The rise of English nationalism is what has fueled Brexit and continues to do so.
Once you travel outside the outer suburbs of London you encounter a very different Britain than the cosmopolitan capital, one of the most diverse cities in the world.
The tide of English nationalism has been building for some time. The British had become tired of playing second fiddle to France and Germany and to observing the European-created laws.
Most of all they were sick of foreigners allegedly taking their jobs even though statistics showed, as they do here in the U.S., that working immigrants contribute far more than they take.
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Brexiteers also highlighted allegedly crazy EU regulations -- like bananas had to be a special shape and curve -- and the tabloids had a field day with tales of the crazy frogs and krauts who ran the EU.
The same working class and middle-class fury that elected President Donald Trump in the U.S. was repeated in Britain. Everything about the status quo upset them; most felt their careers and opportunities had become limited.
Head Brexiteer, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
The huge mistake was blaming Europe. After all, 70 percent of U.K. trade is with EU countries. Now they are busy constructing barriers to that trade.
What becomes obvious is how Brexit means very different things to different folk. The Brexiteers put forward no policy other than they wanted to leave Europe and recreate an independent, self-sufficient Britain allegedly like long ago. Make Britain Great Again might as well have been their slogan.
Seventy percent of the leave voters said Brexit was so important that the destruction of the Irish peace process by returning to a border was fine with them.
Actual policies? Just one. How about a phony $500 million a week extra promised to the National Health Service. Bob’s your uncle. The NHS funding scam was dropped right after the Brexit victory.
Contrast that with the Scottish vote against independence. The Scottish Nationalists made the mistake of publishing over 800 pages of policies and plans that would impact Scotland if they became independent. Critics quickly picked holes and the nationalists were defeated.
Brexit means Brexit? But the reality is about to hit the English.
No such process went into the Brexit policy. If it had, many more people would have understood that Brexit was a leap in the dark with potentially catastrophic consequences.
In the town of Sunderland where Nissan, with 7,000 employees in its car factory, had warned against a pro-Brexit vote, voters there told them to sod off anyway. The plant will likely close if there is a no deal Brexit.
Bloomberg News reported, “Ethel Hopper, 76, and her friend Margaret Crozier, 74, said they’re just tired of watching people struggle in Sunderland. ‘We get nothing here, we get no say,’ said Hopper. ‘There are more cutbacks than ever, less police, the NHS is on its knees and yet we’re still letting people in.’”
The NHS, in fact, will suffer greatly under Brexit. All foreign nurses and doctors will have to re-register as aliens working in Britain. Already a massive shortage of nurses and doctors has resulted as foreigners exiting the country.
In addition, major Wall Street companies are quitting London for European locations. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost in the financial sector. That’s the tip of the iceberg.
English nationalists may be getting what they wished for but it may become a job destroyer, a personal nightmare for millions of them.
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