from? Is that what they heard in the ‘Take our country back’ message?