Brexit Outcome Is a Vote Against the World – Anshel Pfeffer – Haaretz
The victory of the ‘leave’ campaign to exit the EU reflected millions of Britons’ resentment, estrangement, jealousy and anger with the existing order.
LONDON – The atmosphere in the British capital throughout voting on Thursday’s EU referendum was optimistic. On the streets, outside Tube stations, in windows and doorways, it was almost exclusively signs and activists with the slogans “IN” and “remain.” Members of rival parties – the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats – all cooperated in bringing out “their” voters to the polls. The heavy rain caused delays on rail lines and slightly decreased turnout, but it was merely a slight worry, no more.
But London was never so detached from the rest of the United Kingdom. The victory of the “leave” campaign in the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union was greeted with complete shock in the early hours of Friday morning. Only a few hours earlier, when the polling stations closed at 10 P.M., the pollsters, journalists and even politicians in both camps were pretty certain that a small majority would vote to stay in the EU. Continue reading
One thing is almost sure for the traveler bearing a Guyana passport through foreign airports: Fellow travelers will be “cleared” by immigration and customs officers much more expeditiously than you would. Over the years, it seems wherever the passport is presented to immigration authorities, there is a problem and sometimes it brings the most inane questions: “Where is that… in Ghana?”
The UK is Now a Failed State – by Alistair Crighton – Al Jazeera
The UK is Now a Failed State – by Alistair Crighton – Al Jazeera
It didn’t have to be this way. Less than a year ago, with the United Kingdom facing break-up as Scottish nationalists edged closer than expected to a win in an independence referendum, the Westminster big guns hustled north to promise the Scots that all would be well if they chose to stay together.
Scotland, after all, has its own parliament, sitting in Edinburgh, which decides on most of the matters that effect the electorate, such as health and education.
That the nation chose to stay as part of the UK may have been celebrated by the political classes, but it was viewed by the many, many people in the rest of the UK, who had no say in the referendum, as proof that the Scots were happy to have their cake, and eat it too. Continue reading →
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