I have family in London and friends in other parts of UK and yes, since Brexit they are worried and they feel they have become second class citizens. In many ways they have. It is true that discrimination towards immigrants has been happening for a long time though. In fact, the American Army veteran that was recently discriminated, it’s the second time something like this has happened to him.
Here's the clip in case you havent seen it.
There was also the story of a German woman that had been living in UK for 40 years. Her neighbours are now telling her to go home. She probably thought she WAS home already.
These aren’t isolated incidents. Five minutes of google search with minimum intellectual honesty will prove that to anyone.
Keep in mind that the Brexit campaign started from the moment they joined the EU. What people don’t know is why this happened and who REALLY orchestrated it. This was mostly a plan by the City elite, a lobby called “City for Britain,” hedge fund owners and Rupert Murdock who owns the main media groups in UK and many around the world. The list? Fox news, Fox Broadcasting Company, Twentieth Century Fox, News UK (The Sun, The Times), The New York Post, just to mention a few. If you watch Fox news, chances are you’re been fed a strong anti EU bias. That wasn’t accidental. The City elite also includes other media corporations the ones owned by Richard Clive Desmond.
Read: A Tale of Two Cities: How ‘Brexit’ Splits London
Basically people, this was all about the wealthy elite of London regaining control and making sure the EU didn’t meddle with their business. Its as simple as that.
Here's a quote from Rupert Murdoch that explains why they (Murdoch and the "City" elite) wanted to quit the EU.
I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. 'That’s easy,' he replied. 'When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.'http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/this-terrifying-rupert-murdoch-quote-is-possibly-the-best-reason-to-stay-in-the-eu-yet--WyMaFTE890x
So as to achieve their objective, The “City” and the British government started a long campaign to fuel the nationalist, anti EU sentiment. Basically the BBC and Rupert Murdoch and other media moguls like Richard Clive Desmond started a negative campaign against the rest of Europe (most British forget that they ARE European themselves) Immigrants taking up their jobs, immigrants killing/raping /stealing from white Brits, The British government would drive around vans “inviting” immigrants to "go home".
It was a non-stop campaign for years before the official Brexit campaign even started and it was pretty successful. Of course that when someone that was NOT an immigrant committed a crime (which is most often the case) it didn’t get the same media attention. And of course they never mentioned that it was within the EU that the UK saw its greatest growth ever in standards of living for its people. Objectively speaking, the EU has a)some corruption, like everywhere else and in my opinion far less than the City elite b)regulations. Many of them are nonsense, most of the DO in fact make sense and go a long way into improving peoples quality of life, ensuring workers and customers rights. The problem is that some of these regulations also go against the interest of people that want maximum profit and zero accountability.
How can you tell that the government was in favor of leaving the EU? Simple:
1)Just read the BBC headlines. For years they have been either subtly or not so subtly anti EU.
2) Notice how the referendum was pushed ahead of schedule to match the worst moment in terms of the immigration crisis. These things are supposed to take years, instead it was speed up to a matter of months. Why the rush all of a sudden?
3)Notice how it was matched perfectly with the European Football Tournament. Laugh all you want but these are EXACTLY the strategies analysts use. Football (soccer for you Americans) is huge in UK. In fact it was perfectly timed. If I had been the one in charge of the Brexit side I would have matched it right in the begging of the tournament, when everyone is waving the flag, feeling nationalistic. Yet I would have made sure it was right in the begging of it and not in the middle or end of the tournament when England was most likely to lose. That’s exactly what happened.
4)It was also done at the time university students are out on holidays. Most where registered to vote in the wrong place. Students are known to be by a very wide margin pro EU.
5)Age 16 and 17 were not allowed to have a say in spite of these having to live with the consequences of the referendum far more than say their 80 year old grandparents that were far more likely to vote to leave the EU. Why were 16 to 17 year olds allowed to Vote in the Scotland independence referendum yet not allowed to vote in the EU referendum? I’ll tell you why. Because +70% of them vote to stay and believe in integration. They were likely to vote to stay in the UK union just during the Scottish referendum just like they would have voted to stay in the EU if they had the chance to vote. Get rid of those votes and you just got rid of a few million votes that would have voted against your interests.
6)Officially the public funding for both Stay and Leave was 50/50. Unofficially though, the government favoured Brexit. Cameron sure did in spite of claiming otherwise just based on his actions which clearly undermined the Stay campaign. Not only did the government clearly favour and anti EU agenda, even the monarchy made their anti EU position clear as well, maybe feeling its own position eventually threatened by a young, more democratic and not as favourable towards status quo rule.
7)They even allowed the Brexit campaign to choose the referendum question. Yes or No being is perceived as more negative and NO is less likely to be chosen. Stay or Leave was considered less drastic and more favourable for the Brexit side.
8)British people living out of the country for more than 15 years did not have the right to vote. A million British expats in Spain alone explains why this was important. How does this work? You lose your rights as a citizen because you lived elsewhere for a period of time? At the same time, EU citizens of other countries that have been legally living, working and contributing in UK had no say, no matter how long they had been living there.
Some points may seem less obvious than others, some may look a bit more like coincidences. There are no coincidences here, just a carefully executed plan.
