There could be no victory in the defeat of a nation so divided, a chasm that has grown so much that is beyond the reach of either the Remain or the Leave campaigners, to join ranks and look to build a better and stronger Britain. If the 52% percent who voted to leave see this as a victory, Britain will take a lot of time to recover from this victory.
And yet since half the nation has decided to ‘Leave’ which will now be incumbent upon both Houses of Parliament to endorse and formalise the decision, there is a lesson that needs to be learnt. The voices of middle England and the faraway towns were not heard in Westminster. Quite clearly they weren’t. And if David Cameron and the ‘Remain’ campaign had unleashed Project Fear, of what would happen to Britain if it left, its place in the world and its economy, the working class in the smaller towns and the nether regions in the North West, North East, South West and East, and the Midlands and Yorkshire, responded with their own Project Fear, the fear of losing jobs, of flooding by immigrants, of unaffordable housing and education. As Cameron looked at the vast expanse of Europe along with the city of London which voted overwhelmingly and voted to REMAIN within the European Union, the other regions chose to look inwards and consolidate and keep the Europe out.
As columnist Own Jones wrote in The Guardian: “The government’s Project Fear relied on threats of economic turmoil. But these are communities that have been defined by economic turmoil and insecurity for a generation. Threats that you will lose everything mean little if you already feel you have little to lose. These threats may well have deepened the resolve of many leavers, rather than undermined it. A Conservative Prime Minister lined up corporate titans and the US president to warn them not to do something: they responded with the biggest up-yours in modern British history”.
But while these communities showed the EU and Prime Minister Cameron their middle finger, did they really win? The nation is divided like never before and Scotland rightly feels dragged out against its will with 62% voting to ‘Remain”. They did come up short but only just. Those who pledged to ‘Remain’, for the sake of their futures, were those under 35, the young and the very young. They in turn rejected the other version of Project Fear, the fear of migrants and loss of jobs.
Brexit will mean that existing opportunity will be denied to many Goan youth and not so young middle aged men who have left home on Portuguese passports to make their futures, even if it means that many of those simply milk the system of doles and benefits dry. This might stem the hungry and ambition exodus tide but only just. But as we have said before, opportunities will dictate immigration and as long as Goa gives nothing for those who are leaving or anything to come back to, return flights will not be boarded from Heathrow or Gatwick back to Goa. Language is not a barrier for those who have left their lands to survive and win. It’s a small hurdle and those who take that decision are never tongue tied for long.
Quite simply there are two sides and both have their story to tell. And in the victory of the Leave campaign, are echoes of Goa’s own Leave movement during the Opinion poll of 1967. Those who wanted Britain to out of the United Kingdom did so with the same zeal with which Goa and, especially in Salcete voted for “two leaves” and against the merger of Goa with Maharashtra. They voted for their identity, culture, and against Goa becoming a district of Maharashtra. The world hasn’t changed much because no matter where you live, human beings seek identity and control of their own destinies. Middle England of 2016 is no different from Margao of 1967.
And it is this rise of the sentiment protecting ones turf and being in control of one’s future locally which has allowed a man like Donald Trump to become the main act from a sideshow or the rise of Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain. You can call this a march of madness, but Mr Cameron made the folly of encouraging this march by plunging into a referendum which he was ill advised to sink himself in. After all Britain wasn’t really entrapped and caged and gasping for breath to break free.
We end this as we began this. There are no winners. Those who are celebrating tonight are dancing to the tune of a notion of freedom and independence but this tune will be tested on the touchstone of economics and trade, albeit free from those “bloody immigrants”.
The sun has indeed set over the Thames.
