People need to come together in the New Year for the common good

The hope for the New Year must be that people start coming back together in the UK.

The upheaval that has been the Brexit process has split the country apart. There was the debate between those who wanted to stay in the EU and those who wanted to leave.

There was always going to be a loser and winner. The final margin of victory for leave was so small (4%) that implementation of the will of the people was always going to leave a large number (48%) of the country dissatisfied.

If there is a second referendum, with the vote going the other way, there will be equal dissatisfaction on the leave side.

The Brexit debate also brought the racism present in society to the fore. Attitudes that many had thought went with the 1970s, resurfaced, with the referendum vote seemingly providing licence for some to be openly racist to fellow citizens and those coming in from other countries.

Whatever some might say the anti-migrant atmosphere that had been growing over the years leading up to the referendum was the major force driving Brexit.

The terrain was prepared largely by cowardly politicians unwilling to highlight the benefits of immigration to the country. Media also played its part, continually framing the debate in the negative terms of which party promised to reduce the number coming here by the most.

For a number of newspapers, simply economics dictated that anti-migrant (racist) headlines sold papers.

Another division that has grown due to the Brexit debate has been that between old and young. There has been a constant line advanced that old people voted to leave, betraying the young, who in the main voted to stay.

The actual evidence of these voting patterns seems a little flimsy.

The young versus old debate though is one that has been being forumulated in the media over a number of years. It goes that the older, baby boomer generation had it all – secure well paid jobs, houses and a clean environment. Because they had/have it the young people are being denied.

The construct is palpably wrong there are a few rich older and a few rich younger people. Equally, there are many more poor old and young people just striving to survive.

The division is an intergenerational one of class, between a few who have most (1%) and the many (99%) who have less.

It is the need to split this overall cake more fairly across the board that should be the focus, not setting one generation against the other.

Moving forward into the New Year, the country needs to come together between generations, races and creeds. We all have more in common and will prosper from coming together in community, rather than heading off into sealed off silos getting resentful toward others perceived as being on the other side. They are not we are all in it together and need to look out for each other at all times.   

published - Wanstead & Woodford Guardian - 27 & 29/12/2018