My Brexit despair. A collective madness.

On the morning of the 24th June 2016 I awoke to the news that my country had voted to leave what is probably, with the exception of the United Nations, the greatest alliance of sovereign states to have ever been conceived in world history. The roots of the EU were of course founded on the same principles that gave rise to the the foundation of the United Nations. To put in place political and economic structures that would remove forever the conditions that gave rise to the horrors of the warfare that had its origins rooted in imperialism and greed.

The success of this European project is without question. Never before has Europe seen such a long period of peace and stability. Even when the Berlin wall came down, there were predictions that war would ensue across some of ex communist states in Eastern Europe. Instead, and thanks largely to the efforts of the EU, within just over a decade of that momentous event nearly all of those countries had become democratic nations and welcomed into the EU. It is now almost inconceivable that a major European war would ever occur.

I cannot still quite comprehend what has happened and how my country that I love so much has come to make this decision. I do of course understand the political and economic conditions that many people in this country have found themselves in gave rise to the rationale for, and the ultimate result of, the 2016 Referendum . What I find so hard to reconcile is how the political establishment, through years of self centred greed and lust for power could ignore the risks that caused these conditions to breed and fester, when those risks seemed so obvious to anyone with any intellect and when the almost inevitable consequences are so potentially damaging to our children’s future.

Brexit is so much more than an economic disaster and I despair for not just the UK but indeed for the whole of Europe. The rise of the political extremist Right is now more real and dangerous than it has ever been since the end of the second world war and if we are to avoid the ever repeating cycle of nationalistic ignorance giving rise to horror, genocide and human and cultural devastation we need to stand together and not be fooled by those who claim that removing ourselves from the protection of, and having no influence in, the EU will mean that our political sovereignty is somehow made safe and that it will bring about a better future for all of us . It cannot . History confirms that to be true .