BREXIT - My Personal Views

I woke up early today - I couldn't sleep - to the news that the UK is now en route to leave the EU.

I usually try not to mix my blog with my personal politics, and have endeavoured during this crucial campaign to do nothing more than share information on my own social media, rather than pointing the finger and accusing others of being wrong where I believe I am right.  This is because, whilst my views on the subject are strong, I do not know everything.  I also appreciate that I have friends, loved-ones and colleagues who probably voted to leave.  I do not want to alienate or vilify these people.  I will try to refrain from hyperbole, but I feel this will be tough, so I apologise in advance, but I do feel that given the nature of my blog I should make some form of comment.

I don't know what it going to happen following this referendum, and I hope that my own views and the research of others is wrong.  I hope that this result turns out to be the best result for the citizens of the UK, and the generations that will follow.

I also don't know how to be British anymore.  I feel incredibly ashamed of my country at this moment.

This is because I am shocked that a nation of people who cannot truthfully know the consequences of an action, would vote in a majority to put all of us in the firing line.  This is an irreversible decision, so in a scenario where decisive statistics are lacking, Remain should always have been the more sensible option, given the stakes.

I am also disappointed because I personally encountered nothing but closed-mindedness amongst the Leave supporters, where my Remain counterparts, I found, were mostly receptive to the other side of the debate but voted against it where they found the arguments to be poorly formulated or outright unfounded.

The tactics of the Leave campaign have been disgraceful.  The untruths that I have seen touted in the past few weeks as "fact" by "experts", tabloid newspapers and politicians alike are astounding.  The number of these that have then been shared wider via social media, legitimising the lies, has just left me sad.

The saddest part of all is that I do believe that a large part of this campaign has been fuelled by pure and simple hatred.  I am not naive - I always knew that this hatred was there; it exists in almost every country - but to know that such a large percentage of my country harbours this hatred is devastating to me.

I just don't know how to be British anymore.

I remain a citizen of Europe.

Best of luck, everyone!