Quote:
Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos
So do I, and to a person they think this is a disaster. Of course, they are all immigrants with good jobs in London, so that might have something to do with it.
Kind of an open ended (and probably dumb) question, but does anyone know what the average "leave" voter expects to get out of this?
It kind of reminds me of Alberta voting for the NDP. It wasn't so much that Alberta loves the NDP, but that the other guys suck and were sticking it to us, so good riddance for a while. And then we'll get back to how things always were.
Is that what is/went on for this Brexit vote business? Was it a protest vote more than a true "let's get out of the EU"?
|
Or how like a lot of people in Quebec who vote for the PQ or BQ actually have no inclination for separatism. They just like that it gives them a position of power.
I can't speak for what most people in Britain believe. I have many friends and family in Croatia which recently joined the EU. They were pretty much split on it. It seemed to me that the younger people from the larger cities wanted it and the main reason was they wanted it was to be able to leave to find jobs in Germany or England (none of them actually ended up doing so, although a few moved to Slovenia). They also expected an influx of EU loans to help build up infrastructure which would trickle down to contractors and entrepreneurs. All the reasons were very self-serving.
The ones against it were mainly thinking that they wanted political neutrality like Switzerland and figured that being a "balance of power" between East and West gave them an advantage. They also felt that the new regulations would kill "mom and pop" agriculture which is a big part of the economy and culture (many people used to survive by selling home grown products at markets, but now EU regulations affect what is allowed). I have heard that many family farms have stopped in favour of more corporate factory farms owned by foreigners. And of course, there was the fear of mass emigration resulting in the need for mass immigration, which could lead to instability. Personally IMO, I think there is no doubt that the desire to join the EU helped the country and forced much needed justice/political reforms and the country is better off for that in the long run for that aspect, but the economic boon hasn't materialized as hoped. The reasons were more about the nation being self-sufficient and less about the individual, which unfortunately draws in the extreme nationalists. I think this is the case with a lot of the counties on the EU periphery.
I find it funny that before the human migrations in the last 3 years, criticism against the EU was common all over the political spectrum. Many people were wondering about the long term benefits and whether it was sustainable as an entity. Now that immigration became the straw breaking the camel's back, it became taboo to talk exiting the EU. I am not saying that political correctness is threat like that cartoon was saying, but it has changed the way the topic is debated and the racism factor has become the new Godwin for people that want to preserve the EU.