by Emmanuel Bouhalakis
It came as no surprise, really. The rest of the world should have seen it coming. The Brexit vote, as it unfolded, was nothing more or less than a reflection of current social trends in the UK. Those trends could briefly be described as,
A) The Brits became fed up with Germany's hegemony over the EU. Meaningless regulations, bureaucracy and Angela Merkel's power were translated into a "Berlin dictates and delivers. Should you have any inquiries, we'll give you useless regulations". Thus, the Britons became very upset with this. They were forced to accept millions of pages of laws and treaties but in reality the boss had always been the Germans. For them, democracy simply didn't work inside the EU. They found no equality or solidarity but rather huge interests that transcended the needs and voice of the ordinary citizens.
B) There was a breaking point in the British society's tolerance of immigration. Although the UK is a multicultural society and the Syrian immigration crisis has not hit them so hard, the constant fear of Islamic terrorism with the subsequent attacks in France, created a shadow of fear and a wish to be barricaded behind the British shores.
C) The ruthless austerity imposed by Berlin and its satellite states on weak countries like Greece, Portugal or even Spain, worked as a major deterrent for those that wanted England to remain in the EU. The images of protests, chaos, social unrest and misery of those afflicted countries had a phenomenally deep impact on the British psyche. They thought as if by instinct that if something went wrong with their economy, they would be next in becoming slaves to Germany.
D) The British firmly believe that their country was literally saved by not adopting the Euro and this belief has proved absolutely correct to a major extent. They were allowed to use their own strong currency and thus escape the "prison" of the Euro and its convergence criteria. Seeing the economic crisis unfold in south Europe, they realized that there can never really be a United States of Europe with so many fundamentally and radically different economies.
All of the above contributed to today's decision. However, there are many tough obstacles along the way, such as the threat for yet another Scottish referendum or the danger of violence escalation in Ireland. If those are not properly dealt with, soon the UK may cease to exist as a United Kingdom.
Apart from their internal problems, the British should also face the painful rewriting of new laws and regulations that will be used to regulate their relationship with the now foreign EU.
The referendum proved to be an immense gamble by David Cameron and clearly he has lost it. He will now give his place to a new PM, possibly Boris Johnson, who will negotiate England's place in the new world order. It may be unwise to say for sure that the UK will have endless support from the USA or the Commonwealth nations.
In fact, we may see the total unraveling of the Commonwealth in the near future with states severing their ties with Britain and replacing the Queen with their own heads of state.
Queen Elisabeth asked for three reasons for her country to stay in the EU. That means she was not much in favor of staying in the Union.
However, now with some not so bright prospects coming along the way, maybe the future of the British monarchy itself will be jeopardized.
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