An Open Letter to England

Dear England, where did it all go so wrong? First Brexit and then being eliminated from the Euro 2016 championship? We really have lost our way this week. Both managers have resigned, one from England and one from Downing Street. Both teams are now in disarray, scrambling for fresh talent and pouring over reasons for their failure. In both cases, Wales are irritatingly pleased with the end result. Although some may disagree, the failure of the Remain campaign will be a far harder problem to tackle than England’s lacklustre Euro performance.

This article won’t really be a huge analysis of how the referendum result will inevitably affect the UK for the worst. It won’t deplore the scare tactics used to convince voters of a bogeyman that never existed. It won’t predict the eventual secession of Scotland and Northern Ireland and it won’t try and arouse pity for the expat author who can’t really consider England a viable home for the future. Instead, I want to look at England and ask some questions about what we can learn from this. Hopefully, the answer isn’t too short.

The voting patterns of the UK demonstrated some important facts about the demographics in the country. It is unsurprising that Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain, although the east coast of Northern Ireland voted leave, and it is also unsurprising that London as well as most metropolitan and university cities voted to remain as well. The interesting part is who voted to leave, and this includes the majority of middle England as well as the west country. There have been horrible cries of a lack of education and working-class ignorance from some of the Remain camp but to argue that every leave vote was fueled by racism, a lack of intelligence, and the failure to to understand the issue is pretentious at best. It was only the white working-class that voted to leave whereas those who identified as Asian, Black or Muslim overwhelmingly voted to remain.  Rather, it belies a rejection of British multiculturalism, London-centric policy, and a dismissal of the underdeveloped and poor towns and cities that have been neglected since the Thatcher era. Politicians have inadvertently split the British people geographically by aiming economic policy at London rather than the UK, and it has come back to bite them. These people have been delivered a rhetoric that immigration and European bureaucrats are to blame when the true culprits are the politicians who have neglected their constituencies.

The success of Farage’s politics has heralded another shift in voting patterns: the rise of populism. Seen so acutely in America and France in the rise of Trump and Le Pen, the UK now has its own populist politicians in Johnson and Farage. Faragian personalities and daring claims have surpassed honest Cleggian pledges and factual evidence as rhyme trumps reason. However, it shouldn’t be read that the Leave campaign did not have sound arguments or that they lied throughout the campaign, since that would be a lie in and of itself. Rather, we must understand that the Leave campaign were able to capitalise on larger-than-life personalities and create an emphatic and convincing campaign in a way that the Remain camp could not. This blame can be directed towards the non-existent presence of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party, as well as a lack of conviction from Remain campaigners themselves. Sadly, the most enthusiastic Remain response to the European Referendum was once it was lost.

No one could be more prepared to embrace the rise of populism than the new wave of journalist politicians that have risen in the Conservative party. Both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are ex-journalists for right-wing British newspapers and it shows evidently in their manipulation of arguments and their use of the media. In the run-up to the vote itself, the public were hard pressed to find objective opinions in the media, and Johnson’s editorial articles in favour of leaving the European Union snuck into headlines like a poisonous fungus. Rupert Murdoch’s influence was thrown into the referendum overwhelmingly on the Leave side, and Murdoch immediately backed Johnson as the new Tory candidate when he announced his desire to run. Having said that, the media aren’t entirely to blame for the referendum result, as they were one part of a milieu of trashy factors. However, as D’maris Coffman nicely sums up in an article for The New Statesman, “at best,  [The media] did not scrutinise the Leave campaign’s claims enough and at worst, actively abetted them.” This can be mostly neatly seen in Farage’s interview where he backtracked on his claim of moving the 350 million pound EU investment into the NHS only a few hours after the result of the vote was called.

So these are the symptoms of this new wave of British politics but what are the lessons to be learnt? How can the UK take this on the chin and move on?

To those who regretted their vote, this should prove to you that democracy is a reality, not an abstraction. Research your decision and try and remain objective. To the young people who did not vote (an estimated 65% of the population), this should prove that your vote counts. Don’t whine on social media or ask for a second referendum – just turn up the first time you are asked.

To the politicians, this vote proves that you can’t ignore half of the British public. Whether a Leave vote was a protest vote, a vote to ‘seize back control’ or simply a vote for a better England, you cannot write off the disapproval of the status quo. Let’s focus on uniting rather than dividing ourselves any further.

To the media, this proves that what you write and publish can and will sway voters. There needs to be a return to objective reporting that examines facts and doesn’t fuel fires. Journalists need to write journalism, and not biased sensationalism.

Lastly, to the British people. This was never a referendum about us, but we made it so. This was a referendum about Europe, about Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, about the next generation, our children and our children’s children. However, we decided to close the door, shut out the world and retreat back into England. It was an arrogant decision and that is something no Englishman ever wants to hear. The least we can do is pick ourselves up, brush off the dust and move on with that stereotypical stiff upper lip.

Photo Credits: Flickr Creative Commons