Friday 24 June 2016

48 vs 52: Let's not forget

Gutted, so gutted.

What have we just taught our children? That it's OK to throw your toys out of the pram when you're not the biggest player? That we think we are better than 'them'?

Not my children. They know that I think it is better to be open and work with everyone; to look at all sides of the story and not assume you are the best or that you know everything. To be tolerant, and inclusive, and not always think that the grass is greener.

I can already hear the Leave voters - 'ah, the economic drop is only temporary', 'oh, now we get chance to decide what our country will do, it's much better'.

How do they know? How do they think they are capable of steering this country in the right direction - and more importantly than that, who do they think is going to steer it? The picture of Farage with his hands in the air made me feel physically sick this morning. Or maybe they'd rather have Boris in?

There is no strong leader of our country. That's just another reason why we were better off in Europe.

How do we think all the foreigners in our country feel this morning? Let's not forget, many of them save lives and help us in all sorts of ways. What happens if they decide to leave to 'go back to their own countries'? Do you want to be operated on by someone who wasn't quite so dedicated at their studies? We have much to learn from other countries still, and there were many ways they could have helped us. I'm guessing their doors are not going to be quite so open now. They're busy. They don't need us, they learned how to speak English some time ago.

My first thought was that I'd like to jump on a train and go to Europe, visiting as many people as I can to tell them I voted in, to try and somehow stop the bad feeling. Do you think anyone over there is ever going to remember that 48% of us wanted to be in?


I think not. I think what they'll talk about for a while, is how we want to tighten our own front door to stop the terrorists and immigrants getting in. Let me tell you people, those terrorists are already here. The London bombings? Those guys didn't just pop over on the Eurostar for the day. Immigrants? We pretty much all are, apparently.

After a while, they won't even be talking about us anymore. What exactly do they need us for? Do we have an never ending supply of oil that no-one else has? Do we have the cleverest scientists?

I'm sad that my girls won't get to experience life as I did when I grew up. The excitement of being able to visit other countries, and of being welcomed everywhere. These are new scary times we are entering into - who's to say whether they will be better or worse? If I was a betting person, I know where my money would go....