I am a Remainer.
I admit I am erring towards the side of concerned because those who are the closest to having any idea of what's going on in the corridors of power are advising us to stockpile.
That's not the most encouraging, positive message to send out, is it?
I am fully aware that society, as we know it, won't collapse. However, at an ordinary, individual level, I think we will see certain items disappear from our shops; I think we will see some rather surprising price rises on others. I think we will experience shortages of some.
On the level of certain medications, things like HRT (Belgium) and nuclear med drugs, to name a couple, plans will be put in place to buy them, but they will be at extortionate prices. Planes will take off and land, but the mark-up on fares will place holiday flights beyond the reach of many. To name a couple of tiny examples.
Yes, we grow stuff but we need to be aware yields have fallen dramatically due to this summer and the disappearance of pickers. This will push up prices. Yes, countries will want to sell their stuff to us, but some won't be allowed to due to other trade obligations; others will do so, but on their terms (chlorinated chicken in a can , anyone
?).
I am aware that 60% of Leavers are OK with family and friends losing jobs over Brexit, so I can only assume they're all OK with this.
I'm not so delighted, but the fact remains, no pun intended, that Britain needs to get an arse kicking like this. It's the only way we're going to move away from this "WW2 movies at Xmas/ Winston Churchill/ bloody johnny forriner" mentality- the things that are really 'holding us back'. I mean, who are the Brexiteers' front-runners for PM ? Boris-The-Clown and Arch-Toff JRM. I mean, really. In 2018. That's the best we can up with. Churchillian caricature.
Quite a few people are going to discover that Nostalgia: It ain't what it used to be!- once the novelty of shortage, price rises, queues and being forced to kowtow to nations we've comfortably assumed to be our inferiors- dictate the terms.
If nothing else, that helps me come to terms with what lies ahead (that and possession of a non-EU passport!
).
An important difference from the Blitz Spirit of WW2 is that an external force threatened us. This time, the damage will have been self-inflicted by the will of 37% of the electorate on everybody......
The reality is, a painful period of reckoning may be what we need to clear our bloated, sclerotic ways of thinking; our obeisance to Eton Power, our entire political system, our reliance on the funny-money that London as a global-clearing-house has brought, our sense of entitlement to The Good Things In Life that much of the world can only dream about. We need to be pushed off Top Tables that, to date, history has afforded us a place at. Already, seeing the incredulity of much of the world at the apparent home-goal we have gaily scored, I think we may have forfeited our place for the time being; and, it cannot be ignored that Greece and Spain's economies, to name two, have turned corners since they were forced to start to put their houses in order by the EU.
Speaking of them, I believe a good proportion of their ills were home grown: cooking the books to get into the EU/Euro (and being allowed..
in the first place); rampant tax avoidance, graft and corruption endemic in their public institutions. They have, like us, benefited from the EU, maybe disproportionately, but we have benefited from the youth and energy of their young...
So, although it took a EU spanking to make them recalibrate their economies; and we're lining up for a global spanking to sort us out, maybe it will be for our benefit in the longer run?
Like the well-off who have financial safety nets to allow such rumination, as the trebling of their food and utilities bill will only cause a bit of a gasp in Waitrose, I am able to be sanguine as my late teens can call upon their passports to weather the storm elsewhere, financially and early career-wise.
I only wish every less fortunate Remainer had the same.
.