So in the time since
vote leave won, Farage has already distanced himself from the £350m for the NHS
claim and used the sentence "without a bullet being fired" in his
victory speech. An insult to Jo Cox's memory and a testament to how truly despicable
a human being he is. It was not a sentence he needed to use or an image he needed
to conjure, he chose that line and in doing so managed the seemingly
impossible, he made me loathe him even more viscerally than before. And because
he’s not even an MP he’s under no obligation to deliver on a single promise,
there were never going to be any consequences for him, win or lose, so he was
free to lie with impunity.
Meanwhile Daniel Hannan
MEP has said immigration won't fall. The pound has fallen to the lowest level
in my lifetime (would you look at that, maybe we should have paid a bit more
attention to those experts Michael Gove was so quick to dismiss) and
nationalist parties in Ireland and Scotland are, somewhat understandably,
gearing up their exit strategies from the United Kingdom.
It's almost as if a
bunch of right wing arseholes decided to throw the rest of us under the bus for
short term political gain and had no issue spouting lie after lie to do so. And
what's worse is people lapped it up, caught up on a wave of cheap
soundbites and jingoism that occasionally revealed itself for the full blown
racism it usually conceals. 52% of people nationally, 51% in Sheffield, my home
and a city I love dearly.
Throughout this
referendum I’ve kept telling myself we are better than this, that people would
act rationally and not sabotage our own economy and our international
reputation just to stick two fingers up at the rest of Europe.
Once I’ve finished this
post, once I’ve got out at least a portion of the anger and disappointment I’m
feeling right now, the work begins on avoiding this becoming a permanent me or us
v them scenario, of letting today’s decision change my fundamentally optimistic
view of this nation and democracy as a whole. But right now there’s a bitter,
angry part of me that feels that when the economic impacts of this decision are
felt in places like the north east and jobs are lost and families forced into
poverty, that they voted for this. They wilfully chose to ignore the evidence
in front of them and trust that the very people who destroyed the working class
in the first place would suddenly have their best interests at heart. Similarly
the portion of the population over 50 who voted to leave, saddling the younger
generations who emphatically voted to stay with the consequences of their
actions, will get a little less sympathy from me right now as their saving are
hit and the value of their houses collapses.
That’s never been the
nature of my politics or my personality and it reeks of the kind of snobbery
and lack of empathy with other’s opinions that I despise. So excuse me this
rant, this uncharacteristic break from my usual love of diplomacy and respect,
it’s a release valve for the deep well of anger, fear and frustration that set
up shop in my stomach around midnight last night and refuses to leave.
I’m sick of watching so
many Brits repeatedly prove themselves all too willing to accept the lies of
The Daily Mail and The Sun at face value. I’m sick of us choosing fear over
facts and hate over hope. I’m sick of having to keep telling myself that we’re
better than this when faced with so much evidence that we get precisely the
politics and press we deserve.
I’m going to pick myself
up in a bit and start the process of reconciliation, of making the best of the
situation we find ourselves in. Of finding ways to speak to the fears that
drove so many voters into the arms of UKIP and Vote Leave, without ever
compromising on my belief that immigration is a force for good and that
pandering to racism and xenophobia even a little is a dangerous precedent to
set.
This is the most crushed
I’ve ever felt the morning after a vote. When the Conservatives won in 2010 and
2015 I comforted myself with the fact that there will be another election and
we can come back from this. That’s not the case here.
We’re stuck with the
decision that was made yesterday, a decision based seemingly on equal parts
lies and prejudice, and it’s my belief that we are a lesser nation because of
it. The economy will stabilise eventually and we’ll figure out our place in
Europe and the world, but we are forever worse for abandoning the union,
however imperfect.
So for now I’ll indulge
my anger ever so slightly, if only to feel something other than despair. The
next job is finding some hope for our politics and our people again.