The campaign was successful and now UK left the EU. I am grateful for that to be honest because it means there’s no longer an enemy plotting against the EU from within and I especially like the idea of detaching ourselves form the populist and nationalistic sentiment that fueled in Britain to win the referendum. It will be hard though for the people in UK, both locals and immigrants.
And there is also the concern that the "City" will try to destroy the EU, which has ensured peace and prosperity for its nations in spite of its many imperfections.
I know all too well what nationalism and populism does to a country. After all, Cristina and Nestor Kirchner’s motto was, and they repeated it ad nauseam, "national and popular". Patriotism shouldn’t be confused with nationalism. It’s most definitely not the same thing, and believe me when I say the people are the ones to suffer the most under a populist and nationalistic government.
I just got banned from ar15.com forums for not agreeing with the majority there regarding Brexit and expressing such an opinion. It happened in the GD forum of all places. I suppose it goes to show how when presented with facts that don’t correspond with the lies they’ve been fed, some people just snap.
We are entering complicated political waters everywhere around the world. The rise of nationalism, populism and in general the polarisation of ideology both left and right provide fertile ground for intolerance. That’s pretty dangerous because intolerance (even verbal, even political) always leads to violence. It’s one thing to debate and it’s another to insult or censor those we don’t agree with. Verbal violence in politics is pretty dangerous. We shouldn’t cheer when we find a politician who says outload things we once didn’t dare say ourselves, especially when we didn’t dare say them out of shame. Maybe instead of cheering a bit of self-criticism is in order. We should be able to talk and we should be able to express different ideas and debate them without getting angry at one another.
Again folks, careful with political intolerance. No matter what extreme of the spectrum it comes from, it tends to be equally dangerous.
Intolerance leads to divisions in society and a society that is divided and fighting among themselves is much easier to control… and exploit.
Kind regards my friends.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
4 comments:
Hey Ferfal,
thanks for the article above. I would, however, like to point something out.
While I do understand that from your point of view (as an immigrant) Brexit seems like a conspiracy of those in power to distance themselves from the EU, which is "meddling into their busines", I see it a little differently.
I come from the Czech Republic and I have had just about enough of the European Union and I am very very very (and very) glad for the Brits that they have finally managed to break free of the EU.
My country has joined the EU in 2004 - only 12 years ago. Since then the EU has changed dramatically. Before, the EU had very limited legislative powers and was more or less really about free trade and movement within its borders. I still think there were much better alternatives to running things than the way the EU actually did, but by and large the whole thing made some sense.
The EU really started showing their true nature when they came up with the EU Constitution. Back in those days, any country had the power to veto any legislation proposed by the union. The constitution wanted to change things dramatically:
- the power to propose legislation was to be almost solely in the hands of unelected EU commission
- no country was to have a veto right, legislation to be simply passed by majority vote in the EU council and subsequently in EU parliament.
- EU legislation was to be superior to member state legislation and member states to have an OBLIGATION to implement whatever directive the EU passed into their legal system.
- Once agreed upon legislation cannot be abolished, all legislation must aim for ever closer union and ultimately....a federal superstate.
The EU constitution however, was struck down by referendums in France and the Netherlands. What the EU did then? They waited 2 years, renamed the document "The Treaty of Lisbon" and proposed it again. They did whatever they could to prevent the document being subject to national referendums... but failed. The Irish held a referendum and refused the treaty. The Irish vote, however, was not respected. The EU by bullying, blackmailing and diplomatic pressure forced the Irish to repeat their referendum again - that time, it was surprisingly approved by the vote.
Since then, we have seen an unprecedented influx of new laws, regulations, and forced unification. Just now for instance, the EU has proposed legislation to destroy my country's gun laws (meaning to dramaticaly tighten the rules). Trust me when I say, the EU is an evil, anti-democratic, communist, dictatorship project. My country has endured 40 years of Soviet occupation, but in many respects, the encroachment on civil liberty by the EU is even worse.
Nowadays, the EU is telling me what kind of car I can drive, what kind of light bulbs I can have, what kind of a toilet (yes, seriously they regulate toilets) I can own in my home, what kind of a vacuum cleaner I can buy, they want to forcibly install GPS systems in every car...and they want to take my guns. They want to erase every trace of national identity and create United States of Europe.
I agree with you on the immigration hatred in UK. Racism is evil and that hysteria is just sheer stupidity. But the EU is really the arch enemy of every freedom loving man/woman in Europe (which includes you I believe) and when it finally crumbles, I will celebrate that day every year, just like I celebrate the day when communism fell in my country.
Remember, if you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence...and that is precisely what you are seeing in the UK today.
Sincerely,
Pavel, proud citizen of the Czech Republic, not the EU.
That was beautifully said and completely true!
Well thought out and said Pavel. I could not agree with you more!
"That was beautifully said and completely true!"
Anonymous, did you mean the post, or the comment?
(Or are you a robot?)
When you get into the political arena it gets confusing... different locales have different complaints and government inefficiencies.
Here in the U.S. I'm always fearful someone with the intellect and integrity of Joe Biden will end up in charge of things.
If that happens locally, it's easier to voice my discontent (and MUCH more likely to get results) locally than if Joe is several hundred miles away.
I think Brexit was necessary. I also think the EU is doomed... just a question of time.
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