After speaking to some people who know I was actively involved in the 'Remain' campaign in the eastern home counties, many who voted out are now rather worried by some of the events of recent weeks.
There seems to be some kind of denial and a shifting of blame going on with many claiming they were ill-informed by the 'Leave' campaign spokespeople. Several have said to me that while they believed we could manage perfectly well outside of the EU, nobody actually told them in any detail how it would affect currency value, (just booked up for Spain), prices on the supermarket shelves and white goods, cars, etc.
We are only now just beginning to see the effects of sterling's reduced purchasing power on imported goods and I reckon it's the tip of the iceberg, I'm sad to say. With the news from the French motor industry, one suspects that all those dealerships purveying the French car brands will see a slowdown on business, particularly in their fleet sales. Any business failures resulting from that will have a domino effect within their geographical area.
As far as the 'British' car industry is concerned, the worst may be still to come as Nissan are keeping their powder dry on their future business plans for their British plant. Clearly, unless there is some really good news just around the corner for business, a few more months of this lingering uncertainty may well influence the Japanese carmakers to migrate their British divisions into a more stable EU low-wage, low business overhead economy.
There were so many people who seemed incapable of differentiating between EU policies and British government policy and legislation at the time of the referendum, misled and blatantly lied to by fascists, that frankly, now deserve to suffer any hardship this country incurs as a result of their ignorance and lack of foresight. Unfortunately, they also bring any pain and suffering upon their fellow countrymen who could see the bigger picture.
This modern society, of course, demands that someone has to be at fault; someone must be to blame for any ills that come our way. I just wonder how long it will take for the penny to drop that any policy which renders Britain's currency devalued against others, splits the population and possibly leads to the break-up of the 4-country union is not good for Britain; not good for the economy; not good for business......all expressions which, in the positive, have been frequently disseminated to the public by tory spokesmen and business moguls and of course it is just one huge lie - it simply means it's good for billionaire owners and a very select few with absolutely no 'trickle-down' to those who actually work for a living and pay taxes via PAYE.
There seems to be some kind of perverse justification from some I listened to, suggesting that other countries are now queuing up to do what Britain has just done. I don't buy that for a moment; it's sheer desperation for support, using the headlines and mis-reporting from a tory-controlled media which favoured 'Brexit' all along and now wishes to save face when it's not going as planned.....although 'planned' is the wrong word. In any event, Britain hasn't actually 'done' anything yet!
Of course there are right-wing extremists in other European countries, as everywhere, and they are represented by clowns just like Johnson and Farage but unless I completely mis-read the political situation across the EU, those movements are going nowhere, in spite of the best efforts of the tory media organs in the UK.
I am in the fortunate position of being able to hedge my bets in regard to the future as I own property abroad, pay the requisite taxes and can live there full-time if I so desire. The next few months....maybe even years, should be interesting!
Tom