I consider myself intelligent, in fact most intelligent people like to pride their self on be a little bit special as though it is not just a badge of honour but one of self-esteem. However, human being are ruled by what they know, and they don't know. Sometimes there are too many facts to wade through, sometimes there is a plethora of information and it is difficult determining what is the most significant. These are perhaps excuses for my voting BREXIT, however my vote was for a number of reasons and it wasn't because the remainers think I'm thick, for calling someone thick will not win an argument and likely just entrench them in their own views. So if you are a remainer, understand this and get it into your mind, many very ordinary and intelligent so not so ordinary people voted BREXIT. Now though I have changed my mind, but the reasons why I voted this way still stand.
The UK is a net contributor to the EU. Looking at the members of the EU there are few which actually pay into the EU a greater amount of money than they get out of it. The contributors are: Germany, UK and Netherlands. The UK is in a recession and has been for many years, so why is it we put more money into the EU than we take out? Why is the net contribution as high as 8 billion pounds? Money which could be used to net off against the ever enlarging debt burden the UK is acquiring. Of the 27 nations surely half should be contributors and half should be gainers. Yet at the same time the UK is considered the 4th or 5th richest nation in the EU. Again this statement does not add up, unless all the other EU nations are in a higher debt situation than the UK. So giving money to someone and finding it is not a reciprocal arrangement kind of made me feel as a voter there was not sufficient equality in this relationship of nations. Surely if a nation is putting in at a loss to themselves they should proportionately have a greater say in how the EU is run? When in fact we haven't we don't and we are viewed on with disdain (in my perception) by many of the other EU countries, with the disbelief everybody here is rich.
I am working class and have always considered myself working class the riches of the UK are collected in the top percentiles, it's said about two or three percent of the UK population own fifty percent or more of the wealth. This is inequality at an extreme level. When I walk about my local town and shop I see poverty everywhere and politicians who are non representative of my class and my country. So my BREXIT vote was a particular punch in the nose to those politicians to tell them I don't want them in power, they should not be in power, and they do not represent me. It's a Labour versus Tory thing. Cameron when he was PM made me want to heave at his arrogance and opulence of opportunity he had in his life. There was no understanding on his part or Tory policy to help the common people to see every person as a potential PM and not just those who are privileged. Further in general the career politicians who have never worked a real job are the ones who should not be in power whether they are Tory, Labour, Lib Dem or any other party. Another prime example was the coalition of Clegg and the Lib Dems in bed with the Tories. My belief in the Lib Dems was as a true alternative and by then joining the Tories they became no alternative. Politically this was the worst decision they made and it will hang around their neck for the rest of eternity. When I saw Clegg demonstrate his belief in the EU and the need to remain, my back got up and I didn't want to hear a word he said, he should never of been the poster boy and he has certainly paid a price by losing his own constituency with a resounding majority turn around to Labour. The Lib Dems change of side was in my view treasonous and treacherous. I will never side with them for anything as they have now no political weight. Simply they are very damaged goods and hardly Liberal at all.
The race issue. This is a big issue for indigenous UK inhabitants and is only felt if you know it on a personal basis. If you have felt it and found yourself to become a minority grouping in the very area you live in. This is my experience. I get on a bus and find I am a minority white English man, I am inevitably outnumbered by black African origin passengers. I go to Que for said bus and find the once very English nicety of queuing no longer exists. People push in, shove and jostle to get on the bus. Yes it is the outskirts of London, but in the 1970s if someone pushed in a Que the entire bus stop que would ensure they moved back into their position. This nicety no longer exists, I now walk to earlier bus stops in order to get a seat and on the bus without shoving and pushing, my culture and my nice belief of order and respect in this very minor aspect of life is an affront. When the UK began under the Labour party of Blair to accept more immigration the population and make up changed substantially. Perhaps Blair was hoping those who migrated here would be Labour supporters. Instead, what happened was he pushed Labour supporters to the right rather than to the left. I could also tell of another personal instance from a nephew of mine attending secondary (Academy) school, found he too was in the white working class minority and found other ethnic groups were actively targeting white boys in bullying them and threatening them. Being politically correct seems to not accept racism can be black on white and in my experience has never actually taken this on. Just as racism can also be black on black and white on white, it has many varieties. And I will say I have felt racism against me for being white but of course it's something I am not allowed to talk about in public.
It could be counter argued punishing a political party for the decision of a referendum should not mean punishing the country and cutting our nose of despite our face. Or the issues of poverty in London and other parts of the UK are a result of immigration policies.
I still state I have changed my mind, for it is more than apparent the EUs 27 nations if not the administrative system of the EU now on a war path. A path to destroy the UK not by real war but by financial means, to make the UK pay in any way it can for voting against them and not wanting to be part of their group. We also have one of the most incompetent government's in power there has ever been, changing my mind is based on a realisation, though I don't like the current political classes the only people who are going to come out of this worse off are the working classes and certainly not the rich ones. For their opportunities and arrogance has no bounds, they will be wealthy and their wealth untouched forever. Whereas another nephew of mine who has just become a father and works in a pizza shop is going to feel the pinch of austerity in the years to come. If there is another referendum I will vote remain because we are in a hole, without a plan and are about to become the newest poverty-stricken nation in the EU. It will not be long before those EU nationals who came to the UK will emigrate back to their own countries as they find it is harder and more difficult to live here than where they come from.