Today is definitely a day of mourning. For those celebrating, I hope you’ll do so sensitively and respectfully knowing that more than half of the country is not in favour of what’s happening.
Personally, I’ll be okay. I’ll be out of the UK by the end of the year and enjoying a new life in Germany. Because of Brexit the chances of me dying in the country I was born are practically nil. I’ve picked on patriotism before but as much as I try not to care about this country and as much as I try to paint myself as an internationalist, this is where I was born. The UK is my home.
I think my family will be okay. They’re not rich by any means but they’re comfortable, and though their quality of life may reduce as the economy inevitably crashes they’ll ride it out. I don’t have many friends, but those I have will survive one way or another. There are some I hope will take the same step I’m taking and find their way out of the UK while it’s still cheap and easy to do so.
I don’t have children. If I did I’d be worried most for them. I was born with the freedom and the right to live, work and love across the EU. I’ve taken advantage of all three and will continue to do so. My wife was born in Germany of two Italian parents. The next generation though won’t be so lucky. My nephew will grow up in a xenophobic, isolationist country with fewer opportunities than his parents had. He’s three, so hopefully by the time he’s grown up he’ll be part of the generation that reverses this act of national self-harm.
This will be reversed, mark my words. Brexit is the theft of rights and identity of the young by the old. As they grow up, they’ll find a way to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.
But for now, happy Brexit day to all those celebrating. You did it. You own it. Everything that happens from 11pm today onwards is your responsibility. Make a success of it if you really think you can but if it’s not the sunlit uplands you were promised you have nobody else to blame but yourselves and the people you followed down this path.
My home is yours now. Take care of it.