A few days ago, I said in a public debate during the campaign that my worst nightmare would be to wake up on June 24 and see Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, a party that thrives on insularity, intolerance and racism, smiling , surrounded by British flags our screens, and proclaiming independence with a ‘we have won’ Brexit.
Not surprising then that today I am struggling with a deep sense of what Winston Churchill in his worst moments of depression called his ‘black dog’ , along with the 16 other million British who voted ‘Remain’ and lost today by a margin of four percent.
My reference to Churchill is because more than ever we should remember that a man held in high esteem by his nation, was a great liberal European in addition to being a British hero who knew how to put together the best of his people in a collective sacrifice to save not only the country but the whole of Europe from Nazism.
At this moment it is difficult to recover the sense of solidarity and international interconnectivity that inspired the best of our campaign against Brexit, that love is stronger than hate, that we are an island that recognizes the good and noble and bridges and we will not easily lose the memory of an exemplary politician, Jo Cox-murdered by by an individual shouting ‘Britain first!)
The reality is that today the United Kingdom is a country divided between those who feel depressed and those who are elated, among those who feel cramped and diminished and those who feel liberated and magnified, between those who think they are falling into a political and economic abyss , and those who believe in their ability to build a better country, a nationalist and independent paradise, an Anglo-Saxon Arcadia that will unilaterally determine the way that connects from now on with the rest of the world.
If we look at the detail of the referendum result, there is no doubt that its represents a seismic shift in the political landscape within and outside the borders of the UK, opening a pandora’s box of uncertainty, but not, in my view, without hope.
The Brexit victory was against not only 48 percent of the voters, but a vast majority of resident and working population in the big city of London, Scotland and Northern Ireland.To ignore the feeling of these blocks which are negotiated and decided politically in the coming months would seriously risk not only the economic and financial health of the country, (beyond the turbulence that is already feeling) but would also accelerate a territorial disintegration within UK from Belfast to Edinburgh.
On the other side is the fact that there were 52 percent of the British who voted for the Brexit against the best advice of a majority of British MPs, union leaders, economists, security experts, academics, publishers of the Financial Times , the Guardian and the Financial Times, and not a few moderate religious.
They include followers of UKIP, not all extremists, but yes, hardworking people who feel proud of (fake) patriotism blaming an outside enemy by lack of employment, decent housing and living wage.
They have won thanks to the distortions of economic and social reality that has projected Illuminated Brexit in parts of England where the issue of identity has been reduced to a myopic definition of what it means to be British. This definition is faced with the multicultural reality and mutually dependent as we have always considered proud to be British citizens but assuming cultural and racial diversity signing inseparable part of our DNA.
As a British citizen, born in Madrid from a Spanish mother and a Scottish father, I am aware of how uncertain is the future that from today I face: Spanish friends I have in London, the British friends who live in Spain, and my Gibraltarians friends, are among many who are worried about the little comments nationalist and sovereignty roosters, who have taken little time out to show off their feathers.
For all the above reasons,it is not the time to rush things , so that instead of roosters, we should have good statesmen , and good shepherds caring for the common good. I want to continue to believe that there is much more that unites our peoples, and we can learn from each other, and that in a future not too distant division way to a democratic consensus, both in the UK as in the rest of Europe. We seem like passengers of a ship which is about to sink. And yet instead of throwing ourselves into the water, we should all try to save each other , be patient, imaginative, and understanding.
And the process will inevitably pass through not only a major reform within the EU but a political process in the UK to save us from extremists UKIP and Le Pen, and replace destructive populists with those with a sense of patriotism not nationalism, that is open to the world, not closed in on itself.
It will not be easy. The referendum Brexit earthquake has left the two major parties in England-Conservatives and Labour are in a situation of existential crisis, with many of its leading figures having fought against Brexit, only to be ignored by a majority of voters. Among them, Cameron has taken an honorable but inevitable decision to announce his resignation, having courted blame on both sides, with the Remain accusing him of sacrificing the stability of Europe, and the Brexit claiming he had not doing enough to protect the nation state from the interfering EU.
At least Cameron has acted in the best interest of his country as well as his party.
As to what follows his initiative, I see a very complex and very risky process of political realignment in the UK where UKIP will try to become the major force of extreme right inside or outside the Conservative Party,supporting, with minimum delay, a break with Europe and pushing the country towards division and violence. But I trust that there will be resistance of a majority of the country, including an avowed fan of Churchill Boris Johnson, who can defend democratic principles and an international vision of its icon, not Farage, in a positive and constructive relationship in the UK with Europe and the rest of the world. I still believe in the British ability to contribute to a better Europe, however hellbent the Brexit result might appear to be on its its destruction. END
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